BERRY NICE
Congrats to Malibu beauty Halle Berry who was named Entertainer of the Year by Muhammad Ali and his Celebrity Fight Night Foundation. Halle made her way to a glitzy event in Phoenix where the champ’s Parkinson’s Center is located and helped raise a whopping $6.6 million for the cause. Local music man David Foster was in charge of the entertainment line-up, which included Matchbox Twenty and Bret Michaels. Matchbox Twenty got everyone in a groove with some of their classic hits, including “3 A.M.” and “Bright Lights,” while Michaels rocked out to “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” and “Nothing But a Good Time.”
Country music queen Reba McEntire emceed the all-star event with a little help from longtime Ali pal, Billy Crystal.
Up on stage, Halle was in good company, joining LPGA Pro Cristie Kerr who received the Sports Achievement Award. Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons got the Entrepreneur Award, and former NBA and NFL owner Red McCombs took home the Humanitarian Award.
Guests bid big at the live auction. Two guests shelled out $400,000 apiece to share dinner with Ms. Reba. Dinner with superstars Billy Crystal and Robert DeNiro also sold for $400,000 each, while an evening with Bret went for $200,000. Bob Parsons, meantime, made a generous donation of $1 million to the organization.
The program wrapped up with Grammy Award winner Kelly Clarkson. After belting out songs like “Walk Away,” she had the room singing along to “My Life Would Suck Without You.”
Kevin Costner and Modern West kept the momentum going into the early morning hours at the post ceremony after-party. The event is always a knockout, raising an amazing $70 million in just the past 17 years.
FLICK PICKS
A talented local twosome teams up once again on the big screen. Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts take a comedic turn in the upcoming “Larry Crowne.” Tom plays a good-natured middle-aged man who reinvents himself by going back to college. Julia flashes her megawatt smile as Mercedes Tainot. The last time the two worked together was in 2007’s “Charlie Wilson’s War.”
Tom’s been an especially busy man these days. In addition to “Larry Crowne,” he has been at work on three other projects, including “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” with Sandra Bullock, and “Cloud Atlas,” starring opposite Halle Berry.