Look To The Stars News: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Stars Line Up For Women's Conference

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:30:00 -0000

California First Lady Maria Shriver has announced the lineup of celebrity speakers confirmed for this year’s annual Women’s Conference in Long Beach.

The event – to be held on October 21 and 22 at the Long Beach Convention Center – sold out in record time, and it is no surprise considering the plethora of newsmakers and world opinion leaders that will appear at the conference to empower and motivate women to pursue a lifelong journey of self discovery. Lance Armstrong, Bono, Warren Buffett, Sally Field, Michael J. Fox, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Heidi Klum, Jennifer Lopez, Jenny McCarthy, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Russell Simmons are just some of the 50 speakers set to take the stage, and there will also be a special performance by Bonnie Raitt.

“I am honored to again be hosting what has become the nation’s premier forum for women, where the world’s greatest hearts and minds convene every year to empower women to find a common purpose, be united by a shared conversation, and see themselves as a collective WE,” said Shriver. “This year, I am urging women to take time to explore their deepest hopes and aspirations, and I hope they leave the conference with a better sense of just who they want to be—and the knowledge of how to get there.”

The first Women’s Conference – formerly known as the California Governor and First Lady’s Conference on Women – was held over twenty years ago, but it has been under the leadership of First Lady Shriver and Governor Schwarzenegger that the event has become the premier event in empowering and inspiring women.

This year’s conference will include a new event – the Night at The Village – which will consist of exhibitor booths, stage presentations, book signings, shopping, food, musical entertainment, and a conversation with Rachael Ray.

“We envision ‘Night at The Village’ as the place for celebrating women, launching products for women, and having fun,” said Shriver. “The Village is our answer to a call from women for more time to just be—whether it is to mingle casually, network for work, or shop around for items and experiences that will enrich their mind, body and soul. All of this can now happen only at The Village.”

More information about the conference can be found at First Lady Shriver’s official website.

Celebrities Put Their Votes Where Their Hearts Are

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:44:49 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Celebrity endorsement and music have been essential features of political campaigns for the last 70 years. One of the earliest examples dates back to 1932, when Franklin D. Roosevelt used “Happy Days Are Here Again” as the theme song to his first presidential campaign. It eventually became the unofficial anthem for the Democrats, was used for years afterwards, and set a new standard in the way elections were campaigned.

Jump forward to 1960 and you find crooner Frank Sinatra openly supporting the presidential campaign of John F. Kennedy by singing a specially revised version of “High Hopes”. Jump forward further and you will hear the Republicans of 1988 singing the chorus of Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” (although McFerrin later asked them to stop using it).

And who can forget Bill Clinton blowing his saxophone along to Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” in 1992?

In 2008, it looks as though celebrity endorsement and music are set to be important parts of the Presidential Election once again, with a number of celebrities throwing their support into candidates’ campaigns. But although many stars are openly backing particular campaigns, their message this year has a deeper meaning.

“If we want to stop the war, if we want to get the economy better, I think that young people need to understand they have to take matters into their own hands,” said Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. “It is really like waking up a sleeping giant.”

The 38-year-old Hip Hop star and fashion designer believes that it is more important than ever for young people to go out and vote, and that the voice of youth will be an defining factor in this year’s election.

“A lot of young people have decided that this is their future. This president is going to decide their future,” said Combs, who launched the Citizen Change campaign in 2004 to encourage young voters. “I didn’t really want to get in the political game but I wanted to see young people become empowered. That’s where my attention is at. To have an African-American man and a woman in, it’s going to go down in history as the most historical election. And I think that young people will have a hand in the result.”

Last Tuesday saw 20 states in America hold primary elections to determine the eventual Democratic and Republican nominees for president, with Senator Hillary Clinton up against Senator Barack Obama for the Democrats, and Senator John McCain against former Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republicans.

And it seems that all of the candidates have pulled together an impressive list of celebrity backers. McCain has received endorsements from Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Bruckheimer, and Tom Selleck, while Romney is being backed by the likes of Pat Boone and Donny Osmond. On the Democrats’ side, Clinton has received endorsements from Barbra Streisand, Danny DeVito, Sally Field, Magic Johnson, Steven Spielberg, and Jack Nicholson, while Obama has attracted the support of celebrities such as Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman, Jessica Biel, Usher, Edward Norton, Hulk Hogan, Robert DeNiro, and Forest Whitaker.

23-year-old actress Scarlett Johansson is another star to show her support for Barack Obama, and last week recorded a message that was played to hundreds of voters in California over the telephone. She stated in the message that a vote for the Illinois senator was the last chance to “turn a page on the polarizing politics of the past”. This was followed by George Clooney adding his name to the supporters list at the annual Oscar Nominees’ Lunch last week.

“I’ve been an Obama guy for a year and a half and I’m very excited by his campaign,” he said. “It just seems that the more time he’s out there, his numbers keep growing. So I’m very, very encouraged.”

Johansson has also showed her support by taking part in the massive new internet campaign to increase the youth vote for Barack Obama. Led by Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am, the campaign features a music video that is taking YouTube by storm. Yes We Can took the singer two days to record and film, and has attracted almost 2 million views since it was released last Friday.

The Hip Hop star was inspired to write the song after watching Obama’s speech following the Democrat’s loss to Clinton in the New Hampshire primary election.

“It was as if he was talking to me,” said will.i.am. “It was as if he was talking to and defending everything that made me who I am. I took that speech, and I wanted everyone else to be inspired by that speech as I was.”

The song features Obama’s speech set to music, and includes appearances by John Legend, Kate Walsh, Nicole Scherzinger, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Herbie Hancock. Although it was not commissioned by Obama, he saw it on Saturday and has embraced it.

“After nearly a year on the campaign trail, I’ve seen a lot of things that have touched me deeply, but I had to share this with you,” Obama’s wife, Michelle, said in an e-mail to supporters. “Sharing this video, which was created by supporters, is one more way to help start a conversation with your friends, family, co-workers, and anyone else who will be voting soon about the issues important to them in this election.”

But will.i.am insists the point of the song is not just to stir up votes for the first-term senator, but to “remind people how powerful they are. The idea of ‘Yes We Can’ doesn’t stop because he doesn’t win.”

There are currently several organizations that are being backed by celebrities to encourage young people to vote, including Declare Yourself and Rock the Vote, both of which are using the internet to raise the awareness of youth prior to this year’s election.

“The Internet and technology empowers people,” said will.i.am. “And the ‘Yes We Can’ song is proof that they don’t need a big record company or a big movie company . . . to go out and captivate people’s attention.”

But whether celebrity endorsement actually affects the votes is still a matter of contention. According to a study carried out by the Pew Research Centre in September, “political endorsements generally have little impact on voter preference”. The research found almost 70% of Americans polled said that if told a celebrity endorsed a presidential candidate, it would not affect their vote. And of the 30% who said an endorsement would influence them, 15% said it would make them more likely to vote for the endorsed candidate while the other half said they would be less likely to do so.

But if history is anything to go by, it won’t stop the celebrities from having their say.

Jolie Commits To War Affected Children

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:58:56 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

An organization founded by an award-winning actress has pledged to help with the education of over 1 million children affected by conflict around the world at this year’s annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.

Angelina Jolie addressed the conference, attended by participants from a variety of business, academia, entertainment, and environmental organizations, on September 27 in New York. As part of the three day meeting, she told the audience how the members of the Education Partnership For Children Of Conflict have contributed to the education of war-affected children in over 10 different countries since she founded the Partnership in 2006. Along with Partnership co-founder, Gene Sperling, who is also Director of the Centre For Universal Education at the Council for Foreign Relations, Jolie outlined the commitments that they have made for the coming year.

“Education can transform the lives of children in conflict, giving them the tools to create a better future for their families and their nations,” said Jolie to the 1,000 members of the Global Initiative, who were gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities of education, climate change, global health, and poverty. “This Partnership is putting words into action, and demonstrating that even in the most difficult circumstances, every child can and should have a chance to learn.”

The Education Partnership For Children Of Conflict was founded from a commitment made at the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative, a yearly meeting of world leaders launched by Bill Clinton and the Clinton Foundation in 2005. Its mission is to help the world move beyond its current state of globalization to a more integrated global community of shared benefits, responsibilities, and values. It provides a catalyst for action by “bringing together a community of global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.” Since its inception, and through the commitments made by over 100 world recognised organizations, the Initiative has provided over 3.2 million people with clean energy services in the developing world, provided 1.2 million patients in Sudan, Chad, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo with emergency care, and assisted with providing life-saving services to 857,300 children under the age of 5 in 25 countries.

Jolie and Sperling started the Education Partnership to help fund new education projects for children in conflict, post-conflict, refugee, and emergency situations. During her address at the meeting, she outlined the future for the Partnership, and its goals for the next year. She revealed they have received an investment of $148 million from 19 world organizations in 15 countries to reach their goals, which include:

Provide schooling to 350,000 children in conflict affected areas around the globe.

Improve the learning environment, safety, materials, and teacher quality of a further 690,000 children.

Assist 200,000 Iraqi refugee children.

Assist 300,000 youths affected by the conflict in Darfur.

“These are children who need a safe place to learn; a place to heal; a place to learn reconciliation and a place to just be children,” said Jolie. “All they have left is their minds. We don’t want them to grow up and feel they have nothing to live for.”

The three day meetings follow another high profile meeting held in New York earlier in the week, in which two heavy weights in the fight to stop climate change addressed the United Nations.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Vice President Al Gore took part in the 8 hour discussion on September 24, which hoped to spur global negotiations on climate change.

“The time has come to stop looking back at the Kyoto Protocol,” said Schwarzenegger. “The consequences of global climate change are so pressing it doesn’t matter who was responsible for the past. What matters is who is answerable for the future. And that means all of us.”

The gathering, which included UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, sent a strong political message about the urgency of lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

“The time to act is now,” said Al Gore at the conclusion of the meeting.

HG's Jeans Bigger Than Schwarzenegger’s

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:11:56 -0000

Written by Elizabeth Willoughby

HG Nelson of the wildly popular Australian comedy team Roy and HG won the top bid for his jeans at the Jeans for Genes charity auction in Sydney earlier this month. His pants went for $32,000. Second highest bid was $21,000 for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s, third was $16,000 for Michael Caton’s, $11,000 for Ashley Judd’s, $10,000 for Brigitte Bardot’s and $9,000 for David Copperfield’s.

Each pair of jeans was signed by the owner and featured painted artwork. The $200,000 raised will go to the Children’s Medical Research Institute.

“All money from [this auction] and from August 3 [Jeans for Genes Day] goes to funding research to investigate the causes of childhood diseases and disorders,” spokeswoman Julijana Trifunovic said. “From this research it is hoped better treatments or cures may follow.”

Forbes' "Most Generous Celebrities" List

Fri, 19 May 2006 14:04:20 -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

Look To The Stars News: Arnold Schwarzenegger

Stars Line Up For Women's Conference

Related past articles

Celebrities Put Their Votes Where Their Hearts Are

Related past articles

Jolie Commits To War Affected Children

Related past articles

HG's Jeans Bigger Than Schwarzenegger’s

Related past articles

Forbes' "Most Generous Celebrities" List

Related past articles