China’s Huading Awards in Los Angeles Draws Johnny Depp, Bryce Dallas Howard

Johnny Depp, Mel Gibson, Wiz Khalifa, Bryce Dallas Howard, Hilary Swank and Sylvester Stallone are among the Hollywood stars set to take part in Los Angeles’ latest addition to awards season.

The actors are set to attend China’s Huading Awards, to be held at L.A.’s Ace Hotel on Thursday. But before awards analysts start wondering whether they have to factor an odd-ball variable into their Oscars prediction formulas, it’s worth noting the Chinese award show’s unique history and content.

Mel Gibson

The Huading Awards dishes out honors to talent from all fields of entertainment, from stage theater to film, pop music to TV, and even traditional Chinese opera. The film categories, crucially, hand out honors to movies from the year prior, so titles like The Martian, Fast & Furious 7 and Avengers: Age of Ultron are among the nominees in the show’s best global picture category this year (nominations tend to have a populist bent). No word if Robert Downey Jr or any of the other Avengers are slated to attend at press time.

The Huading Awards were founded in 2007 by Chinese entertainment company Tianxia Yingcai Cultural Media. Nominees are selected by committee and the winners are chosen by popular vote over the award show’s website and other Chinese internet portals.

Unlike other awards ceremonies, the location of the Huading Awards is not fixed; previous editions have been held in Macau, Hong Kong and Mainland China. The awards honor stars from around the world and previous winners include Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irons, Quentin Tarantino, Halle Berry and Chris Hemsworth.

 

Four Kings & An Ace at the London West Hollywood

Mending Kids International hosted their annual Fall fundraiser, Four Kings & An Ace Celebrity Poker Tournament, on Saturday night at Gordon Ramsay‘s restaurant inside the London West Hollywood. The evening’s proceeds benefit children in over 51 countries around the world in Central and South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Southeast Asia to give children access to critical surgeries that they would otherwise not be able to receive due to lack of medical or financial resources.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Longtime Mending Kids International supporter Mel Gibson hosted the evening along with celebrity friends like Gene Simmons, Robert Downey, Jr., Sean Penn and Jodie Foster. Among other celebrity guests were World Series Of Poker Winner Jamie Gold, Madeleine Stowe, Emily VanCamp and most of the cast of “Revenge,” Danny Trejo and Chuck Zito from “Sons of Anarchy“, actor Quinton Aaron from “the Blind Side”, Olympic diver Greg Louganis, comedian and “Iron Man 2” actor Garry Shandling, Patricia Arquette,  and World Poker Tour players Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten.

These celebrities were able to raise enough funds for eight missions to provide almost 200 children around the world with life-saving surgeries. Mending Kids International (www.mendingkids.org) is a California-based non-profit that provides surgeries to children otherwise unavailable to them in developing countries, and surgical training to medical staff to build long-term sustainable surgical programs.  92% of every dollar received goes directly towards helping children.

Will Hartman walked away with the night’s poker trophy. Those who didn’t play poker enjoyed casino games and entertainment provided by The Commodores Band, American Idol Winner Lee Dewyze, and Dominic Scott Kay.

MKI is a tremendous charitable organization that ran an amazingly well-organized fundraiser. Life on the Scene is always on board to help out this charity in the future!

The only real snag in the evening was the fact that while KISS frontman Gene Simmons gave very generously of his time to the event, his personality was sorely lacking as he wouldn’t give the time of day to most of the attendees that paid a top dollar donation to attend this wonderful event.

Sponsors for the event include ICON Films, The London West Hollywood, The Sher Group, Morgan’s Jewelers,Variety, Marich Premium Chocolates, Polanti Watches, BERYLL, Smile Sciences, El Cartel Tequila, Akvinta Vodka, Atlantico Rum, Paul Smith, Floral Crush, and GrapeVine Productions.  MKI is already planning the 2^ndAnnual event for Fall 2013 and sponsorship opportunities and player slots are available. Please visit them at (www.mendingkids.org) to donate or sign up to sponsor an event.

Robert Downey Jr., Gene Simmons, Sean Penn and Jodie Foster Join Forces for Charity

The spirit of holiday giving is going full swing in Hollywood. Golden Globe winner & Academy Award nominee Robert Downey Jr., GRAMMY winner Gene Simmons of KISS,  along with Academy Award winners Sean Penn, Mel Gibson, and Jodie Foster join forces to support Mending Kids International next Saturday, December 1st as they take part in the Four Kings & An Ace poker tournament at the London Hotel in West Hollywood, CA.

A limited number of tickets to play poker with the celebrity guests as well as spectator tickets are still available. Event tickets can be purchased here. The tournament will take place inside the Gordon Ramsay restaurant at the London West Hollywood.

The evening proceeds benefit children worldwide who are in need of life-changing surgical care. Over the years, thousands of children have received corrective, transformational surgeries that have given them a chance at longer, healthier and happier lives. Most of the surgeries performed are to correct congenital heart defects, orthopedic abnormalities, severe scoliosis, and significant cranial facial deformities.

Robert Downey Jr has just wrapped filming on MARVEL’s Iron Man 3, due in theaters May 2013 while Sean Penn stars in the upcoming Gangster Squad, due in theaters January 11, 2013.

Sponsors of the evening include Variety, the London West Hollywood, Morgan’s Jeweler’s, Gibson’s ICON films and more.