Alicia Keys

The massive, earth-shattering February 6 party Gucci is planning to coincide with the opening of their biggest store will be held on the lawn of the United Nations in Turtle Bay. “A Night to Benefit Raising Malawi and UNICEF,” which is what the fete has been named, is to be the first event of its kind to take place on that strip of land, the north lawn, which is technically international territory.

Joining Madonna, the party’s co-host, musical performances will be given by Alicia Keys, Timbaland and Rhianna. There will also be a special presentation by Columbia professor Jeffrey Sachs. Chris Rock will emcee a live auction. The evening’s co-chairs include: Drew Barrymore, Adrien Brody, Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault, Sting and Trudie Styler, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, Gwyneth Paltrow, Arpad Busson, Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, Téa Leoni and Lucy Liu. [WWD]  read more »

Tonight, Alicia Keys, Kylie Minogue, Annie Lennox and Melissa Etheridge are in Oslo, Norway, taking part in a concert honoring current Nobel Peace laureates Al Gore and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ms. Lennox, addressing a crowd at today’s event, asked: “Can celebrities save the world? It rankles. What kind of place are we in when people are looking to Hollywood or celebrities to save the world?”

Perhaps Uma Thurman and Kevin Spacey can help answer that question. After all, the two actors co-hosted the performance, which itself is meant to draw attention to what the former vice president calls a “planetary emergency.” Speaking at a press conference today, Ms. Thurman, 37, said, “The whole point is to raise awareness and communicate with everyone else in the world and share our concern for the planet.” She went on, “What we are hearing is that everyone needs to get very much involved with climate. It's coming to us. It's coming to a theater near us, very, very near us.” And Mr. Spacey, the cagey actor who currently oversees artistic affairs at London’s Old Vic theater, brought up an eco-friendly project that his playhouse is working on, called “Go for Green.” According to the 48-year-old thespian, the effort will culminate in a play that means to better educate young audiences on problems facing the environment. “I think that showing up at an event like this is important because there are going to be so many young people tuning in to this concert,” he said.  read more »

Singer Alicia Keys took the stage yesterday before a rally of W.G.A. strikers, and they cheered her arrival enthusiastically. The master musician, 27, took the microphone and told the excited picketers, who were preparing to march, that she supported them, shouting, “Let’s walk!”

Instead of walking with the picketing guild members, however, she darted towards her waiting S.U.V., surrounded by a bubble of beefy bouncers. “I need everybody to back up!” her security team demanded, while Ms. Keys smiled, waved and appeared to repeat the word “yes.”

Watch the video here.  read more »

We caught up with actor/author John Leguizamo last night at the premiere of The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. The native New Yorker stars in the forthcoming adaptation of fellow Colombian Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s novel, Love in the Time of Cholera, which premieres tomorrow. But last night Mr. Leguizamo seemed more focused on a film that is scheduled for release next June, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening.

“The [project] that I love is The Happening,” he told The Daily Transom, although he kept mum about the nitty-gritty. “You know how M. Knight is,” he said, “you’re given the coded scripts with your name on it; you can’t get any changes unless you hand in the other changes.” Mr. Leguizamo did assure us, however, that the discreet director is “amazing to work with,” he said, later citing cast-and-crew perks like a group trip to Fiji.

Besides listening to his favorite “hot” new album this season, Alicia Key’s As I Am,” he is also working on writing new material, although he immediately added that he will not challenge the writer’s strike.

Grumbling a little, Mr. Leguizamo went on, “I’m writing for myself, not to sell. I’m not crossing any lines, I’m not a scab or a rat. I don’t want that rat in front of my apartment building!... I’m stuck with all this stuff.”

Last night at the Hammerstein Ballroom, where celebrities converged for Conde Nast's Black Ball to benefit Keep a Child Alive, singer Alicia Keys was decked out in head-to-toe Armani and a lot of black patent leather. She told she was taking a very special date to the Bungalow 8-themed, Amy Sacco-designed after-party ...  read more »