Stars at Cannes turn out for AIDS charity event

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Uma Thurman poses upon arrival to the 2011 amfAR's Cinema Against AIDS Benefit Gala (AFP/File, Martin Bureau)

 CANNES, France — Monaco's Prince Albert II and his bride-to-be Charlene
Wittstock joined other celebrities on Thursday for an AIDS fundraising gala on
the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival.

Founded by the late Elizabeth Taylor, whose portrait looked down on the
revellers, the fundraiser for the American AIDS research foundation amFAR is
the biggest of its kind in Europe.

Among the 800 guests at the five-star Eden Roc hotel in nearby Cap d'Antibes
were Cannes jury members Uma Thurman and Jude Law, designers Roberto Cavalli
and Karl Lagerfeld, and supermodel Naomi Campbell.

From the world of show business were Brooke Shields, Janet Jackson, Gwen
Stefani, Courtney Love, Marisa Berenson, Ivana Trump and Patrick Dempsey,
according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

Hollywood star Sharon Stone, who had been lined up to preside over the
evening's fund-raising auction, failed to attend, citing professional
commitments.

Last year's gala raised 5.36 million euros ($7.64 million), organisers said.
It costs as much 84,000 euros to book a table for 12; a single entry goes for
4,200 euros.