Robert Pattinson Co-Chairs Inaugural Fred Hollows Foundation Gala in LA on 15 November 2017

 

Lisa Wilkinson is MCing and Joel Edgerton will host the inaugural Fred Hollows fundraising gala in LA tomorrow night, co-chaired by Hollywood heavyweights Leonardo DiCaprio, Al Pacino, Chris Pine, Kate Beckinsale and Rob Pattinson.

From News.com:

“Wilkinson will be standing alongside Edgerton, who is a long-time Ambassador for The Fred Hollows Foundation, which works in more than 25 countries around the world to end avoidable blindness.”

Stay tuned!  Thanks @kv_kat for the heads up!

Great working dinner tonight with the wonderful Joel Edgerton and all the fabulously passionate team sorting the final details behind tomorrow night’s huge gala fundraiser for the @FredHollows Foundation here in LA. Also on the committee: Leonardo di Caprio, Robert Pattinson, Kate Beckinsdale, Al Pacino and Chris Pine. I’m so honoured to be asked to MC the event and to join Joel as a global ambassador for the Foundation. The Foundation now works tirelessly in 25 countries around the world to end avoidable blindness…often for just a handful of dollars. Right now the focus is on their very important – and urgent – work in Africa tackling an eye disease that particularly affects women and girls in Ethiopia. The cure is so simple. For more information just go the Fred Hollows Facebook page or website. Thank you.xx

A post shared by Lisa Wilkinson (@lisa_wilkinson) on Nov 15, 2017 at 12:39am PST

More after the cut

The event will be at 7pm tonight (2pm AEST).  From The Austrailan

“I’m not good at asking people for favours and it’s really the first time in the 15 years I’ve been in LA that, outside of movies, I’ve asked people to put themselves on the line,” Edgerton, who just finished directing Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe in the drama Boy Erased in Atlanta, told AAP.

“So when I asked, people were happy to help.”

Edgerton is a long-time ambassador for the foundation, which works in more than 25 countries and supports teams of surgeons, nurses and screening staff to reach patients in what are some of the most difficult conditions.

Edgerton says Hollywood’s elite were more than willing to help when they were showed how a 10-minute surgery that costs just $25 could completely change the life of someone who has been blind for years.

“We are focusing the event around the work the foundation does in Africa, especially Ethiopia,” said Edgerton, explaining the LA gala.

“Dr Wondu (Alemayehu) is joining us from Ethiopia and he’s going to explain the desperate situation there with trachoma, which is an infectious and blinding disease.”

If you would like to help The Fred Hollows Foundation by donating, click HERE – it’s such a worthy cause.