“Stars Thru Their Eyes” 2004 was a spectacular success. The night included interviews with local and international celebrities, musical “Jams” with NZ Idol contestants, and much much more!! Read on…

Does Kate Hawkesby have blonde moments, what is Dave Dobbyn’s most embarrassing moment, how does Danny de Vito feel about being short and bald, and at what age does the CEO of Vodafone NZ think that young people should own cellphones?

These are just some of the questions asked of local and international celebrities and corporate heads at the annual StarJam “Stars Thru Their Eyes”, held at Auckland’s Sheraton Hotel on Saturday 7 August.

Over 300 guests were entertained at the event where young people with people with disabilities as young as ten years old take the stage and interview various celebrities and entertain the audience with singing and dancing.

As well as live interviews on the night with local celebs like rapper King Kapisi, a recorded interview with Lord Of The Rings Oscar winner Richard Taylor was played on a big screen which was later used to show live coverage of the All Blacks playing Australia in the Tri-Nations. Other recorded interviews included tennis star John McEnroe, Hollywood actor Danny de Vito, and Hollywood screen legend Dick Van Dyke. StarJam General Manager Julie Bartlett and StarJammers Redmond Nicholson and Daniel Gourlay flew to Hollywood courtesy of Air New Zealand to interview the two Hollywood stars.

An auction of items donated by various celebrities raised a generous sum of money which will go towards key events in the future. Items included a Lord Of The Rings “Return Of The King” poster featuring Gollum, autographed by Director Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Barrie Osbourne. This item, bought by Vodafone NZ CEO Tim Miles was donated back to a Starjammer, ten year old Anthony Jellyman who last year interviewed Peter Jackson, director of the LOTR trilogy. Anthony and his Mum were later invited to attend the Wellington premiere of The Lord Of The RIngs, Return Of The King and walked the red carpet!!

Other items included an autographed photo of New Zealand tennis player Chris Lewis with John McEnroe at the 1983 Single’s final match, Lucy Lawless’ Xena costume (modelled spectacularly by StarJam’s GM Julie Bartlett), a Last Samurai Coffee Table book autographed by Tom Cruise, and Martin Crowe’s cricket bat commemorating his 1996-1997 testimonial season and the highest test score by a New Zealander of 299 runs. The bat was autographed by Martin Crowe and the late Australian Cricket Legend, Sir Donald Bradman. Crowe generously donated the bat at STTE in 2003, and was the second item of the night to be donated back to a StarJammer, donated to cricket fan Jonathan Heaps who interviewed Crowe at last year’s Stars Thru Their Eyes.

Amongst the many highlights of the night was the unscheduled appearance of New Zealand Idol winner and Runner Up Ben and Michael who accompanied sixteen year old Ese Aumalesulu singing Ben’s number single “You Can’t Take That Away”.

And for those of you parents wondering, Tim Miles of Vodafone told interviewer Anthony Jellyman that his children aren’t allowed cellphones until they are eleven years of age, which seemed to go down well with Anthony’s mother - a few months to go yet!

All in all it was a fantastic evening.