MUMBAI: Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey appeared as a star guest in a self-produced stage play held recently by Swiss watch manufacturer, IWC Schaffhausen for the launch of its Da Vinci range, in Geneva.

Oscar winner Cate Blanchett and actors Jean Reno and Matthew Modine headed the cohort of actors on the red carpet, flanked by Asian stars Sanada Hiroyuki and Chang Cheng while Egyptian star Hany Salama represented the Middle East at the event. Singer Ronan Keating and world-class footballer Zinédine Zidane posed before the photographers, and Laureus sporting legends like Boris Becker and Alberto Tomba graced the Serata die Leonardo with their presence.

The high point of the evening was the stage play, Leo and Lisa, produced especially for IWC and exclusively for this event by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey. In spite of his current guest appearance on Broadway in Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon for the Misbegotten, Spacey also took it upon himself to play the leading role in this first performance.

As a dominant, boorish and autocratic inquisitor, he addressed the question of Mona Lisa’s smile. Thandie Newton, already well known from Mission : Impossible 2 were outstanding in the leading female role of Lisa. Elliot Cowan, who played the role of Leo, appeared in Oliver Stone’s historical epic, Alexander. The play ran for around 15-minutes, and the guests were invited into an amphitheatre built especially for this event, where Leo and Lisa had its celebrated premiere.