First Namers Support a Famous Last Name
The head table at Barbara Davis’ Carousel of Hope ball boasted a plethora of industry star-makers that were all ears when an unknown 11-year-old girl belted out a stellar version of the “Star Spangled Banner” to kick off the bi-annual mega-ball at the Beverly Hilton on Saturday night. Clive Davis, Quincy Jones, Sidney Poitier, Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony, Gladys Knight, Stevie Wonder and Akon all flanked the matriarch of one of the few royal Hollywood families. (The late Marvin Davis owned Fox before Rupert Murdoch.) For good measure, Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez sat at the head. (At left, the un-related Davises: Barbara and Clive).
California first lady Maria Shriver spoke at the 24th edition of the event, joking about being seated far from the head table of celebs years ago when attending with her bodybuilder date, “an up-and-coming actor.”
Quincy Jones, who received an award in recognition of the 25th anniversary of “We Are the World,” told TheWrap that when he, Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson started developing the idea for a project, they had “ four artists and no song.” According to Jones, Richie was living at the Davis’ house at the time and some of the iconic anthem’s lyrics may have been written there.
Presenting sponsor Mercedes planted one of their top rides in the lobby, which a dealer from Laguna Niguel bought for $170,000. Since its inception in 1978, dangling big ticket luxuries and tables that go for as much as $100,000, the event has raised more than $75 million for the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes.
After performances by J. Lo and Marc Anthony, a younger skewing set by Akon, and Gladys Knight’s crowd-raising performance of “Midnight Train to Georgia,” host Jay Leno instructed the 1000 guests to “go see CBS’ Les Moonves to get their parking ticket stamped.” (Earlier in the night, the CBS president told TheWrap that wife Julie Chen’s “The Talk” is “going to be on for a long, long time,” while Chen said “you heard it, you’ll be my witness to that.”)
Chen’s daytime co-host Leah Remini, Rod Stewart, Tom Hanks, Adrien Brody, Rita Wilson, Randy Jackson, and Jackie Collins (whose paperbacks were in the gift bag) were amongst the stars lending their support to the fight against childhood diabetes.
Double Header
X-box 360’s purported “Wii killer,” the Kinect, goes on sale Nov. 14. Family guys like Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Ryan Phillippe, Greg Grunberg, and the Beckham boys (sans Victoria) spent Saturday afternoon getting a sneak preview (and freebie) of the motion-sensing face-reading console add-on that lets players dance, raft and move without holding on to any sort of controller. By dusk, the Kinect team had quickly “reset” the house for the second half of a party doubleheader: a “young Hollywood” version of the same event, where Ashley Tisdale helped pick the guest list for an acoustic performance by Miike Snow.
Stewart’s Tour Lands at KCET
Before heading to Washington for his rally next weekend, Jon Stewart capped a week in LA by hosting the live portion of Comedy Central’s “Night Of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Concert For Autism Education.” Top comedy names like Larry David, Maya Rudolph, David Spade, BJ Novak, Andy Richter, and Betty White volunteered for phone-duty. They joined telethon-savior George Clooney, Olivia Munn and Tom Hanks at KCET studios for the “live celebrity phone bank” portion of the event. 42Below hosted the exclusive greenroom backstage, where Jason Alexander caught up with Bryan Cranston and Sarah Chalke.
“The Back 13”
After getting a full season pick-up for “The Defenders” last week, Jerry O’Connell had the extra kick to beat out James Marsden by a split second in the celebrity division at the Dodge Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles Half Marathon on Sunday, a 13.1 mile race.
