A-listers came out for the annual “Oscars of science” — the Breakthrough Prize ceremony — on Saturday night where stars and scientists aligned.
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 were among the A-list attendees walking the red carpet to celebrate the dazzling achievements of science’s greatest minds.
Hathaway and Wilde warmly embraced on the carpet while chatting with other attendees waiting to pose for photographers.
Hilton — who was with her husband, Carter Reum — stopped to tell Page Six that she was looking forward to the evening and celebrating the winners.
Also attending were stars including Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup, model Miranda Kerr and Snapchat billionaire Evan Spiegel, singer Jewel, Oscar Isaac, Lily Collins, Gigi Hadid, Edward Norton, Salma Hayek and her billionaire husband François-Henri Pinault, rocker Adam Levine, director Darren Aronofsky, Michelle Williams and producer Brian Grazer, among many more.
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.
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.
