Philanthropy

Before she steps down as Interim Executive Director of AID Atlanta, Cathy Woolard is determined to achieve two goals—recruit a CEO with a clear vision for the future, and ensure this Sunday’s AIDS Walk meets its million-dollar fundraising target.

Just like those rare collectibles on eBay, Jane Fonda’s canary yellow 2013 Oscars dress, personally created for her by designer Donatella Versace on display Thursday night, had a Buy It Now price for the time-crunched consumer: $50,000. The dress served as the eye-catching silent auction centerpiece at the annual EmPower Party benefit for the Fonda-founded Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential at the Georgia Aquarium downtown.

Perennial interviewee Jane Fonda will be the one asking the questions at tonight’s annual Empower Party benefit for Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential. In front of a sold-out crowd in the Georgia Aquarium ballroom, G-CAPP’s founder will interview CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta as the nonprofit advances its teen pregnancy prevention mission to include adolescent health and well being. In an exclusive interview with Atlanta magazine, the 75-year-old two-time Oscar winner discusses what’s on her notepad for Dr. Gupta, what’s next for G-CAPP, shooting that Twitter trending “You will resign when I fire you out of petty malice and not before!” Newsroom scene and how ex-hubby Ted Turner introduced her to the stupid joys of Dumb and Dumber.

About midway through her intimate Broadway in the Garden performance Sunday night at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Tony and Grammy winner Jennifer Holliday referenced her unique surroundings. “My dressing room is over where some cultures are growing!” the Dreamgirls icon told the capacity crowd gathered in a lavishly decored tent erected on The Great Lawn. “I don’t know what they are. I’m a Broadway girl. I kept thinking about Little Shop of Horrors back there!” The Atlanta resident donated her performance Sunday night as a joint fundraiser for Actor’s Express and the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

Like a juicy divorce rumor circulating on Tuxedo Road, Southern Season, the exhibition by Atlanta photographer Harriet Leibowitz opening tonight at the Alan Avery Art Company, is certain to generate gossip and a few tantalizing texts. The thought-provoking, sexy, campy, and slightly scandalous show depicts what might be bubbling beneath the shiny surfaces inside the city’s social set. Essentially, it’s Southern Seasons magazine on a hit of acid.

Atlanta’s movers and shakers met at the St. Regis hotel today for an event celebrating Usher’s New Look foundation. Though it was all flashbulbs, rappers, and rock stars on what Usher called “the floral carpet,” the entertainer proved to me he was more than just a pretty face and a slick linen suit.

For former Atlanta City Council president and onetime mayoral candidate Lisa Borders, just days into replacing the iconic Ingrid Saunders Jones as Vice-President of Global Community Connections and Coca-Cola Foundation chair, Monday night’s screening of Girl Rising should have been an easy assignment. But the documentary, focusing on the stories of nine girls from across the globe who are beaten, raped, and sold into slavery as they bravely battle to get educations, is anything but easy. The film, produced by the Intel Corporation and distributed by CNN Films, features narration by Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Alicia Keys, and Selena Gomez. It is equally empowering, educational, and at points, harrowing to watch.

Stephanie Blank has a secret. No, not that. Even TMZ has reported on the ridiculously civilized parting of the ways between the veteran Atlanta charitable fundraiser and her husband of 16 years, Home Depot co-founder and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank. We’re talking about a real secret here.

The honorees being feted and fed at Monday’s sixth annual Women of Style & Substance luncheon benefit for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at the St. Regis hotel in Buckhead could rightfully be lauded for their philanthropic endeavors. But these same eight women also possess the ability to effortlessly glide down a fashion runway in fabulous frocks (and dangerously high heels) in front of a sold-out crowd consisting of hundreds of the city’s most high profile women. This was, of course, after they braved a hellacious valet line that snaked down West Paces Ferry and threatened to collide with oncoming traffic on Peachtree Road (Note to St. Regis management: When your ballroom guests use “Did you park across the street at Whole Foods and run across West Paces Ferry too?!” as a luncheon conversation ice breaker, it may be time to re-evaluate your current valet parking set up).