Jamie Foxx, Alessandra Ambrosio Boogie at The Winter Gala 2018
“I’m going to need a cigarette after that,” said Jamie Foxx of his early evening boogie session with a slew of Los Angeles socials on Thursday night. Rochelle Gores Fredston flipped the script on the typical charity gala and decided to begin her annual event with a pre-dinner dance party hosted by Oscar-winner Foxx.
As he made his way to each of the 30-plus tables, Foxx found many female friends while DJ Kiss spun old school soul and hip-hop hits.
When the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” came on, Irena Medavoy shook her pelvis like Elvis and even ripped up her menu and sprinkled it on Foxx like confetti.
“You like the oldies,” Foxx said. “It shows how old I am,” she laughed. “I think they call it ‘seasoned.’ We don’t say ‘old’ around here,” Foxx replied.
Just as easily as he got the crowd riled up, Foxx settled them down to take in the reason for the night’s fundraiser.
“Disruption has become our obsession at LLV,” said Gores Fredston of her nonprofit’s transition after eight years as Philanthropy Society L.A. to Learning Lab Ventures. “We want to disrupt multi-generational poverty through education,” she said of the programs designed to serve, educate and mentor students from grade school through college. “One-hundred percent of our students graduate from high school and 90 percent get a college degree.”
The evening honored LLV executive board member and Haney designer Mary Alice Haney for her philanthropy work. “When I went to my first Winter Gala, I immediately had a girl crush on Rochelle,” Haney said. “Somehow she had managed to make a fashion event both meaningful and fun and I knew I wanted to be a part of it.”
Haney’s mother was there from Tennessee to congratulate her daughter. “Your dad couldn’t be here tonight because he had a business trip, but he wasn’t there when I gave birth to twins,” she said.
Launch Gallery: The Winter Gala 2018, Los Angeles
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