Sharon Stone and special guest Madonna help raise $10 million

Sharon Stone, who is the face of AmFar,welcomed special guest Madonna to the annual Cinema Against AIDS dinner in Cannes Thursday night. AmFar raised a staggering $10 million Thursday night, up nearly $3 million from last year.

Madonna’s presence to the cause brought in just under $1 million euros, or $1.5 million. The Material Girl put up a diamond encrusted Karl Lagerfeld custom-designed handbag (including her lip gloss, lip balm, magnifying mirror, hair clips and lozenges), one of her guitars and the promise to sing two songs privately for a bidder before a concert this fall somewhere on her tour.

When the bag wasn’t selling so fast or for that much, Madonna beseeched the crowd, “It’s not the bag, baby, it’s the thought.” She added of the blotting paper, “I’m wearing, I’m rubbing it against my body. Don’t insult me.”

The idea for the two songs in a private concert came from Harvey Weinstein, the motivating force behind the Amfar dinner for 14 years. “Madonna will sing for you,” Harvey told the crowd. Madonna interjected, “Not tonight — I’m not ready for that!”

The original bid went out at 250,000 euros, which prompted Madonna to joke: “I’m worth more than that! People have asked me to play at their bar mitzvahs!”

When the two songs only fetched a total of 350,000 euros — or about $600,000 — the Material Girl, who was on stage with Stone, leaned into the mike and advised the audience, “Don’t humiliate me.”

With that, she and surprising guest hubby Guy Ritchie upped and left. Stone must have known this was going to happen, because she told the audience before the songs were auctioned: “Madonna’s got to leave.” There was still about an hour left of the event, but Stone didn’t mind: Madonna had done what she came for, and what she was asked to do.

“She gave us a lot of her time,” Stone told me. “She did a great job.”

Stone, however, did the best job. She started the evening by raising $2.1 million (dollars, not euros) for her new Sharon Stone Pediatric AIDS fund within AmFar. She immediately got 21 people in the audience to contribute $100,000 each, including Diane von Furstenberg, Roberto Cavalli, Tommy Hilfiger, Diesel clothing, Chopard, Valentino, Dior, producer Ryan Kavanagh, Michel Litvak and Vin Roberti.

Other celebrity guests in the audience that paid $5,000 a ticket included Kenneth and Maria Cuomo Cole,Sean “Diddy” Combs, Natalie Portman, Rose McGowan, Christian Slater and Tamara Mellon, Rodrigo Santoro, David Furnish (who came without partner Elton John, who was laid up at their villa, he said, with bronchitis), Alan Cumming, Michelle Yeoh, Vivi Nevo and Ziyi Zhang, director Alfonso Cuaron, Polanski documentary maker Marina Zenovich, Joshua Jackson and Diane Kruger, Denise Rich, Star Jones and stripper Dita Von Teese.

Model and tsunami activist Petra Nemcova also made a presentation.

Mary J. Blige sang her smashing trademark off-key style, versions of U2′s “One” and her own “No More Drama,” which got the audience up on their feet. Later, model Milla Jovovich, sang a jazzy blues number with a small combo with a lot of enthusiasm.

Sean Diddy Combs,fetched 200,000 euros for something called “24 hrs with P Diddy.” This came to include shopping on Rodeo Drive, visit to a spa for a massage, visits to “your 2 or 3 favorite nightclubs,” as well as a strip club and a studio session to make a record. A typical day for Diddy!

Source