Madonna leads charity charge

Madonna and Gucci appealed to the minds and wallets of dozens of celebrities last night, raising US$3.7m (€2.4m) for efforts they said would help orphaned children with HIV/Aids in Malawi and poor children in other nations.

The star-studded benefit dinner and live auction hosted by Chris Rock under a big tent on the north lawn of the United Nations made for an unusual blend of diplomacy, fashion and commercial promotion.

Organisers said the proceeds would be collected by the Gucci Foundation, a registered charity, and split among Raising Malawi, a group that operates under The Kabbalah Centre International, and the US Fund for Unicef, which supports the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Gucci, which paid the costs, linked the event to the opening of its Manhattan flagship store on 5th Avenue but was not given permission to use the UN logo in its advertising.

“I’ve earned a reputation for many things: pushing the envelope, for being a provocateur, for never taking no for an answer. For endlessly reinventing myself, for being a cult member, a kidnapper. For being ambitious, outrageous and irreverent. And for never settling for second best,” Madonna told the dinner.

“But I don’t just want you to write me a cheque. I’m more interested in your heart. I want to take you on that journey with me tonight. I want you to feel as inspired as I do right now,” she said.

“Yes, I want to raise Malawi. But if I can do that – if we can do that – then the sky’s the limit.”

Madonna has tried to help Malawi orphans since she and her husband, Guy Ritchie, began raising a Malawian boy they want to adopt. Rights groups questioned her actions since she took him from an orphanage in 2006 at the age of one. According to Unicef, HIV/AIDS affects almost a million people in Malawi, including 83,000 children, and half of the country’s 1 million orphans have lost one or both parents to AIDS.

“Malawi faces four urgent challenges: food security, education, disease control and infrastructure,” said Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University.

A red carpet reception drew stars such as Drew Barrymore, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Amy Adams, Brooke Shields, Salma Hayek, Djimon Hounsou, Dita Von Teese and UNICEF Ambassadors Tea Leoni and Lucy Liu, followed by a cocktail party with the likes of real estate magnate Donald Trump and media mogul Barry Diller.

Celebrities paid £900 (€1,200) and £3,400 (€4,543) each to dine on grappa-cured salmon, wild striped bass, goat’s cheese tart, wild mushrooms, truffled mashed potatoes and sticky toffee pudding with crème fraiche. Madonna played videos of Malawi and introduced children from the country. Rihanna, Timbaland and Alicia Keys played music afterward.

“It was an extraordinary evening. The whole evening was quite moving,” said Tom Cruise who was there with wife, Katie Holmes, who agreed.

Cruise called the United Nations “an absolute necessity” because of the staff who dedicate their lives to building peace.

Cruise bid £50,000 (€66,812) for a sports package that included a private hour playing soccer with David Beckham, but lost out to a bidder who paid £175,000 (€233,866).