Leonard Nimoy was a surprise guest at this year’s Lightspeed Fine Art’s 8th Annual Celebrity Benefit. The two day event raised money for the Nimoy Foundation, a program that gives grants to artists in residency programs at museums and galleries around the United States. Funds are also collected to aid research by the American Cancer Society.

At the event Nimoy revealed that he will start filming his older Spock role for the J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” movie within the next two weeks, and has just completed makeup and wardrobe tests, according to StarTrek.com.

“I was on the set of the new ‘Star Trek’ movie a couple of days ago,” Nimoy said at the event to a packed audience of high-bidders. “I was doing some tests on my makeup and my wardrobe. The movie is gonna look fantastic, and we’ve got some wonderful people at bat and a great script. I start filming in about two weeks, and then we will be in the theaters Christmas ’08, so I assume you’re all looking forward to it. I certainly am.”

Other celebrity guests helping the fund raiser were such Star Trek alums as Robert Picardo, Nana Visitor, Garrett Wang, Connor Trinneer, Suzie Plakson and many more. They signed autographs, and helped to auction off much of the collectible items.

Nimoy, who is known for having his own extensive Star Trek collection, presented 15 of his own items to auction off. Also on the auction block was a special plaque he received from NASA. The Space Agency award it to him for his work of “inspiring a generation of scientists and explorers.” Some of the other items included a Star Trek 25th Anniversary Plaque from Paramount Pictures, and a Boston Globe caricature of Nimoy and the U.S.S. Enterprise.

These items, plus some other autographed material Nimoy brought with him, helped to raise more than $14,000 in just 30 minutes of bidding.

[Above image courtesy of StarTrek.com, the Official Star Trek Website]