It's somewhat unusual for some to be presenting an item in an auction to be the one who walks away with it, but that's exactly what happened last night at the DIFF gala night held on behalf of Oxfam and Dubai Cares.
Invited on stage to present one of the raffle items – a limited edition statuette of Hans Solo signed by George Lucas – was one Ali F Mostafa. When nobody from the audience at the event held in the Armani Hotel claimed the number he picked out of the hat, rather than pick out another an unusual bidding process started on the item. Eventually, it went to a woman for the princely sum of $12,000 and she promptly decided to give it away – to Ali F Mostafa! Should he have donated Hans Solo back to the charity for someone else to have a chance to win it via the raffle? Perhaps.
Among the other big name guests in attendance were Colin Firth, who gave one of his typical amusingly dry speeches, his lively wife Livia, Freida Pinto, who auctioned off the dress she was wearing (to be handed over once she had changed “into her pyjamas” later, obviously), Kristen Davis and Rooney Mara, who didn’t speak once (well, not that we saw). The event ended up raising over $500,000.
