Joel Madden - Madden Family Affair At Noble Awards

Rocker JOEL MADDEN turned the inaugural Noble Awards into a family affair on Sunday (18Oct09) - his twin brother BENJI, girlfriend NICOLE and her dad LIONEL RICHIE were all on hand to praise him for his charity work.

The Good Charlotte frontman picked up a top prize at the Beverly Hills event for his work with The Art of Elysium, an organisation that helps sick children, and was presented the award by Richie.

The Hello hitmaker told the crowd, "I want to welcome him to our family and present this Noble award to a guy I love very much - Joel Madden!"

Madden was also treated to a surprise serenade by his twin and bandmate Benji, who performed Always Love by the Nada Surfers because "it is one of Joel's favourite songs and I love him so much".

He added, "Joel used to like me to sing him to sleep at night as kids. He still does, but it's a little weird now that Nicole is in the picture. Just kidding, I just made that up."

Madden later admitted to fighting back tears during the ceremony, writing on his Twitter.com blog, "Just left the NOBLE awards. Got an award that was really for the people at the Art of Elysium. Awesome folks and I'm humbled to know them.

"By the way got totally choked up when I got my award. I hate thinking about kids in the hospital, they should be getting the awards not us."

Other stars who were honoured for their philanthropy at the event included actors Morgan Freeman, Teri Hatcher and AnnaLynne MCCord.