New York, September 20-22, 2006 – Sir Richard Branson surprised the world with his pledge of $3 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative to battle global warming by developing clean fuels. The donation will come from profits from his transportation companies, including Virgin airlines. Who ever heard of an airline making a profit? That is the truly inspiring part. (Once clean fuels are developed, how will oil-producing nations make money? Will Saudi Arabia be battling India for tech-support call centers? Gosh, this global economics stuff is confusing.)

Bill Clinton’s three-day summit brought a host of international luminaries from the worlds of politics, business and entertainment to New York City, and handily out-glitzed the U.N. General Assembly meeting going on across town at the same time.

Barbra Streisand was a ubiquitous presence at the Sheraton Hotel where the former president’s summit was held; she avoided the press, but did tell us, “It’s incredible”. A longtime Clinton fan, Babs showed that she knows her man by leaving her bra at home.

Actress Anne Hathaway took in some of the summit, as well as Wednesday night’s gala at the Museum of Modern Art, where other great thinkers of the day like Alyssa Milano and Denise Rich boogied with Jimmy Carter and Al Sharpton.

Washington, D.C. born and bred democrat Al Gore tried to round up red state votes for the next election by wearing cowboy boots. Laura Bush hung out with the Clinton do-gooders while her hubby George W. droned on over at the U.N. Some political leaders like Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf escaped the stifling U.N. conference and popped up at Clinton’s more star-studded program.