HOLLYWOOD STARS AND CELEBRITY CHEFS RAISE MILLION$ FOR VEGAS BRAIN INSTITUTE CHARITY
Lorraine Bracco and Steve Schirripa auctioned two New York dinners with The Soprano stars for $300,000–and then Steve took the sparkly tuxedo sweater right off my back and sold that for another $5,000! You simply don’t argue with mobster Bobby Bacala!
Then gorgeous Desperate Housewife Teri Hatcher threw herself on the auction block and wanted to know how much she’d get if she took off her top! The fun bidding war went up to $50-million as she kept on offering to doff items of clothing, but wound up being serious and netting $50,000 from the highest bidder for a more respectable clothes-on luncheon!
It was all part of the star-studded fun festivities at the 12th annual Power of Love gala at MGM Grand to benefit our downtown Lou Ruvo Brain Institute. When open later this year as the country’s finest facility of its kind, it will house a team of America’s top medical specialists and researchers to find a cure for patients suffering from such brain related dementia diseases as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and ALS.
Among the other celebrities attending were TV & movie star Danny DeVito, illusionist David Copperfield, talk-show host Leeza Gibbons, new Miss Nevada USA, Veronica Grabowski and the reigning Miss USA, Riya Mori who has made Alzheimer’s her world-platform.
Click here to read our Luxe Life report yesterday about boxing legend Muhammad Ali and Masters of the Impossible Siegfried & Roy revealing their promise to return to magic after nearly a five-year absence, who also attended the gala.
Celebrity chefs Wolfgang Puck, Guy Savoy, Tom Colicchio and David Robins presented the four-course gourmet meal for the 1,000 plus guests who shelled out $75,000 for the tables.
Before flying back to cook at the Grammy parties, Wolfgang sold off five-star-chef private at-home dinners for 20 each, netting $550,000! A personalized guided tour of Italy by Iron Chef Mario Batali, who cooked at last year’s gala, raised another $220,000! A weekend of comedy with Robin Williams, cooking by Emeril Lagasse and tennis with Andre Agassi and Steffi Graff raised another $150,000. The world’s ultimate children’s backyard playhouse created by world-famous architect Frank Gehry, who designed the Brain Institute, brought in another $350,000!
A brand new Mercedes McLaren racer and a trip to the Monaco Grand Prix sold for another $550,000. In all of the excitement I forgot how much we sold an at-home dinner with music mogul Quincy Jones—and his pal Keiffer Sutherland’s offer of a walk-on role in 24!
I emceed the glittering and glamorous night with amazing auctioneer Christian Kohlberg joining in for the gavel action. When hosts Larry and Camille Ruvo added the rough total from the dinner tickets, the silent and live auction and the raffle for a new 2008 Jaguar XF that had been donated by Gary Ackerman, he estimated the event raised nearly $12-million. Singer Michael Bublé, who won at the next night Grammy’s, entertained the celebrity crowd and then he and his band donated back to the charity their fees and expenses!
It all proved that the impossible is possible and that the Brain Institute will open this fall. Siegfried & Roy have promised to be the star entertainers at next year’s gala set for Feb. 7 when we should raise even more funding for the ongoing medical research to find the cure.