Supporters of the veteran publicist team up to raise north of $141,000 to benefit the Golden West Chapter of the ALS Association. Reese Witherspoon arrived with her husband, CAA’s Jim Toth, and her teenage daughter Ava. Courteney Cox brought her daughter, Coco, who walked around barefoot because she forgot her shoes at home. Renee Zellweger’s rocker boyfriend, Doyle Bramhall, gave her quick hugs between media interviews. CAA’s Bryan Lourd and partner Bruce Bozzi caught up with longtime friends while Jeffrey Katzenberg weaved his way through the crowd, shaking hands and smiling. Everyone was dressed casually in T-shirts and spandex workout pants or shorts. The Oct. 18 Walk to Defeat ALS (held in downtown Los Angeles at Exposition Park) had the feeling of a warm yet complicated family reunion — one where some of the relatives are super famous and have Oscars at home, while the others are among the most influential publicists and power players in Hollywood. The complication comes because the matriarch of sorts at this family get-together is Nanci Ryder, the iconic BWR co-founder and the reason everyone showed up in solidarity. Ryder is battling ALS, a condition she revealed last October to The Hollywood Reporter. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is an often rapidly progressive neurological disorder that kills the body’s motor neurons, the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement such as speaking, walking, breathing and swallowing. It’s invariably terminal. READ MORE