Look To The Stars News: AIDS

Celebrity Donations To Katrina Relief Efforts

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 15:50:00 +0000

A list of what some celebrities have done to help Katrina victims:

Steven Spielberg, $750,000 to the American Red Cross and $750,000 to the Bush Clinton Fund
Nicolas Cage, Diddy, George Clooney each donated $1 million.
Oprah donated $1 million through her charity, Oprah's Angel Network
Hilary Duff donated $250,000.
John Travolta delivered supplies using his private plane.
Sean Penn rescued people using an occasionally leaky boat.
Michael Jackson offered a song, “From the Bottom of My Heart”.
Jamie Foxx raised $600,000 with a celebrity auction.

Jamie Foxx Holds Auction

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 19:34:14 +0000

Jamie Foxx hosted a party and auction to raise funds for victims of Hurricane Katrina during which over $600,000 was raised for American Red Cross.

Hollywood's Humanitarians At Cinema For Peace

Sat, 18 Feb 2006 12:42:23 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Celebrities are offering support for a variety of humanitarian causes at Cinema For Peace in Berlin this week.

UNICEF supporter Christopher Lee has spoken out about the duty of celebrities to bring attention to and support causes to improve the world, especially for children.

“The world today is such a terrible mess, and the children are suffering so much that anyone who can help by talking about it should do so,” he says.

UNICEF is one of the main beneficiaries of the Cinema for Peace charity gala. This year is also set to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research and Healing the Divide.

Bono Pleased With Stars' Charity

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 13:50:45 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Bono feels that he has helped inspire other celebrities to join the ONE Campaign to end poverty and fight AIDS.

Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and George Clooney have all joined the campaign, which Bono hopes will help raise American awareness of the cause.

He says, “By 2007, the year of the next American election, I am assured that there will be five million Americans (One Campaign members), which makes us bigger than the National Rifle Association.”

Elizabeth Taylor's Birthday Gift

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 21:42:19 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

For her birthday, Dame Elizabeth Taylor is donating an AIDS medical unit to the people of New Orleans.

Medical professionals who have lost clinics due to Hurricane Katrina will staff the 40-foot vehicle. The unit has two exam rooms and ex-ray facilities, and is already in the possession of the New Orleans AIDS Task Force.

Instrumental Giving

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:15:19 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Elton John is putting his famous red piano up for auction, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

The piano has been with John through many tours, and he will play it for the last time on March 5 at the Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Dinner. After that it will be put up for auction on eBay with an opening bidding price of $85,000.

While on tour in Brazil, Bono encouraged concert-goers to work together towards ending poverty, and has donated one of his guitars in support of the Brazilian government’s Zero Hunger program.

Lenny Kravitz donated a guitar to the Zero Hunger program last year, raising about $132,000 at an auction.

Peace Prize Nominees

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 13:15:36 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Bob Geldof and Bono are among 191 nominees for the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize.

Both were nominated for their efforts in eliminating world poverty; Geldof for his organization of the Live 8 concerts, and Bono for his campaigning against the condition.

Charging For Charity

Thu, 02 Mar 2006 19:51:17 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Bono and Elle Macpherson are the faces behind the (RED) American Express Card, which Bono was proud to launch yesterday.

The card donates one percent of all funds charged on it to fighting the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

The U2 frontman feels that getting everyone working together, including big companies, will go a long way towards curing the disease and improving the world.

Photo Auction For Third World Relief

Tue, 07 Mar 2006 19:33:02 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Avril Lavigne, Céline Dion and Alanis Morissette are among Canadian musicians taking part in the Art Gives Hope: A Decade of Music Portraits exhibit in Toronto.

Inspired by the Live 8 concerts, photographer Andrew MacNaughtan hopes that his prints will raise at least $100,000 for World Vision Canada, where the funds will go to families living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. He also would like fans of the artists to become active in bringing about social change in Third World nations.

Frost and Moss Help Orphans

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:37:09 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Sadie Frost is flying to Africa to help build an orphanage for the Homes Of Hope project.

Frost learned of the plight of twelve AIDS orphans while travelling in South Africa with her ex-huband, Jude Law, and their children last year.

Frost is also trying to involve her good friend, Kate Moss, in the project. A friend of the supermodel says that the English beauty is speaking to some of her clients to see what they can do, and is also donating money to the cause.

Jackie Chan Thanks Red Cross

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 18:38:19 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

As a child, Jackie Chan and his schoolmates were given assistance by a Red Cross worker. Jackie is now doing his best to say thank you by raising awareness of the charity’s cause.

Chan is one of the new members of the 2006 American Red Cross National Celebrity Cabinet. Alongside celebrities such as Pierce Brosnan, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jane Seymour, he will help the charity by making public service announcements, conducting media interviews, donating time, money and blood, visiting disaster sites and lending a hand to those in need.

Elton's Closet Opens in New York

Tue, 11 Apr 2006 20:30:22 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Sir Elton John has donated nearly 10,000 items of his own clothing and accessories to raise money for his charity, the Elton John AIDS Foundation. The event, called Elton’s Closet, is being held on the Concourse Level of Rockefeller Center in Manhattan from April 11-15.

For these five days, fans can purchase some of the iconic singer’s costumes, designer suits, trousers, shirts, shoes, accessories and more.

A selection of items will be featured in the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue, a co-sponser of the event along with Top of the Rock, the observation deck at the Rockefeller Center.

Melua Single Profits Going To Charity

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 11:35:43 +0000

Written by Steve Purcell

Jazz singer Katie Melua has announced that proceeds from her next single “Spider’s Web” will be donated to charity.

The charity to benefit from the star’s generous move is Save the Children, for whom the 21-year old is an ambassador.

Charity Pockets Elton's Clothes Sale Proceeds

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 23:53:55 +0000

Written by Steve Purcell

The five-day sale of 10,000 pieces of designer clothing owned by Sir Elton John and partner David Furnish concluded successfully on Friday.

Held in a temporary shop in the Rockefeller Centre in New York, the sale raised £395,000 ($700,000) for the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

The event will reportedly be repeated in a year’s time.

Bono Launches Charitable Mobile Phone

Tue, 16 May 2006 07:04:42 +0000

Written by Steve Purcell

Bono’s AIDS charity (RED) is set to benefit from an arrangement the singer has made in conjunction with Motorola and the UK’s Carphone Warehouse.

Each sale of a £149 handset from Motorola will be met with a £10 contribution to the charity from the electronics giant, and 5% of subsequent call charges will also go directly to the charity.

Bono has helped (RED) build similar partnerships with Gap, American Express, Emporio Armani and Converse.

Forbes' "Most Generous Celebrities" List

Fri, 19 May 2006 14:04:00 +0000

Written by Steve Purcell

Forbes Magazine has published a list of “Generous Celebrities”, highlighting the incredible generosity of some of the world’s most public faces.

The ten celebrities listed are:

Bono supports AIDS charity DATA and many others
Sandra Bullock gave $1m to the American Red Cross after the 9/11 bombings, and has also donated to the Tsunami relief fund
Nicolas Cage supports Chrysalis, an LA charity for the homeless, and gave $1m to Katrina relief
Jackie Chan is a UNICEF ambassador, founded the Jackie Chan Charitable Foundation, and gave $100,000 to Chrysalis
Céline Dion is Celebrity Patron for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and donated $1m to the American Red Cross after Hurricane Katrina
Angelina Jolie has given more than $3m to the UNHCR
Paul McCartney supports the Adopt-A-Minefield charity, and he and wife Heather Mills jointly donateed $1.9m to Tsunami relief
Arnold Schwarzenegger supports the Special Olympics, and in 2001 he donated a total of $4.1m to the Twin Towers fund, After-School All-Stars and Nelson Mandela’s children’s fund
Steven Spielberg is a patron of the Righteous Persons Foundation, founder of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, and gave $1.5m to the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts
Oprah gave $52m to charity in 2005 alone, and wrote a personal cheque for $10m to help victims of the Katrina disaster

Elton Will Donate Libel Damages To Charity

Thu, 25 May 2006 16:49:22 +0000

Written by Steve Purcell

A London High Court libel judgement against The Daily Mail will require the British newspaper to compensate Sir Elton John to the tune of £100,000 ($188,000) for a defamatory article it printed about the star.

Elton promptly announced that he will donate the entirety of the damages directly to his own charity, the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

Paltrow Offers Face To African AIDS Charity

Fri, 11 Aug 2006 20:14:34 +0000

Written by Steve Purcell

Gwyneth Paltrow has joined a number of top celebrities by adding her support to charity Keep A Child Alive, which fights AIDS in Africa.

The actress is appearing in a print advertisement for the charity, in which she urges readers to donate money in order to “pay for lifesaving AIDS drugs that can keep a child, a mother, a father, a family alive”.

How a trip to Africa changed Michelle Wright's life

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 20:16:14 +0000

Written by Greg Hitchcock

Canadian-born Michelle Wright's latest record Everything and More is clearly one of the happiest, most filled-with-gratitude country-ish albums you’ll hear.

Ironically, it came together when the 45-year-old singer and
songwriter, who has sold more than two million records, gave up her ambition to become an even bigger country star after getting involved with World Vision in 2002, when she went to Zambia and saw the AIDS crisis first-hand.

In June of 2002, Wright traveled to Zambia to film a television special for World Vision, the child sponsorship organization. It was a life-changing experience for her; Zambia is one of the poorest countries in the world, and in some areas over 60 percent of the Zambian population is HIV positive.

“It’s changed my life. I saw first-hand how privileged I am,” Wright says on her mobile just outside Saint John, NB.

“For a long time, all I could focus on was my career, fighting the good fight by selling a million records, paying the mortgage and the good people that work with me,” she said.

Wright said all that changed for her after she went to the African
relief camps and saw massive suffering on an unimaginable scale. After that experience, she said she had to rethink her whole mission in life.

“I still have a lot of responsibilities here but now what is really
important to me is coming from a different place in my heart,” Wright said.“It’s so important, I usually have a World Vision sponsorship table at all my concerts.”

Wright followed up her Zambian experience with a trip to Honduras for World Vision in June 2004. She now sponsors both a Zambian child and a Honduran child, and continues to help out World Vision whenever and wherever she can.

Wright is no stranger to charity. She was the Honorary Chairperson for “Operation C.A.T. Scan”, a fundraising campaign that raised almost two million dollars for St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chatham, Ontario (the hospital where Wright was born). The campaign raised money for the hospital to purchase its first C.A.T. Scan machine.

She was also Celebrity Spokeswoman for the 1997 Special Olympics World Winter Games and contributed to the Power of Peace CD celebrating the 50th anniversary of CARE.

Washington Helps Africa's Children

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:45:34 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Save Africa's Children has received a donation of $1 million from Denzel Washington.

The charity works to raise awareness and provide direct support through shelter, education and health care for the 17 million orphans across the continent.

Washington’s donation will help to support 300 new orphan care projects, bringing the number of projects up to over 600.

Schumacher is in the Winner’s Circle for Philanthropy

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 20:53:30 +0000

Written by Greg Hitchcock

Michael Schumacher, the world’s most successful racing driver, announced his retirement after spending years racing and raising millions for charity.

The son of a builder from Kerpen, near Cologne, has donated almost £30 million to projects around the world in the past four years alone and, if motor racing fails to hold its allure when he hangs up his helmet at the end of the Formula One season, it is thought that he might plough his considerable wealth into a full-time foundation.

Ferrari’s seven-time world champion has worked for the United Nations charity since 1995, and his previous donations have helped build schools and clinics.

For instance, Schumacher donated $10 million, which represents about 10 percent of his annual income, to UNICEF to the relief effort following Boxing Day’s devastating tsunami disaster in south Asia. The German’s pledge, announced by agent Willi Weber on a German TV fundraiser for the UN Children’s Fund and German Red Cross, is the biggest so far in the world of sport, and possibly of any individual.

Schumacher has been a substantial donor to charities for the last eight years notably with UNESCO and UNICEF including funding a school in Dakar (Senegal), a clinic in Sarajevo and a centre for street children in Lima, Peru. He has also been involved in work in his role as a UNICEF ambassador.

“If you put them on the right track, everyone will benefit,” Schumacher said earlier this year. “But if they take the wrong road, if they don’t have any opportunities, they’ll have a difficult life and cause trouble for everyone around them.”

Pitt and Jolie Donate Millions to Charities

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 14:13:39 +0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are donating $1 million dollars each to Global Action for Children and Doctors Without Borders.

The philanthropic couple keep themselves busy doing what they can to help those in need. Earlier this year, Pitt helped judge the Global Green Sustainable Design Competition; Jolie has travelled to more than 20 countries since 2001 as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations; and they raised $7 million for charity by selling the rights to photos of their newborn daughter, Shiloh Nouvel. With a family such as this, it comes as no surprise that the latest donations were made through the couple’s own charity, the Jolie-Pitt Foundation.

The humanitarian organisations help to improve living conditions in poverty-stricken areas around the world.

Jennifer Delaney from Global Action for Children said, “Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt not only care, but more important, are taking concrete action to address the fact that there will be 20 million children orphaned by Aids by 2010, and millions more orphaned by tuberculosis, malaria and conflict or whose parents are sick and dying.”

“Their generous gift will enable us to continue assisting people whose plight is often forgotten, such as those displaced by conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Sudan,” said Nicolas de Torrente, executive director of Doctors Without Borders.

Bono and Heather Mills Lending Their Celebrity to Raise Awareness of Genocide in Darfur

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 09:09:18 +0000

Written by Robert Powers

Adding to the efforts of celebrities like George Clooney and Bob Geldof, Bono and Heather Mills have recently spoken out in efforts to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide occurring in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

Speaking to reporters in London, Bono described the actions of Sudan’s Khartoum government as “an affront to decency.” It has been estimated that since 2003, when fighting broke out, 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes and over 400,000 people have been killed by militias sponsored by the Sudanese government. The government has flatly refused calls to allow a UN peace-keeping force into the region, which Bono referred to as having “broken every shred of dignity possible in a government,” calling the situation in Darfur “preposterous,” and stating that “governments need to take up [their] slack in dealing with the situation.”

Bono’s charitable organization devoted to matters of debt, AIDS, trade, and Africa (DATA) earlier this year issued a statement on their website (data.org) concerning the atrocities in Sudan, saying that “the mass atrocities occurring in Sudan and across this region of Africa call upon our consciences and demand our action.”

Heather Mills has been reported to be in talks with Aegis Trust to visit Darfur as an acting sponsor. Aegis Trust is an international charity that was founded in the year 2000 to prevent and support action against genocides worldwide. She has linked to the charity’s “Protect Darfur” project (protectdarfur.org) on her personal website.

“Twelve years after Rwanda and eleven years after Srebrenica,” she recently said at a charity event in London, “we are on the verge of seeing it all happen again.”

“I urge you, wherever you are, to do what is in your power to help Darfur’s people. Speak out. If you don’t, these people will die and once again, it will be too late,” she added.

Nobody Walks in L.A. ... Except For A Good Cause!

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 19:31:32 +0000

Written by Jill Marie Elliott

On October 15th, the streets of L.A. will play host to the 21st Annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles!

The event brings out stars who are usually seen on the red carpet, not the pothole pavements of Hollywood. Joining them are thousands of stars who may never grace the cover of US Weekly, but who shine in the eyes of their biggest fans: family and friends.

Along with raising awareness of HIV/AIDS, the event raises money that benefits AIDS Project Los Angeles and neighboring HIV/AIDS service organizations. Thanks to the supporters who talk the talk and walk the walk, AIDS Walk Los Angeles raised $3.2 million last year!

It’s not too late to lace up your walking shoes and get sponsored! You may just find yourself making strides alongside Kimberly McCullough, who portrays the groundbreaking, HIV-Positive character Robin Scorpio on ABC’s General Hospital!

Sheryl Crow Brings Message of Hope to the Big Screen

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 21:03:21 +0000

Written by Jill Marie Elliott

Breast cancer survivor Sheryl Crow has a movie date with you! The songstress recorded a series of Public Service Announcements for City of Hope, bringing attention to their lifesaving research and treatment programs. Over 16,000 US theaters will air the PSAs that will run from September 29th till October 25th.

The announcements were made possible in part through a partnership with Movie Tunes LLC, Forman Bros. Strategic Marketing (a division of Forman Bros. Holdings Inc.) and City of Hope’s Music & Entertainment Industry campaign – and of course, Sheryl. “We are extremely fortunate to have Sheryl Crow donate her time and talent to this project. Her experience as a cancer survivor is inspiring and illustrates so clearly the importance of research at places like City of Hope,” said David Forman, founder of Forman Bros. Holdings Inc.

City of Hope is a leading research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.

Look To The Stars News: AIDS

Celebrity Donations To Katrina Relief Efforts

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Jamie Foxx Holds Auction

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Hollywood's Humanitarians At Cinema For Peace

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Bono Pleased With Stars' Charity

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Elizabeth Taylor's Birthday Gift

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Peace Prize Nominees

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Photo Auction For Third World Relief

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Frost and Moss Help Orphans

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Jackie Chan Thanks Red Cross

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Elton's Closet Opens in New York

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Melua Single Profits Going To Charity

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How a trip to Africa changed Michelle Wright's life

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