As U.N. Lawn Becomes Gucci Gulch, Commerce Mixes With Diplomacy

UNITED NATIONS — As some U.N. officials prepare for tonight's star-studded fund-raiser here sponsored by the singer Madonna and the high-fashion retailer Gucci, others are expressing concern about lending the name of the international body to events where lines between commercial causes, self-promotion, and charity may be blurred.

The event, taking place in heated tents on the U.N. campus's north lawn at the height of New York fashion week, will highlight the February launch of Gucci's Fifth Avenue flagship store, described by the company as its largest. With the entire undisclosed costs underwritten by Gucci, tonight's gala is designed to benefit the U.N. children's fund, UNICEF, and Raising Malawi, a charity Madonna has established with the founder of the Kabbalah Centre of Los Angeles, Philip Berg.

Top U.N. officials have questioned whether the premises of the international organization's headquarters should be used for advancing such commercial purposes as a launch of a fashion store. Additionally, questions were raised in press reports about the Los Angeles-based charity to benefit Malawi's children. The Fox News Web site described the foundation as being associated with Rabbi Berg's Kabbalah Centre, an accusation Madonna's spokeswoman, Liz Rosenberg, denied. As of yesterday, $3.7 million had raised in advance of tonight's event, where Drew Barrymore, Salma Hayek, Sting, Sarah Jessica Parker, and glamour couples like Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher are expected to rub shoulders with Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs and Gucci's creative director Frida Giannini.

More funds are expected to be raised in tonight's auction, which will cap an event where a table reportedly costs between $25,000 and $100,000.

Half of the proceeds are meant to go to UNICEF, which will use it to benefit AIDS patients in Malawi, according to the agency's spokesman, Christopher DeBono. The rest would be disbursed for similar causes by Raising Malawi. This "very exciting" event will raise money for "people who are very much in need of help," Mr. DeBono told The New York Sun.

Secretary General Ban said yesterday that the funds raised during the event would be used for a "proper purpose." But a day earlier, the U.N. undersecretary general for management, Alicia Barcena, who has approved the use of the U.N. premises for the fundraiser, told reporters, "I think it is correct" that UNICEF and the United Nations should have "investigate[d] more fully about the event itself."

She also said she did "not think" the U.N. premises should be used to "celebrate the opening" of the Gucci store as was described in a January 17 United States Fund for UNICEF press release, announcing the Gucci event. The United Nations charged no fee for the use of its premises other than covering costs like security, said a U.N. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A Gucci spokeswoman, who asked her name not be used, denied in an e-mail response yesterday that the event was meant to "celebrate" the store opening, saying instead that it is designed to "celebrate the work of UNICEF and Raising Malawi, and raise much needed funding for these two important charities." She added that the event was not "tied" to fashion week, but merely "happens to take place during New York fashion week."

"Raising Malawi is a registered charity by the state of California," Madonna's spokeswoman, Ms. Rosenberg, wrote in an email, adding that a federal charity status, or "a 501 (c) 3 application has been formally applied for and the organization is awaiting final confirmation from the IRS." It is a "separate entity entirely from the Kaballah Organization," she wrote, and was established to "improve the quality of life of children who have been orphaned by the Aids pandemic," rather than promote Rabbi Berg's religious beliefs.