{babes} Clinton and Hurley to star at Vienna AIDS ball

VIENNA (AFP) – Actress Whoopi Goldberg, former US president Bill Clinton and model Elizabeth Hurley will be guests of honour at Vienna's annual Life Ball on July 17, organisers said Wednesday.

The 18th annual Life Ball will this year mark the opening of a major AIDS conference in the Austrian capital on July 18-23.

Organisers said the traditionally eccentric event, will this year be more in line with traditional Viennese balls, opening with 100 debutantes and adapted versions of classical music by Richard Wagner and Ludwig van Beethoven.

The traditional opening fashion show, using a catwalk shaped like an AIDS red-ribbon in front of Vienna's City Hall, is being created by designers Diane von Furstenberg, Calvin Klein and Kenneth Cole.

Besides the main Life Ball party at the City Hall, a gala evening sponsored by the American Foundation for AIDS Research and hosted by Goldberg will take place in the nearby parliament, while a Cotillion dance will be held in the Burgtheater.

Some 40,000 people flock every year to the open-air Life Ball opening. Last year, the event raised some 1.5 million euros (1.84 million dollars).