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ALL SMILES: celebs pose for the ACLT group shot

Jasmine dazzled, dined and danced at this year’s ACLT ball.

THE annual African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust (ACLT) Ball was, as ever, crammed full of celebrities, ball gowns, black tuxedos and much merriment.

The vibes were good as we all dined for the positive cause that is raising money and awareness for the ethnic blood donor and marrow register.

I wore my D&G red floor length gown, accessorised with 3 Butler and Wilson pieces of jewellery.

One of my pieces was a giant diamante spider, which I had resting upon my bosom. As predicted, many men offered to “deal with the spider”’ for me!

We arrived to be greeted by founder’s Orin Lewis and Beverly De Gale who were overseeing the already heaving rum punch reception.

Punctual guests included former footballer John Barnes and a dapper Harvey, who explained he wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a plain black tux and had gone for navy and white instead!

It was Bashy’s first time at the ACLT Ball and he was looking pleasantly surprised at all the lovely ladies in the vicinity. Such women included Keisha and Heidi and from the Sugababes, a very beautiful Denise Lewis (who looked radiant with her still fit body even though she’s heavily pregnant), Color Blind Cards founder Jessica Huie (looking gorgeous gold), Beverley Knight (looking happy but awfully thin), Mica Paris (who graced us with her voluptuous curves), MOBO queen Kanya King (in a fuscia pink number), and petite but very classy Nancy Delalio (who kept muddling up the ACLT letters in her MTV BASE interview!)

The eye candy worked both ways, as there were plenty of fellas looking good that night. There was Chucky Venice (whom I’m informed is now to be known as Chucky Ven – his real name), broadcaster Richard Blackwood and actor extraordinaire Adrian Lester.

Later in the evening, Reggae Reggae Sauce founder Levi Roots grabbed me to give me the “reggae reggae hug” and sing about Reggae Reggae Sauce! He was trying to wean me away from my favourite Encona hot sauce!

But even with all that fabulousness in the house, I could only make a bee line for one man: Mr Jimmy Choo! Myself and my girls brazenly gushed all over him and then he insisted on taking a picture with me. How flattered was I? That is, until I noticed that he was taking pictures with all the ladies!

My guests were absolutely charming and fun. I dined with actresses, writers, painters, portrait photographers, celebrity stylists, a celebrity hairdresser and more!

The starter and dessert on the three-course meal were delicious but I have to be honest: the hunk of lamb was a lil too tough for my teeth. Even my knife struggled to slice through it.

Some people on my table made the usual excuses about why they hadn’t donated blood yet and gave the same old silly reasons. I tried to bully them into it but I’m not sure I was any good.

Then it was time for the auctions and Sugababe Keisha showed she was rollin in the paper. She won a bid at £1200 for a J Livin sculpture, which will be made of herself and her partner. How romantic.

Hilariously earlier that day, Estelle had paged me to demand that I keep bidding on her beautiful purple satin Christian Laboutin shoes! I informed her it was a dangerous game ’”biding up” to keep the price high. I might have been left with shoes way too large for my little size three feet. She reassured me it would be ok – and I let her know that she would buy them back from me if I got stuck with them! Luckily I didn’t – phew!

Young Daniel De Gale took the microphone from his mother to talk to us unprompted. And we all agreed that even though this young champion has had and continues to have a battle with his health, he would make a great future Prime Minister with his confident, articulate and straight from the heart speeches.

There were also great performances during the evening from artists including Doneo and Sway. As soon as Sway began perfuming Saturday Night Hustle, we were all up off our seats and jamming in our long gowns!

Comedian Paul Chowdhry and Harvey were a little merry by 2am and amused us for a few minutes with their mad antics – which mostly involved Harvey gushing over and showing off photos of his baby daughter.

As soon as the dinner and auction were over, it was time to hit that dance floor for my favourite electric slide moment of the year. DJs Abrantee and Manny Norte had me hitching up the long frock and stepping hard to Cameo’s Candy as well as Indeep’s Last Night a DJ Saved My Life. All in all, it was a fantastic night as ever and lots of cash (but not nearly enough) was raised for the ACLT!

In other news, let me quickly clear something up: All those stories in the press about Mariah not releasing any more songs from her current album E=MC2 are incorrect. Her new video is being shot in the next fortnight and you will, as usual, be blown away.

Published: 29 September 2008
Issue: 1340

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