John Varvatos Hosts Annual Benefit for Stuart House

 Image by wenn.com

For the seventh year, John Varvatos hosted his annual benefit event for the children’s wing of the The Stuart House, the rape treatment center at the Santa Monica-UCLA medical facility on Sunday afternoon outside his West Hollywood boutique.

And while seven years ago the entire event fit into the parking lot of his store, it has now taken over and shut down an entire block of Santa Monica Boulevard complete with a silent and live auction, food, drinks, and a performance by rock legends ZZ Top.

Hosted by Hollywood power couple Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, the star quotient was high on Sunday with everyone from Alice Cooper to Melissa Joan Hart (with baby Brayden) coming to show their support.

The family friendly event, in partnership with Converse, catered to kids with craft tables for shoe decorating, paintable pottery by Color Me Mine of Beverly Hills, and cupcake decorating. Families also enjoyed photo booths, face painting and balloon animals.

Hollywood parents Lisa Rinna , Joely Fisher, Justin Chambers, and Jillian Barberie all had their brood in tow, while Hollywood moms Bridget Moynahan and Angie Harmon, both arrived sans kiddos.

Besides talking about the fabulous Stuart House cause, the topic of conversations was about dealing with this recession on Sunday afternoon.

While 90210 star Ryan Eggold copped to spending, rather than saving - he just bought a new house - other stars like Jamie King are cutting back, “I’m not shopping as much, I’m buying only what I need”.

Joely Fisher’s secret to spending less on her family? “Lots of art projects at home!” she told Hollyscoop, as she led her daughters Skyler, True, and new addition Luna into the tents. Her other secret weapon? Trader Joe’s, except “now its not a secret anymore and it takes an hour to get out of there.” Jim Belushi disagreed about cutting back, saying that American’s shouldn’t be afraid to spend, and that he himself is building a new house.

“Harry won’t let me shop!” Lisa Rinna exclaimed when asked about how her family is sacrificing.

Angie Harmon and Jason Sehorn take the savings cake by bringing back the old American tradition by taking family road trips with their daughters in lew of pricey plane tickets, “The girls are easy, I’m the one that gets crabby after a seventeen hour drive,” admits Harmon.

Other stars that came out to support the cause were Brendan Fraser and Eric McCormick who were trying on watches and sunglasses inside the store, Greg Kinnear who slipped in the back, Eric Dane without wife Rebecca Gayheart, and Shannon Doherty who didn’t speak to press but was overheard saying that the show (90210) just “didn’t work out for me.”

Billy Ray Cyrus arrived just in time to see ZZ Top take the stage.

Despite the fact the economy is in crisis, it was clear on Sunday afternoon that charitable giving, will never go out of style. To find out more about The Stuart House check out http://www.johnvarvatos.com/stuarthouse