Celebrity Auction to Aid South Africans

With pop singer Michael Jackson’s Encino home as a backdrop, stars gathered Sunday for an auction of valuables collected to benefit South African families in need of medical, housing and legal services.

Some of the 150 guests, who paid $250 apiece to bid on paintings, jewelry and furniture, danced to a live band on the park-like grounds of the two-story Tudor-style home and scanned the crowd for familiar faces while waiting for the auction to start.

Others admired Jackson’s famous menagerie, which includes a llama, several swans and some 2-foot-long carps.

Jackson will not attend the auction and no one was allowed inside his house, but his brother Germaine is official spokesman and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Jackson, are co-hosts of the event. Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder and Lily Tomlin are expected to attend, and Whoopi Goldberg is scheduled to be auctioneer.

Organizers of the auction, called “A Bid for Human Rights,” hope to raise millions of dollars through the sale of artworks and jewelry such as a Picasso oil, “Bust d’Homme,” and a 577.4-carat so-called “blister” pearl reportedly worth $2 million.