Highlights From Celebrity Fight Night In Phoenix 2014
Muhammad missed out
Celebrities can be funny
Buble was one of the night's honorees, and he start his award-acceptance speech by mocking the video that played of himself."I look really fat on video," he joked. "Have a wonderful evening and god bless. S**t, I went backwards. That's the last page."Bobby Kennedy, Jr., quipped "I'm so happy to be invited here tonight even though I'm the only democrat in the room," to which many guests whooped and raised their hands in support. He was presenting an award to John Paul DeJoriaco, founder of Paul Mitchell hair care and The Patron Spirits Company (yes, tequila.) The best of all the award presenters and receivers were, of course, Billy Crystal for Robert DeNiro."(DeNiro) has made over 100 movies, 30 of them in the last year," Crystal joked. DeNiro addressed the absent Ali in his speech."'The Greatest.' Well, I don't know about that," DeNiro said. "Before we start handing out titles like 'The Greatest,' let's compare his career to mine." In the end, he said, Ali was a World Heavyweight Champion three times, and DeNiro won two Academy Awards , but if you count the times he's been nominated and lost, they come out to be about even.
A look back
As the dinner of steak and vegetables was served, a video commemorating the event's 20 years played on four giant screens. It had clips of Fight Night appearances and performances from Patrick Swayze , Rod Stewart , Robin Williams , Celine Dion ,Garth Brooks , Kelly Clarkson , and Miley Cyrus in 2012 before her, let's say, change of image. One clip showed Jim Carrey goofing around on stage, to which Ali stared at him and mimed the signal for "crazy."
Big bucks at the live auction
For most, the live auction is the portion of the night made for drinking, socializing and taking photos together. But for the richest, it's a chance to buy once-in-a-lifetime experiences. The first item on the block was VIP treatment at the red-carpet premiere of "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1," which sold for $15,000. Third up was dinner with Reba McEntire in her home, which ended up going to two bidders; both are billionaires, and each spent $500,000 for the dinner. McEntire must have felt flattered to see dinner with her go for $1 million. One of those bidders was the big spender of the night: He also took home a 10-day vacation in Tuscany with a dinner with Andrea Bocelli ($225,000) and a vacation package to British Columbia ($75,000). Among the big donations to the event were $1 million from The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation. Bob Parsons is the founder of Go Daddy.
Big-time performers
The Band Perry, fresh off their headlining gig Friday at Country Thunder, opened the performance portion with their hit song, Done. They followed it with an interesting rendition of Timber by Pitbull and Ke$ha . They kept it almost strictly about this music, flying through Chainsaw, If I Die Young and Better Dig Two.
Musical director David Foster introduced two teen acts, Carolyn Cole and Jonathan Antoine ; Antoine, who is 19 and known for his appearance on Britain's Got Talent, got a standing ovation for his opera singing. Next up was Kenny Rogers , who lost his place in his first song, The Gambler, and blamed it on the eponymous movie playing on the screens."I was getting beat up at the time I lost my words," he joked, and went on to perform We've Got Tonight and Islands in the Stream as a duet with McEntire.
A few others performed, but the night's closer (and winner) was Buble, who opened with a rousing performance of Feeling Good that had people dancing immediately. Afterward, he addressed the audience, encouraging them to just "let themselves go" despite being worried about maintaining appearances among so many rich and famous peers."Most of you folks will never see these dorks again," he said. "Lose your s**t!"And they did. Couples all over the ballroom danced to Haven't Met You Yetand I Wanna Go Home, the latter of which he said was for couples although, Buble said, for single people, it was "a great chance for you to get in a threesome."He joked around with Foster and improvised bits of Christmas songs."I'll be frank with you. Eleven million Christmas albums and I don't even like the holiday," Buble said, laughing. He then played Save The Last Dance for Me and closed with It's a Beautiful Day , for which he filled the stage with dozens of the night's beautiful women.
Thinking about attending next year? Celebrity Fight Night will be offering a new option – a six-day, star-studded vacation in Italy. Dinner and entertainment will be in Andrea Bocelli's home. Tickets are a cool $50,000 per person, but don't worry, $37,000 of it is tax deductible.#FongangMbanwei
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