Maybe the end of amFAR is near.
The AIDS fundraising group announced on Friday that Thursday’s annual Cannes Eurotrash gathering raised $16 million. In the next sentence, the group stated that it had raised $17 million the previous year.
Realizing what they’d admitted, amFAR then deleted the press release from its site. But the damage was done. Several outlets had already picked it up.
amFAR used to be an important organization in the fight against AIDS. But in its 30th year, plagued by scandals, the party is over. CEO Kevin Robert Frost (so pretentious that he made his name seem like the late famed poet) makes $600,000 a year even if the group’s funds are depleted. The whole staff is living it up.
Demi Moore hosted this year, and was not on the top of her game. She couldn’t get the crowd to settle down or pay attention. Cher performed, bringing her whole production along. Who paid for that? Nick Jonas and Joe Jonas were also flown in, and they sang together.
amFAR used to have a lot of movie stars in its audience, especially those who were in attendance in Cannes. But now it’s just models and crashers and Europeans who’ll pay for tickets just to be near some kind of celebrity. Nearly no one came from the actual Cannes Film Festival this year. The pictures are very revealing.
Here’s my story from last week:
