Celebrities turned out for A Night to Benefit Raising Malawi and UNICEF at the United Nations in New York City, yesterday. The stars included Brooke Shields, Cynthia Nixon, Debra Messing, Kimora Lee Simmons, Salma Hayek, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rachel Zoe, Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes, Ali Larter, Drew Barrymore & Justin Long, Molly Sims, Lucy Lui, Chris Ivery & Ellen Pompeo, Rihanna, Demi Moore, Madonna & Lourdes, Jessica & Jerry Seinfeld, and Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony.

Madonna hosted the star-studded fundraiser for Malawi orphans, last night.

The legendary singer, who has a two-year-old adopted son David from the African country, threw the New York bash for her Raising Malawi Foundation, United Nations children’s organization UNICEF and to celebrate the opening of a new Gucci store.

Madonna, who dismissed rumors the event was raising money for Kabbalah, said: “I am grateful that Gucci has underwritten this event, that’s all that matters to me - their generosity. There’s always controversy surrounding anything that involves change.

“I want to put Raising Malawi on the map. I want credibility as a philanthropic organization. I want to inspire people. I don’t want them to just write me a check - I want them to give me a piece of their heart.”

WENN

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 7:15 am and is filed under Ali Larter, Brook Shields, Cynthia Nixon, Debra Messing, Demi Moore, Drew Barrymore, Ellen Pompeo, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez, Jerry Seinfeld, Justin Long, Katie Holmes, Kimora Lee Simmons, Lucy Lui, Madonna, Marc Anthony, Molly Sims, Rihanna, Salma Hayek, Tom Cruise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.