global poverty project

RSVIP: Hugh Jackman and Wife Launch 1.4 Billion Reasons DVD

Filed under: Auctions, Events, Charity, Big Givers

Decorating an event meant to combat world poverty presents issues that only a seasoned expert such as Yale educated party planner Bronson Van Wyck, who volunteered his time, would be prepared to tackle. Fabulous hors d'oeuvres and expensive lighting wouldn't have been the right message for Wednesday's event at the Museum of Modern Art in New York to benefit the Global Poverty Project, Aussie Hugh Evans' fast-track plan to end extreme poverty.

"I met Hugh Evans at the Australia 2020 Summit, which was a conference about ideas that the Prime Minister held," Hugh Jackman, far right, who hosted the fete with his wife, Deborra-Lee Furness, told RSVIP.

"He was so young I thought he was one of the waiters," continued Jackman, who said he had waved Evans over, hoping to get a drink. "Two hours later, he was still telling me all of these ideas. This young guy was so switched on. . . ."

"The look tonight," explained Van Wyck, while scruffy actor Gerard Butler wandered in wearing frayed jeans and a biker jacket, "is pared-down chic."

"It's really about the message," says Van Wyck, who hails from Arkansas. "It's about the cause. Everything went toward getting the people here. I'm donating my time and even the red carpet. I believe in what they're doing."

Several of Jackman's famous friends pitched in unique auction items, including a lunch with Rupert Murdoch, which was already going for $7,000 on http://www.charitybuzz.com/gpp. And it wasn't just a friendly lunch; the winner of this lot is invited to pitch the billionaire media mogul business ideas at the table. Murdoch's wife, Wendi, explained that not even she has full access to her husband's hectic lunch agenda.

"He's always busy," she said. In fact, the couple rarely meet for lunch, "as I also have no time," she indicated with a laugh.

Tags: Deborra-Lee Furness, gerard butler, global poverty project, hugh jackman, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, rsvip, rupert murdoch