Posts Tagged ‘Kevin Costner’

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali’s Celebrity Fight Night XVII was an astounding success on March 19 in Phoenix, and helped to raise over $6.6 million to benefit the Muhammed Ali Parkinson Center. The star studded event has now raised a staggering total of over $70 million over its 17 year history.

This year’s Celebrity Fight Night in Phoenix brought a broad mix of celebrities, sports athletes and VIP donors to the J.W. Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix, Arizona, for a night to remember. On hand were (just to name a few) stunning race car driver Danica Patrick, actor Billy Crystal, the top 11 finalists from this season’s American Idol television show (who performed an incredible Michael Jackson medley), Rob Thomas, Bret Michaels, Kevin Costner and Halle Berry.

The annual event has brought together people from all walks of life for a night in honor of Muhammad Ali, with incredible live auction items as well as musical performances from the best in the business. This year was one of the best in the event’s history, with auctions such as a private dinner with country music star and actress Reba McEntire at her Beverly Hills home which went for $800,000, a dinner in Los Angeles with Billy Crystal and Limitless star Robert De Niro (a great movie which is out now!) which sold for $400,000, and a one week stay on Eustatia Island, a private island located off the coast of Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands!

Halle Berry, Academy Award winning star of Swordfish and Monster’s Ball, received the Muhammad Ali Celebrity Fight Night Entertainer Award, and also a hug and a kiss from the legendary pugilist. Former NBA and NFL owner Red McCombs received the Muhammad Ali Celebrity Fight Night Humanitarian Award, and Cristie Kerr, the top ranked women’s golfer in the world, received the Sports Achievement Award. Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons received the Muhammad Ali Celebrity Fight Night Entrepreneur Award, and Parsons himself donated $1,000,000 to the organization as well as purchased over $1,000,000 in auction items at the event.

Gorgeous former American Idol winner and Grammy award winning singer Kelly Clarkson closed out the incredible evening with a multiple song performance that brought the house down. “I had such an amazing weekend! I got the chance to be a part of Fight Night in Arizona and I had such a great time! I can’t wait to come back next year! I made some new friends with some big hearts and it was just a very inspiring weekend. Please find a few charities and/or causes and give your time, heart and/or money because we are all so blessed even when we think we’re not,” the 28 year old singer said of the event.

All of us here at Positively Celebrity are amazed at the amount of donations that the Muhammad Ali Celebrity Fight Night event has brought in over the years, and can’t wait to see what stars will strut their stuff on the red carpet in Phoenix next year!

For more information on the event, please visit www.celebrityfightnight.org

Be sure to check back for more of the latest celebrity news and features from Richard Munassi right here at Positively Celebrity!

Apparently the rumors were true. After wondering ‘is he or isn’t he’ suffering from cancer, as a friend told reporters months ago, the legendary Paul Newman succumbed to the disease on Friday at his home in Westport, CT.

Paul Newman was bigger than anything I could possibly write here. Before I go on about his award-winning roles, his popcorn empire, his race car career, and more, I’d be remiss if I didn’t begin with his love for his beautiful and equally-talented wife, Joanne Woodward.

Their love transcended far above how we recognize lovers today, particularly in Hollywood where newfound love is as common as a pair of worn socks, and discarded just as quickly. In regards to Newman’s devotion to his wife he stated, “I have steak at home. Why go out for hamburger?” Something tells me he meant just that.

Not that I am privy to all details of the Newmans lifestyle (or any details of theirs for that matter), but in all the years of the paparazzi hounding the Hollywood elite, very little, if any, trash has ever surfaced about this couple. And in Hollywood, that’s saying a lot. The fact that they’ve been married since 1958 says something much, much more. Theirs is a love of integrity.

Paul Newman was also a man of deep conviction. Years ago I watched him in an interview with Barbara Walters, who asked about the death of his son. This man, who seemed always to be more than gracious and open, simply stated that the interview was contingent upon not discussing the death of his son. He tactfully told Walters that he would not continue if she persisted. Naturally, she relented. Even then I understood that Paul Newman was no show-boater. He stood for what he believed and the rest be darned.

I remember the first time I saw “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” My favorite part was Butch (Newman) laughing at Sundance (Redford) when Sundance hesitated to jump off the cliff into raging waters to escape a posse because ‘he couldn’t swim.’ Butch (as only Newman could play him) threw his head back and gave a hearty laugh before saying, “The fall will probably kill ya’!” Classic.

Newman’s Michael Gallagher, the role he played opposite Sally Field in “Absence of Malice” was one of my all-time favorites. As the unaffiliated son of a mob boss, Newman plays a quiet yet proud man who turns the tide on an overbearing federal agent bent on destroying him. Bad move.

In “The Verdict” he played Frank Galvin, an extremely down-and-out attorney who goes head-to-head with a large law firm, when he takes on a client in an effort to sue a large hospital. As usual, Newman gives a stunning performance throughout, but the best part of the movie is the absolute last 30 seconds of the film. In that defining moment you see a man who has redeemed himself, albeit through pain and anguish. And as only the best actors can, he does so without a word.

I was only a child when I saw “Cool Hand Luke” for the first time. Even then I knew there was something too cool about this blue-eyed soul brother and his penchant for right and dignity. I didn’t really get the whole meaning behind the film at that time, but Luke wasn’t completely lost on me. The last time I saw it, I was so affected I swore I’d never see it again. It was just too good to repeat.

Newman and Redford reunited to make “The Sting,” the first movie ever to make me wish I had learned how to be a con-artist. Seriously. While watching “The Towering Inferno” I wondered how bad could it be—you got Paul Newman there! What a way to go. Okay, totally kidding, but as soon as he was onscreen (alongside Steve McQueen) my anxieties disappeared. His role with Kevin Costner in “Message in a Bottle” showed a kinder, gentler but stern father who helps his son heal from years of grief.

There’s much more to say, but time and space alludes me. The cinematic world has lost an enduring, endearing, phenomenal legend. More than that, the world lost a man of redeeming quality. A rarity for certain but particularly in the land of glitz and glamour…in Hollywood…where film will never be the same.

In loving memory. JBB

Following in Carrie Bradshaw’s fashion footsteps, twelve-year-old Madeline Carroll, opening this weekend in her first lead movie, Swing Vote, is a fan of the girly girly pink pettiskirt styles of Kaiya Eve Couture.

Swing Vote movie star Kevin Costner says Maddie is wise beyond her years and is destined for Hollywood stardom.  A Natalie Portman look-alike, Maddie’s all-girl fashion statement will bring her stardom if she twirls in her couture tutu àla Carrie Bradshaw in the big city. You go girl!