How Halle Berry got her inauguration ticket

It would seem the Cuban-born actress and supermodel Eva Mendes was being naive when she applied for a ticket to Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony and, despite her fame and beauty, was refused. Clearly she should have asked her fellow actresses Halle Berry (pictured), Sharon Stone and Jamie Lee Curtis what to do.

The answer? Donate $50,000 to the fund that's paying for the January 20 inauguration ceremony at which Aretha Franklin will sing and Yo Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman will make music.

Berry, Stone and Curtis are on on the contributors' list released this week, along with the director Ron Howard, actors Samuel L Jackson and Jamie Foxx. Other Hollywood heavyweights who have paid $50,000 - the maximum allowed - include Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis and West Wing director Brad Whitford, while the financier and long-time Democratic fundraiser George Soros has made it a family affair, putting in $200,000 for himself and three family members.

As reported here yesterday, Eva Mendes said this week: “I thought I had some pull - I usually do, and I've been shut down. It's the hardest party to get into."

She needn’t have paid as much as $50,000: some contributors have paid only $25,000, and can still expect to be invited to the swearing-in ceremony. This group might be called the ex-wives club, for the contributors' list shows it includes Lionel Richie's ex-wife Brenda, James Farentino's ex-wife Debra, and Brian DePalma and James Cameron's ex-wife, Gale Hurd.

Mendes has a long-term boyfriend - Peruvian producer George Gargurevich - but is yet to be an ex-wife.