On Saturday night, big-name stars attended the annual “Oscars of Science,” or Breakthrough Prize ceremony, which brings together stars and scientists.
A-list attendees including Anne Hathaway, Robert Downey Jr., Zoe Saldana, Ben Affleck, Paris Hilton, Margot Robbie, Lionel Richie, Michelle Yeoh, Rob Lowe, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Jessica Chastain, Christina Aguilera, Gal Gadot, director Ron Howard, and Olivia Wilde walked the red carpet to celebrate the brilliant achievements of some of science’s greatest minds.
Hathaway and Wilde warmly embraced on the carpet as they chatted with other attendees waiting to pose for photographers.
Hilton, who was with her husband Carter Liam, stopped and told Page Six she was looking forward to celebrating tonight’s winner.
Also in attendance were stars including Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup, model Miranda Kerr and Snapchat billionaire Evan Spiegel, singers Jewel, Oscar Isaac, Lily Collins, Gigi Hadid, Edward Norton, Salma Hayek and her billionaire husband Francois-Henri Pinault, rocker Adam Levine, director Darren Aronofsky, Michelle Williams and producer Brian Grazer.
The Breakthrough Prize honors the research achievements of the world’s top scientists, and the gala awards more than $15 million in prizes each year. The Breakthrough Prizes are worth $3 million each and are awarded in the life sciences, fundamental physics, and mathematics.
As for Yeo, he told reporters he was inspired by the scientists honored that night and their service to humanity. The “Wicked” star explained that he is most interested in artificial intelligence, but still has questions about how it will evolve and where it will take us. (We believe she had the opportunity to ask one of her smart tablemates.)
The “Hello” hitmaker recalled thinking (briefly) about life outside of music, telling reporters that if he could study any scientific subject, “it wouldn’t be physics.” “I like plants. There are a lot of them.”
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates also made an appearance, flashing a smile as he walked down the carpet at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, as well as other big names in the tech world, including Apple’s Tim Cook and OpenAI’s Sam Altman.
In addition to genius chess icon Magnus Carlsen, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Waymo’s Tekedra Mawakana, VC guru Marc Andreessen, and Dell CEO Michael Dell also appeared.
Wuthering Heights star Robbie arrived discreetly with her husband, producer Tom Ackerley.
Star couple Legend and Teigen arrived fashionably late in time for the VIP dinner to round out the carpet.
The Breakthrough Prize was founded by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Priscilla Chan, Sergey Brin, Julia and Yuri Milner, and Anne Wojcicki.
Past attendees include Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, Kate Hudson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Drew Barrymore, Lizzo, will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Jodie Foster, and more.
Saturday night’s winners included UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, MIT, New York University, Columbia University, Oxford University, Duke University, California Institute of Technology, and UC Santa Barbara, among others.
