Actress Marsha Mason stiffed Miami Beach event organizer Karyn Altman -- twice. But Altman couldn't be more grateful.

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Actress Marsha Mason stiffed Miami Beach event organizer Karyn Altman -- twice. But Altman couldn't be more grateful.

"Talk about a present from the universe," Altman says. "Marsha Mason is our fairy godmother."

Mason, who owns an herb farm in New Mexico and has developed a line of medicinal herbal products called Resting in the River, had agreed to speak at Altman's Wise Women conference in Miami Beach in 2001. But she had to cancel. She agreed to speak in 2002, but canceled again when a stage opportunity interfered.

Altman, having already printed 11,000 color brochures touting Mason's presence as keynote speaker, said she was sobbing into the phone when Mason called to apologize.

"She said that the universe was going to fix this, and that she'd make a few calls," Altman says.

A few weeks later Mason's assistant called to announce that Marianne Williamson was available, and that Mason had taken care of all the arrangements to ensure her participation.

"Who better to help us move away from fear and into what is real than Marianne Williamson?" says an ecstatic Altman. Two days later Mason's assistant called again, with news that Rosie O'Donnell would be joining the bill.

Williamson will speak on Saturday and O'Donnell will headline on Sunday at the fourth annual Wise Women conference at the Radisson Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach. Williamson, best-selling author, international lecturer and minister at Renaissance Unity, an Interfaith Spiritual Fellowship in Michigan, will present "Waging Peace: Choosing Love over Fear."

"There's a world view that posits that we are interconnected on very deep levels," Williamson says by phone from her home near Detroit. "What we do to each other, we really are doing to ourselves, although it might take a while to realize that.

"Another view posits that we are separate beings, that what we do to others we will not get back. That view literally threatens the species at this point. All humanity is being called upon to take a quantum leap forward in our realization of ourselves as spiritual as well as material beings.

"I think sometimes we look at the world -- at India, Pakistan, the Middle East -- and we wish that people would make peace with each other. We need to look at our own lives and at the grievances we hold. Who have you not forgiven that you could forgive? Who could you give the benefit of the doubt to? Where could you be gentler and less harsh?"

Developing the perspective of love is what the conference is all about. Titled "Creating Peace From Within," the weekend includes an array of seminars to help women calm the inner self. From guided visualization and breathing workshops to holistic health, yoga and exercise.

On Sunday, O'Donnell will speak on "What Defines a Family." The talk show host is waging a campaign to overturn Florida's ban on gay adoption. The Miami Beach resident is the mother of three children, adopted outside Florida. She is raising them with her partner, Kelli Carpenter.

When she came out as a lesbian to protest to Florida's law against gay adoptions, O'Donnell told ABC News correspondent Diane Sawyer, "It takes a lot to become a foster parent ... You have to really want to save a child who others have deemed unsavable. And for the state of Florida to tell anyone who's willing, capable, and able to do that, that they're unworthy, is wrong."

Most of the 19 other presenters at the Wise Women conference are local professionals, including Innerviews radio talk show host Liz Sterling and past-life regression therapist Linda Adler, who helped Altman found the conference four years ago and will lead a ceremony under the full moon Saturday evening. Another founder is musician Amy Carol Webb, who will provide a concert on Sunday.

Altman developed the concept after abandoning an 18-year career in the travel industry. "I was totally overwhelmed by stress and work and I never had enough time. I had migraines, ulcers and terrible relationships.

"Soon it became clear to me that what I really needed to do was to make a difference in the world. CenterPeace was born." Altman's company promotes events that "help people lead healthier, more balanced lives."

"Now we have two very different, equally inspiring women who are attractive to different audiences. It's a way to bring women who maybe had never come to one of these before, maybe have done a little yoga, heard about holistic health and balance. For many of us who are already on a spiritual path, much of this is familiar, but to most it's not. People like Marianne and Rosie and Oprah are opening up channels to look at things a little differently, to open up to the message."

The weekend will close with a presentation by Nontombi Naomi Tutu, Bishop Desmond Tutu's daughter and coordinator of Fisk University's Race Relations Institute, and a visualization with Veronica McHugh, director of the Raja Yoga Center in Coral Gables.

The hope, says Altman, is to send everyone back into their lives recharged and with a renewed connection to themselves and the world, ready to help bring about a better world.

"Mahatma Gandhi said, `The end is inherent in the means,'" Williamson says. "That means an angry generation will not bring peace in the world. The violence we need to address is the violence in our own hearts."

Trish Riley is a freelance writer based in South Florida.