Los Angeles, November 8 – It stopped raining before Louis Vuitton’s United Cancer Front gala got underway, but Mother Nature left an elegant calling card in the form of stained carpeting. Held outdoors on a Universal Studios back lot, we were perplexed as to why they didn’t just put the party into one of the massive soundstages nearby. The backdrop of the familiar LV logo material was completely waterlogged. Ah well, since everyone else will probably airbrush out the mess underfoot, we thought we’d show you the ugly reality, in photos at left.

Sarah Jessica Parker was one of the hosts of the event, and she’d just flown in from New York, where the night before she was on the town for the opening of hubby Matthew Broderick’s new play, The Foreigner. Sarah was sporting a gigantic ring on her finger, and said she had to lose weight just to get it on.

Dustin Hoffman, another co-host, was playful, showing a TV reporter his socks, blowing raspberries on the shoulder of Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell, and switching places with some paparazzi, pulling them onto the red carpet and jumping into their ranks himself.

Jamie Foxx, whispering Oscar with his just-out biopic Ray, was the event’s third host. How come we never noticed that tattoo running across the back of his head before?

Photos by Jen Lowery