AUSTIN – Morgan Fairchild and ZZ Top?

The unlikely pairing buddied up Friday night as both the Dallas actress and the legendary Texas rock band were inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame along with film director Mike Judge, the late Dallas-raised actress Jayne Mansfield and the film Urban Cowboy.

Emcee Dan Rather said the varied inductees proved "you can't pigeonhole Texas and what it is to be a Texan."

Case in point is Ms. Fairchild, the screen beauty who revealed that as a 15-year-old she dated a certain drummer. "God, I love musicians!" she said. "His band went through a couple of name changes and went on to become ZZ Top." The band's drummer Frank Beard later played down any talk of a long-lost relationship, claiming, "It wasn't me."

The well-heeled paid $500 a plate to mingle with the stars in a tent covering the tarmac of Austin's closed airport turned film studio, all to support Austin Film Society programs aimed at up-and-coming filmmakers. Pickup trucks loaded with iced beer greeted the mix of stiletto-heeled fashion mavens, black-clad film professionals and cowboy-hat-wearing plain folks.

Ms. Fairchild said her career came about because her parents saw fit to cart her around to auditions. "Dreams are always a big thing in the state of Texas," she said, adding that the funds raised at the event will give new artists "a shot at fulfilling their dream. Whether they succeed or not isn't important. That shot is important."

Mariska Hargitay – who was 3 when her mother, Ms. Mansfield, died – provided the evening's most touching moments as she tearfully recalled summers spent with her grandparents in Highland Park and learning about the mother she hardly knew through other people's stories of her.

"Texas was a place where both my mother and I did a lot of growing," Ms. Hargitay said, her voice cracking with emotion. "That spirit carried my mother to Hollywood. By letting me see the impression she made on you, you've given me a precious present. Thank you, Texas."

TV rigs and film fans' personal cameras snapped away as the celebrities entered the tent and strolled down a red carpet. The game was to discern who was famous and who wasn't. "What's his name?" an International Film Channel reporter said of an approaching man. "That hair guy." It was indeed Paul Mitchell founder John Paul DeJoria, a major Texas film supporter.

Actress/model Molly Sims auctioned off a package that included a lunch with her and Ms. Hargitay for $32,500.

The biggest laugh went to presenter – and Arkansas native – Tess Harper, who bemoaned the narrow metal stairways to the restroom trailers provided for guests.

"An outdoor toilet is an outdoor toilet, is an outdoor toilet," she said. "I'm from the Ozarks, so I know an outhouse when I see it."

Joe O'Connell is an Austin-based freelance writer.

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