Look To The Stars News: Julie Benz

Julie Benz To Host US Campaign For Burma Dinner

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:00:00 -0000

Fans of Dexter may like to get down to Beso on Hollywood Blvd later tonight, December 30, as one of the show’s stars is hosting a special charity gala.

Julie Benz, who plays Rita on Dexter, is hosting the Celebrity Foundation Dinner to benefit the US Campaign for Burma and the Human Rights Action Center. The evening will also include a performance by Jose Cortes from the Gipsy Kings, and stars such as Sylvester Stallone, Jason Biggs, Jenny Mollen Biggs, Stacy Dash, Maria Conchita Alonso, and Valerie Cruz are expected to attend.

The US Campaign for Burma aims to help the people of Burma achieve their dreams of freedom, peace, democracy, and human rights. The organization is dedicated to empowering grassroots activists around the world to bring about an end to the military dictatorship in Burma.

Through public education, leadership development initiatives, conferences, and advocacy campaigns at local, national and international levels, USCB works to empower Americans and Burmese dissidents-in-exile to promote freedom, democracy, and human rights in Burma and raise awareness about the egregious human rights violations committed by Burma’s military regime. The campaign has recruited stars such as Will Ferrell and Jennifer Aniston to record PSAs encouraging people to stand up against the injustice occurring in Burma, and recently a group of former world leaders, presidents, and prime ministers – including Mikhail Gorbachev, Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair, and George Bush Sr – wrote to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to ask him to secure the release of all political prisoners in Burma by the end of this year.

Tonight’s event takes place at 7pm at Beso, 6653 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

Handbag.com Launches Handbag Amnesty

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:30:00 -0000

www.handbag.com and Cancer Research UK have announced a new partnership with the launch of the first ever Handbag Amnesty.

Taking place throughout the month of September – www.handbag.com’s dedicated handbag month – and climaxing in October, the Handbag Amnesty will give women across the country the opportunity to bid for the designer handbag of their favourite celebrity including, just to name a few, Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller and Dame Shirley Bassey, to raise money to help beat cancer.

www.handbag.com and Cancer Research UK are asking celebrities to make space in their wardrobes by donating one of their designer handbags to the Amnesty. The bags will then be auctioned on eBay from Friday 3rd – Sunday 14th October to tie in with Breast Cancer Awareness month. Open to everyone, all proceeds will go to Cancer Research UK, the largest single funder of research into breast cancer, one of the most common cancers in the UK.

Some of the other celebrities who have donated handbags are America Ferrera, Annie Lennox, Ashlee Simpson, Geri Halliwell, Dame Judi Dench, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Scarlett Johansson.

The Handbag Amnesty, however, is not just about celebrities. www.handbag.com and Cancer Research UK are also asking members of the public to donate a handbag that is still in good condition to their local Cancer Research UK shop. Good handbags always sell like hot cakes in Cancer Research UK’s nationwide chain of charity shops.

Claire Higgins, Head of Marketing at www.handbag.com, says: “As the leading lifestyle website for women in the UK, we are in the unique position of being able to reach more than 1.5 million women across the country. 44,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed every year in the UK so we are very proud to be working with Cancer Research UK to help make a difference – not only by raising a lot of money to fund research into preventing breast cancer, but also by helping to raise much needed awareness of the illness.”

Paul Farthing, Director of High Value Relationships at Cancer Research UK, says: “We’re delighted to be working with www.handbag.com to launch Handbag Amnesty. The auction of celebrity handbags will be an exciting way to raise funds for our vital research into breast cancer. We also hope that by encouraging supporters to donate their own favourite handbag, and other unwanted quality items to our shops, we will be able to raise even more to help beat cancer.”

For more information and a full list of celebrities taking part, please visit www.handbag.com/amnesty

Celebrity Fashion Up For Grabs

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Anybody interested in celebrity fashion should head over to www.clothesoffourback.org in the next few days to bid on some of the fabulous items up for grabs in the name of charity.

The Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance has an exciting range of clothes and memorabilia up for auction on the site, including the Badgley Mischka dress that Comedy For A Cure honoree Teri Hatcher wore to the “American Idol” Season 7 Grand Finale, a green Max Mara wrap dress, smoky quartz & sterling silver earrings, and autographed photo from “Dexter” star Julie Benz, a “Chuck” t-shirt autographed by the show’s star Zachary Levi, a “CSI:NY” white lab coat autographed by Melina Kanakaredes, and the Theory dress that “Access Hollywood” correspondent Shaun Robinson wore to last year’s Comedy for a Cure event when she was the show’s emcee.

Bidders should be quick, as the auction ends on July 8.

And for anybody who wants to step out on the town in some special shoes, Clothes Off Our Back is also auctioning off a range off footwear designed specially by stars such as Sheryl Crow, Hilary Swank, Zooey Deschanel, Rose McGowan, Kate Winslet, Maggie Grace, Cate Blanchett, Kirsten Dunst, Kristin Davis, Natasha Henstridge, Lisa Edelstein, Pink, Becki Newton, Melissa George, Kerry Washington, America Ferrera, Ana Ortiz, and Kate Walsh.

Proceeds from the auction will go Second Harvest (the nation’s largest charitable hunger-relief organization), The Art of Elysium (which enriches the lives of artist and critically ill children), World Education (focusing on girls’ scholarship programs in Africa), and autism research. The auction ends on July 11.

Over 500 celebrities have participated in Clothes Off Our Back auctions since it was established by Jane Kaczmarek and Bradley Whitford in 2002, helping raise over $2 million for various children’s charities.

Celebrities Raising Voices For Burma

Wed, 07 May 2008 10:46:12 -0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Will Ferrell and Jennifer Aniston have joined the US Campaign for Burma, and are asking others to do the same for the Burma: It Can’t Wait Campaign. Stars are on a mission to raise one million voices in 30 days against the human rights atrocities occurring in the Southeast Asian country.

The people of Burma are being attacked by their own government, and, just as the world stood together to demand the freedom of Nelson Mandela, the campaign is asking people to speak up for the leader of Burma’s democratic party, Aung San Suu Kyi. The world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Suu Kyi has been deprived of her freedom for 12 of the last 18 years. She has appealed to people around the world, saying, “Please, use your liberty to promote ours.”

To make matters even worse, southwestern Burma was hit by a cyclone on Friday, May 2, leaving up to 60,000 dead, with tens of thousands missing and hundreds of thousands displaced or homeless. It is being called the worst natural disaster in Asia since the 2004 tsunami. Despite knowing about the approaching cyclone days in advance, the government did not warn its citizens. The U.S. Campaign For Burma is accepting donations to help with relief efforts in the medium-term, as the Burmese government is currently blocking international aid agencies from offering their support.

Join Woody Harrelson, Sarah Silverman, Julie Benz, Eddie Izzard and the others who are speaking out for the brave young people fighting for democracy and struggling through the wake of Cyclone Nargis. For more information visit the U.S. Campaign For Burma, and to view the celebrity videos, go to BurmaItCantWait.org.

Celebrities Gather For Global Green Pre-Oscar Party

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 15:23:10 -0000

Written by Delinda Lombardo

Celebrities, artists, actors, industry executives, and environmentalists joined Global Green USA CEO Matt Petersen for the 5th Annual Global Green Pre-Oscar Party last Wednesday, February 20, at the Avalon Nightclub in Hollywood.

The theme of this year’s event was “Time To Act: Reduce your Carbon Footprint today: Drive Green, Live Green, Vote Green”. The evening, emceed by HBO’s ‘Real Time’ host Bill Maher, raised $420,000 to benefit Global Green’s climate change initiatives, which include the green rebuilding of New Orleans.

“There are a lot of people in this town who talk a lot about (the issue), but these guys (Global Green) are actually doing something,” said Maher, who arrived at the event in a hybrid SUV.
Special performances by Grammy Nominated artist Michelle Branch, Oscar nominated artists Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, as well as Damien Rice and Michael Franti, were among the night’s highlights.

Salma Hayek, who serves on the local Global Green board, showed her support and said she is more focused on environmental initiatives since becoming a mother last September.

“I get a bigger fear of what kind of world she’s going to live in,” said Hayek on her way into the party. “Is she going to run out of water? What kind of water is she going to drink? It’s really scary and it’s not that far away if we don’t do something about it.”

Other celebrity supporters in attendance included Oliver Stone, Entourage actor Adrian Grenier, Sophia Bush, actress Dana Delany, Las Vegas star Molly Sims, Josie Maran, Mia Maestro, actor Christian Slater, Governor Bill Richardson, Radha Mitchell, Lost actor Ian Somerhalder, actor-turned-model Jason Lewis, Alexis Arquette, Eric Mabius, Anna Getty, Bahar Soomekh, Tate Donovan, Esai Morales, Norman Lear, Julie Benz, Kevin Weisman, Lady Victoria Hervey, Leonor Varela, Mark DeCarlo, Tamara Mellon, Q’orianka Kilcher, Vanessa Branch, Walton Goggins, Elisabeth Rohm, Tia Carrere, Taylor Dayne, Thomas Ian Nicholas, and Kenneth Johnson.

This election year, Global Green USA used the party to highlight their 2008 message of “Drive Green. Live Green. Vote Green.”

“Our homes and transportation represent the biggest opportunities to reduce our carbon footprint – but the most important thing to green this year is our vote,” said Global Green CEO Matt Petersen. “The next President of the United States has the power to solve the climate crisis; they will only be successful if the public – and the media – demand action on climate change.”

Look To The Stars News: Julie Benz

Julie Benz To Host US Campaign For Burma Dinner

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