Brady bunch gathers for a good cause

Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen skipped the red carpet and snuck in the back door at the Hard Rock Cafe Monday night, where they lent their star power to the VIP lair at a Boston for Africa 2008 charity extravaganza. (Brady's sister, Nancy, was one of the event organizers.) The QB and supermodel snapped a few family photos, chatted up some fellow Pats, and quickly scooted, while finalists in a Guitar Hero jam-off were still trying to impress Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joey Kramer. The veteran rockers performed later, joined by Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and James Montgomery. The Dropkick Murphys' Ken Casey got into the act, too. Also in the house: guitarist Barry Goudreau, Bruin Phil Kessel, actor Kevin Chapman, and Patriots Eric Alexander, Ben Watson, Stephen Neal, and Wes Welker. In the auction winner department: Ernie Boch Jr.'s wife, Kristen, ponied up $16,000 for a set visit and lunch with Matt Damon, and an undisclosed donor spent a whopping $47,000 for a private half-hour throwing session with Brady. Blame emcee Lenny Clarke. "He was coaxing people into spending," said spokeswoman Kristen Hauser.

Boston University alum Sholeen Lucy Lou-Hsiao hung out at the Boston Children's Museum yesterday, showing kids how to play her Mandarin Chinese language board game, Kingka. The Teaneck, N.J., teacher said she created the game in 2005 for her 2-year-old son to keep him in touch with his culture and stimulate his language and math skills. She also uses the game with kids she tutors, many of whom were adopted from China by non-Chinese speakers. A few years later, with a little backing from family and fellow BU alum Deborah van der Heyden, she's got an award-winning game used in more than 60 Montessori schools. "I really want to take the kids away from the computer," she explained. "I'm trying to give them more social skills."

"Edge of Darkness" director Martin Campbell's movie crew took over WGBH's Studio B recently, filming a Boston police press conference and an interview for a fictitious talk show called "Inside Washington." Sadly, staffers said Mel Gibson and Robert De Niro weren't in the scenes. . . . Reporter and author Maria Hinojosa, host of WGBH's "Maria Hinojosa One-on-One" and NPR's "Latino USA," is the winner of this year's prestigious Leadership Award from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Newport native and Puma skipper Ken Read and his crew set off from the Newport Shipyard yesterday on the swanky, red-sailed Il Mostro, which they'll steer through four oceans in the 37,000-mile Volvo Ocean Race. The international race departs from Alicante, Spain, on Oct. 11. It's the very same boat Salma Hayek swung a bottle over (and swung, and swung) at the Institute for Contemporary Art in May. (At the time, Hayek was still engaged to her baby-daddy and Puma bigwig Francois-Henri Pinault.) The massive sailboat will return to Boston next May for three weeks of parties and events at Fan Pier. To show his excitement, and fulfill some sort of ceremonial seaman ritual, Fan Pier developer Joe Fallon jumped off the boat and splashed into Newport Harbor yesterday.

Red Sox legends and friends took to the links in Norton yesterday to help the PGA Tour pros tune up for this week's Deutsche Bank Championship, while benefiting the Red Sox Foundation. Former Sox Dennis Eckersley, Dwight Evans, Fred Lynn, Rico Petrocelli, Sam Horn, Bob Montgomery, and Luis Tiant, and Bruins Marc Savard, Phil Kessel, and Shawn Thornton swung some clubs. And TV personalities Hazel Mae, Sean McDonough, and Tom Caron also showed up on the green, along with local PGA Tour golfers Brad Faxon and Brett Quigley. The four-day championship kicks off Friday.

Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.