Rather than making the Saturday scene with limelight lovers Britney, Paris, Nicole and/or Lindsay at clubs Area and Hyde, Kirsten co-hosted the Art of Elysium’s annual Art Benefit, raising money to pair artists, photographers, actors, writers, designers, musicians with at-risk children. 

And she looked pretty darn thrilled to be there, spending all her time hugging and talking to all the kids she’s close to. “Kirsten has been working with us for a long time," says Elysium founder Jennifer Posner of the actresse's under-the-radar work. “She’s a great girl.”

Of course, she could have hit the L.A. clubs after hosting the event, which lasted until around 11. But whatever.

Inside the WeHo Minotti gallery, co-host Ali Larter and guests such as Patricia Arquette and Thomas Jane, Michelle Trachtenberg, Constance Zimmer, Ethan Embry, Finola Hughes and Johnny Depp’s UTA agent Tracey Jacobs admired the art and sipped bubbly mixed with Motley Bird, a hip new Euro-energy beverage that’s just hit El-Lay.  “Wow. This stuff is kinda like doing a speedball,” raved one slurper after his second glass.

Canvas envelope bags painted by the Elysium kids were auctioned off in rapid fire. So were photos pf iconic ’60 musicians taken by legendary Woodstock lensman Henry Diltz. His images of rockers Janis, Jimi and Jim Morrison were also transformed by Russell Young into a “That Hippy Gave me a Pill” collection of colorful larger-than-life silk-screens hung around the white-walled modenr gallery.

Holding a rare shot of two young Stones, the emcee shouted, “C’mon, this is what Keith Richards and Ron Wood used to look like!”  After wild bidding, a lucky Stones fan got what he wanted: a reverse Dorian Gray '60s era candid shot of the rockers on a plane.

The Elysium kids get a chance to express emotions and have fun when working with artists like Young. But the British pop artist who conducts their art workshops says he gets much more.

"I had a Down’s Syndrome girl in class who was about 12 but was mentally about 3. It was difficult to get her engaged so her caretaker told me to dip her hand in the bright blue paint. I did and she looked at her hands and started screaming and I thought ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’ Then she started to laugh. They told me that was the first time she’d laughed in her entire life.”

Shoot, where'd I put the darn Kleenex..

Photo Credits: Jean-Paul Aussenard/WireImage
Photo Credits: Mark Sullivan/WireImage