Producer Jerry Weintraub was honored at a star-studded UNICEF Ball at LA’s Beverly Wilshire Hotel last evening. George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt and Angelna Jolie honored Weintraub with the Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award.

“When it comes to charities, nobody guilts better,” Clooney joked about Weintraub before the A-list audience.

George Clooney honors Jerry Weintraub with UNICEF’s Danny Kaye Humanitarian award Dec. 2009Paul Anka, who rewrote the lyrics to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” in Weintraub’s honor.

“When UNICEF came to me, and my friends came to me and asked me to do this, I said I will do it because of the crazy things going on in the world, and the help that we can give,” said Weintraub, who co-founded the nonprofit humanitarian organization Not On Our Watch Foundation with Clooney, Pitt, Damon, Don Cheadle and human rights lawyer David Pressman. via AP

Angelina Jolie, Batt Pitt and Muhammad Ali at UNICEF Ball Dec. 2009Angelina Jolie paid homage to Muhammad Ali, not only meeting the legend but sliding in for one of those “go down in history” photo ops with the famous boxer. In a sequence of photos, Jolie floated in like a butterfly but stung like a bee.

I simply adore Tom Ford. Madly, in fact.

As the Fashion Director of Victoria’s Secret in the 1990s, I wandered the streets of the world a total believer in Tom Ford’s sophisticated but blatantly provocative look at sexuality. With a few exceptions, Ford always knew just how far to push the sexual envelope, leaving the viewer on the edge of erotic tension.

via Daily YummoUnless you were a completely uptight, repressed sexual personality, Tom Ford coachs you into sexual awareness. Even if you chose not to open Pandora’s Box, you know what lays smoldering in the darkness. As Shakira said recently, “libido is the engine of the world”.

It’s true that Tom Ford is often accused of being a modern-day, superficially erotic dandy, but I never say him that way. His persona and creative mind always seemed plentiful to me and in balance.

A few years ago, Tom Ford astonished the fashion industry by walking away from it and a working relationship that no longer worked for him. All the details are in today’s NYTimes feature Tom Ford’s Directorial Debut Is Silencing His Critics.

(nudity under the fold)