Sharon Stone played auctioneer, Kylie Minogue and Julian Lennon sang, and burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese did a saucy strip routine — all to raise money for AIDS research.
An annual benefit soiree on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday raised $7 million for the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR).
Stone, wearing a clingy silver dress, played hostess and fast-talking auctioneer throughout the night. When George Clooney and other cast members of “Ocean’s Thirteen” came onstage to auction off a yacht vacation, Stone promised a bidder: “If you put up $350,000, George will kiss you.”
Clooney went through with it, and he and Stone sold two yacht vacations instead of one for a total of $700,000.
Ivana Trump won a Francesco Vezzoli portrait of a teary-eyed Bette Davis for $200,000. Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell joined Stone onstage to auction off a package of fashion show tickets, for $175,000.
Harvey Weinstein spotted Minogue at dinner and pulled her onstage to sing “The Loco-Motion” and “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” which raised $300,000.
Von Teese came onstage in cowgirl suit, complete with pink glittering hat, then stripped down to underwear, pink cowboy boots and strategically placed tassels. Instead of a bucking bronco, she rode atop a giant spinning lipstick.
The MAC Aids Fund, The Weinstein Co. and Bold Films were sponsors of the event.
Lennon closed the party with “Stand by Me.”
The previous evening, a Cannes benefit dinner hosted by the “Ocean’s Thirteen” cast raised $9.2 million to help refugees from the Sudanese province of Darfur.
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