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Hollywood’s elite gathered in full force for the much-anticipated Breakthrough Prize ceremony, often dubbed the “Oscars of science,” where glamour met groundbreaking innovation on a starry Saturday evening.
The event saw an impressive lineup of celebrities including Anne Hathaway, Robert Downey Jr., Zoe Saldana, Ben Affleck, Paris Hilton, Margot Robbie, Lionel Richie, Michelle Yeoh, Rob Lowe, John Legend, and Chrissy Teigen. Also gracing the red carpet were Jessica Chastain, Christina Aguilera, Gal Gadot, director Ron Howard, and Olivia Wilde, all there to honor the scientific community’s brightest stars.
Anne Hathaway and Olivia Wilde shared a warm embrace on the carpet, engaging in lively conversation as they mingled with other attendees before stepping in front of the cameras.
Paris Hilton, accompanied by her husband, Carter Reum, expressed her excitement to Page Six about celebrating the evening’s honorees and their remarkable achievements.
The ceremony also attracted notable figures such as Naomi Watts, Billy Crudup, model Miranda Kerr, Snapchat co-founder Evan Spiegel, singer Jewel, Oscar Isaac, Lily Collins, Gigi Hadid, Edward Norton, Salma Hayek with her billionaire husband François-Henri Pinault, rocker Adam Levine, director Darren Aronofsky, Michelle Williams, and producer Brian Grazer, among a host of others.
The Breakthrough Prize celebrates the research achievements of the world’s top scientists, and the gala awards more than $15 million in prizes annually. Each Breakthrough Prize is $3 million, and presented in the fields of Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics, and Mathematics.
As for Yeoh, she told reporters she was inspired by the night’s honored scientists and their service to mankind. The “Wicked” star explained she was the most intrigued by artificial intelligence, and still had questions about how it evolved and where it will get us. (We trust she had a chance to ask one of her brainy tablemates.)
“Hello” hitmaker Richie recalled that he (briefly) pondered a life outside of music — telling reporters that if he could study any scientific topic, “It wouldn’t be physics,” he joked. “I like plants. Lots of plants.”
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates also made an appearance and smiled while making his way down the carpet at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar, while further tech moguls included Apple’s Tim Cook and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
Genius chess icon Magnus Carlsen was also spotted, as was Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI president Greg Brockman, Waymo’s Tekedra Mawakana, VC whiz Marc Andreessen and Dell CEO Michael Dell.
“Wuthering Heights” star Robbie made a low-key arrival with her husband, producer Tom Ackerley.
Star couple Legend and Tiegen shut down the carpet by arriving fashionably late just in time for the VIP dinner.
The Breakthrough Prize was founded by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, Sergey Brin, Julia and Yuri Milner and Anne Wojcicki.
Past attendees have included Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Drew Barrymore, Lizzo, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Jodie Foster and many more.
Winners on Saturday night hailed from UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago, MIT, NYU, Columbia University, Oxford, Duke, Caltech, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and more.