On Sunday night, Comedy Central’s “Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Benefit for Autism Education” aired live from the Beacon Theater in New York City with a full slate of celebrities.

Jimmy Buffett and his wife Jane were in attendance (view red carpet photo here), and when host Jon Stewart asked the audience to open their pocketbooks, Jane stood up and pledged $50,000!

The Buffetts were shown on air a couple more times throughout the show.

The program will be available to view online Monday at www.comedycentral.com. On Tuesday, the program will be available for download for $1.99 from iTunes, with all proceeds going directly to the charity.

The “Night of Too Many Stars” benefits a variety of autism education programs around the country. Proceeds also will support outreach programs that provide in-home training and consultation to families of very young children. A portion of the proceeds also will benefit Autism Speaks, a nonprofit advocacy group dedicated to increasing awareness of autism and raising money to fund autism research.

You can still donate to this great cause by clicking here.

(Hat tip to Kevin for passing this along)

Jimmy Buffett attended a Houston dinner party on Friday night to honor artist John Alexander:

Few at the Hotel ZaZa dinner Friday night could have anticipated the entertaining barrage of praise, humor and gentle barbs continually lobbed at artist John Alexander.

It was, after all, a celebration of his remarkable career, a dinner for 135 that seemed absolutely intimate after the crush, estimates of more than 1,000, that poured into the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston earlier in the evening for the opening of John Alexander: A Retrospective.

Humor ruled at the dinner thanks to the continuous stream of remarks from Alexander collectors and pals such as Chevy Chase. Who needed time for table conversation, with Chase taking the microphone on three occasions (stumbling forward each time in his classic bumbling shtick) and with a host of other Alexander chums with something to say.

David Berg launched his playful tribute by introducing himself as Jimmy Buffett, the real star seated at a nearby table.

Among the many taking turns toying with Alexander’s image and/or praising him were Buffett, artist James Surls, collector Marilyn Oshman, 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft, MFAH director Peter Marzio, and Timothy Eaton, who represents Alexander through Eaton Fine Art in West Palm Beach, Fla. Of course, Alexander responded several times, his relaxed and jocular nature adding to the fun.

Read the entire article here.

Did you miss Jimmy’s performance live on Radio Margaritaville Wednesday afternoon from the Glendale, Arizona Margaritaville? Well, you’re in luck because you will have three chances in the coming week to hear the replay:

Sunday, April 13 at 11am ET
Monday, April 14 at 8pm ET
Wednesday, April 16 at 11pm ET

Note: “Son of a Son of a Sailor” was interrupted by a sound system outage there, and will not
be in the replay.

View the set list from the show here.

Arizonians were treated to a special performance on Wednesday night at the Margaritaville Cafe in Glendale, Arizona. Jimmy Buffett and Coral Reefer Band member Mac McAnally played an afternoon acoustic show to celebrate the opening of the restaurant.

Buffett mentioned during the show that they would end the 2008 tour in Hawaii.

The set list was largely “Songs You Know By Heart”, but a great acoustic version of “Stories We Could Tell” finished off the night. View the entire set list here and Bamafan’s show review here.

Did you attend the show? Share your thoughts on our Discussion Board or post your photos in our Photo Gallery.

Update – The Arizona Republic has a story on the show: “Buffett opens ‘Margaritaville’ to cheering crowd”. The article includes a great slideshow of pictures from the show.

The 2008 tour kicks off Monday, April 21st with a show from Houston, Texas.

The parent company of Cheeseburger In Paradise, OSI Restaurant Partners, is putting the Key West-inspired chain up for sale:

OSI Restaurant Partners, the Tampa-based owner of the Outback Steakhouse chain, which sold most of its stake in the Lee Roy Selmon’s barbecue chain last year, is looking to sell two more brands: Cheeseburger in Paradise, and Roy’s. “Our growth priorities in the future will be focused on our larger concepts: Outback … Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s,” general counsel Joe Kadow said via e-mail Wednesday. “We are evaluating strategies for ultimately exiting the smaller concepts” but are “under no set timetable,” he said.

Cheeseburger In Paradise was founded in 2002 by OSI Restaurant Partners in collaboration with Jimmy Buffett. According to the article, the chain has 39 locations across 18 states.

In 2005, Buffett sold his holdings of the chain to OSI, who previously held a 50% share in the chain. OSI pays a royalty of 4.5 percent of restaurant sales to Buffett.

In recent months, OSI has closed several CIP restaurants, including locations in Asheville, NC; Lansing, MI; York, PA; Greenville, SC; and Leawood, KS.