Look, there’s Angelina Jolie! Angelina, how is the world faring on the health and human rights fronts? Oh, my gosh! It’s Bono! Bono, what needs to be done about African poverty? Hey, Richard Gere and Sharon Stone, how can we tackle the AIDS crisis?

But this 34th annual conference of the World Economic Forum also scored 23 heads of state, 72 cabinet-level ministers, and about 500 global business leaders. Among the attendees were Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain; Bill Gates, the Microsoft chairman; Viktor A. Yushchenko, the new president of Ukraine; Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the Google co-founders; former President Bill Clinton; Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader; and the South African novelist Nadine Gordimer.

Amid the panel discussions on global crises, technological innovation and effective management was a seminar, scheduled for Saturday, on “Star Power and Social Change.” The literature for that one stated that “celebrities have become powerful advocates for social, political and economic causes” and asked this tough follow-up question: “What accounts for this trend?” (For executives who do not want to shell out $37,600 in annual membership fees and charges to attend next year’s panel, here is one possible four-word answer: Because they are sexy.)