Pictures are going up from the annual amFAR dinner in Cannes. How the mighty have fallen. The sorry lot walking the red carpet feature Elon Musk’s mother and a bunch of models.
Gone are the days of Elton John, Liz Taylor, Calvin Klein, and so on. Not seen anywhere is the group’s former cheerleader, Sharon Stone. They treated her badly over and over. She’s gone.
I’m sure Mrs. Musk is a lovely person, and will donate a lot of money, but she’s not the high powered kind of celebrity amFAR boasted in the 2000s. No, those people wised up a long time ago. They saw CEO Kevin Frost’s $600,000 paycheck. They saw declining revenue while salaries sky rocketed. And they were buh bye.
One the scene as usual is elusive “global fundraiser” Milutin Gatsby. Sort of a made up person who for years was listed on amFAR’s site, and then also worked for Leonardo DiCaprio’s foundation but doesn’t anymore, “Gatsby” arrived in a crushed blue velvet suit.
Last week, I was told that there’s a group of people working on a documentary about amFAR’s shenanigans. I hope it’s true. If I get more intel, I’ll spill.
If you were silly enough to to the Eden Roc this year, keep this in mind: according to their 2020-21 Form 990 Tax Return, amFAR listed $11.3 million in salaries. Fourteen people had six figure salaries that came to $3.1 million.
They gave only $6.3 million in grants to medical programs, universities, and other charitable organizations. Their revenue less expenses came to MINUS $4 million.
Dr. Mathilde Krim is spinning in her grave.
Fundraising expenses were $5 million.
Maybe that includes bringing a big staff to Cannes and watching them swan around town delivering invites in chauffeur driven cars. I don’t know.
They paid some guy from Brooklyn named Michael Nevin — very cool, very hip, posed for the Times in a black suit, barefoot — $120,000 to do “art curation.” He told the NY Times in 2010: “When I was 17, I worked for one day as a museum docent at the Pollock Krasner house, but quit because I wanted to surf every day.”
According to the Form 990, it cost amFAR $1.2 million to rent the Eden Roc space. It also cost $2.1 million for entertainment, and $3.1 million for “other direct expenses.”
Total net income from fundraising in 2020-21: MINUS $7 million. That’s negatif in Eurotrash talk.
