Charlize Theron convinces Sean Penn to Destroy his Gun Collection

South African actress Charlize Theron and her new beau, one-time Hollywood bad boy (and brilliant actor and activist) Sean Penn went public with their relationship on Saturday night at his “Help Haiti Home” Gala event…and revealed that she’s already taming the formerly proud gun owner.

The couple happily kissed and cuddled at the LA benefit, which was presented by Giorgio Armani and which raised $6-million for the J/P Haitian Relief Organisation.

Towards the end of the evening a clearly delighted (and possibly slightly inebriated – actually, scrap that – a positively inebriated and self-confessed “f****ing hammered”) Penn announced that thanks to Charlize he is getting rid of his whopping 50-plus gun collection.

Well, he didn’t actually say Charlize’s name. Instead he referred to “a strong woman who happens to be from South Africa”. Oscar-winner Charlize (38) is renowned for her outspoken comments pro tighter gun control in the US and in South Africa.

“How the f*** was it that a f***ing foreigner stood up for the killing of our children?” asked Penn. (Nobody answered, but it could be that said foreigner unfortunately knows the very tragic consequences of a lack of gun control.)

The 53-year-old (fellow) Oscar-winning actor said that after “being provoked by this aforementioned strong woman” he had decided to not only get rid of the guns “but also to destroy them”. He is accomplishing this by handing them over to iconic artist Jeff Koons who will create a sculpture that “will decommission [and] render inactive all of my cowardly killing machines.”

The future Koons sculpture – which will be named Decommissioned/Commission – also went up for auction on Saturday night and was won by CNN presenter Anderson Cooper for a pistol-hot $1.4-million. (Koons, btw, is married to South African artist Justine Wheeler.)

Other items in the charity auction included a Bruce Springsteen guitar which went for $40,000; a day with President Clinton that was split between two buyers for a total of $400,000; Sean Penn’s vintage Chevy; and a heart-shaped Banksy painting that Coldplay’s Chris Martin bought for $650,000.

Penn and Theron’s “canoodling” was not the only surprise of the night. The other being an awesome three-song set by U2, the Irish band’s first performance in four years, and just a night before they won the Golden Globe award for Best Original Song for “Ordinary Love” which is featured in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”.

Bono told the 300-strong crowd that were gathered at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills that it had been a “while since we played a hotel lounge”, adding “I think the last time was a bar mitzvah.”

The star-studded audience included Idris Elba (who plays Mandela in the ‘Long Walk to Freedom’ biopic), Chris Martin (as mentioned) and his actress wife Gwyneth Paltrow, America’s Ambassador to Haiti, Pamela White (who reminded the audience that the 2010 earthquake in Haiti killed 300,000 people in five minutes and left 1.2-million homeless), Julia Roberts, Emma Thompson, director Oliver Stone, and various other celebrities and philanthropists who gathered to lend their support to their friend Sean Penn at his third annual “Sean Penn and Friends HELP HAITI HOME” Gala.

Hillary Clinton couldn’t attend, but she sent a video in which she highlighted Haiti’s plight as one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, and Charlie Sheen sent in a cheque for half-a-million dollars.

Charlize gets friendly with Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky

U2 rocked the house!

Sean Penn is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of J/P Haitian Relief Organisation. The two-time Academy Award® winner has become an American film icon in a career spanning nearly three decades.

His humanitarian work has found him in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and more recently in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. In January 2010, Penn founded the J/P Haitian Relief Organisation, which focuses on medical aid, protection, and re-location.

Due to his efforts in Haiti, Penn was named Ambassador at Large to the nation of Haiti on January 14th, 2012, and has received several other Awards and Commendations of Excellence.

Last year he was honoured with the “Children’s and Families Global Development Fund Humanitarian Award” presented by the Ambassador of the Republic of Haiti, Raymond A. Joseph; and in July 2010 Penn was knighted by Haitian President Rene Preval in a ceremony in Port-Au-Prince.

For more info: http://jphro.org/

Charlize also has a charity that is close to her heart – her Africa Outreach Project – through which she is endeavouring to stop the spread of Aids.

For more info: http://www.charlizeafricaoutreach.org/