Then the co-host showed up at 9:45 p.m. at the Pepin Hospitality Centre, and the place resembled a rugby scrum, with well-heeled guests competing with media types for a camera angle.

Kevin Costner looked a bit worn out after arriving at 4:30 a.m. from a Midwest concert date Friday but dutifully revealed his Super Bowl XLIII pick (the Steelers), pondering the chance he'll ever make a Football movie ("I'd better hurry or else I'll be the coach") and plugging the evening's benefitted charity, the Matthew Tryson Bryant Foundation.

The foundation is named in honor of the infant son of Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Matt Bryant and his wife, Melissa, who died in his sleep in September.

The Bryants were among the first to arrive.

"Can you imagine the loss?" said Costner, the Academy Award-winning director of Dances with Wolves. "I don't think I'd ever have another happy day in my life."

It was a brief, somber moment in an evening meant for fun for a good cause. Nearly 500 guests were expected to attend, paying $875 each to mingle, enjoy open bars sponsored by Grey Goose vodka and Budweiser, and munch beef Wellington and pizza catered by Busch Gardens.

Steve Persall, Times staff writer