Look To The Stars News: Vijay Amritraj

Vijay Amritraj To Honor Bush And Clinton At Charity Gala

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:00:00 -0000

Former Indian tennis champion Vijay Amritraj is hosting his annual charity golf classic and gala this weekend.

The tournament will be played at the Lost Canyons Golf Club in Los Angeles on Friday, October 17, and the third Annual Vijay Amritraj Foundation Charity Black Tie Gala Banquet will be held in the heart of Beverly Hills California at the exquisite Beverly Wilshire Hotel the following night. Both events will raise money for the Vijay Amritraj Foundation, and the gala will honor the work of George Bush Sr and Bill Clinton. Although scheduling conflicts mean that neither honoree is able to attend, both will supply video messages.

Amritraj – a UN Messenger of Peace – established his foundation to bring hope, help and healing to the defenseless and innocent victims of disease, tragedy and circumstance in India.

“Through the Vijay Amritraj Foundation, we all can reach out and extend the helping hand of humanity,“ he said. “The mission of the Vijay Amritraj Foundation is to provide assistance to the forgotten; the charities without a voice. These are often the smaller charities of India who do not have the ability to raise money or awareness for their causes. They are charities serving children and adults who face extreme challenges in life; HIV/AIDS, family abandonment, and individuals ostracized by society for their illness.“

According to the Foundation’s website: “The gala promises to be the event of the year. Premier Indian Chef’s will prepare appetizers to compliment the Cocktail Reception along with a four course dining experience of exquisite Indian cuisine complimented by a selection of fine wines. This celebrity studded evening will host a live and silent auction that offer truly unique opportunities in support of the foundation’s charitable work. Following the awards ceremony world class entertainment will close this very special evening.“

More information about the events can be found at the Vijay Amritraj Foundation website.

George Clooney - A Messenger Of Peace

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:34:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Academy Award winner George Clooney was made a United Nations Messenger of Peace at a function in New York yesterday, January 31, and has pledged to “shine a light” on UN peacekeeping efforts around the world, particularly in Darfur.

“When I stood in the hospital next to women who had been raped and set on fire, they looked up to me and said ‘please send the UN’ – not the US, not China, not Russia, just the UN,” said the 46-year-old actor who has just returned from visiting the war-torn nation of Sudan. “You are their only hope.”

However, several UN member nations claimed the actor’s trip was “inappropriate”, and blocked him from delivering his full message to the assembly. Instead, Clooney read it to reporters during a press conference that followed.

“The message is that the world is watching, and that at this point we cannot afford to fail,” he said. “Millions are homeless – not from famine or disease or acts of God – but from a well armed militia intent on ridding the land of its people.”

The conflict in the Sudanese region of Darfur began in 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government. Sudan’s regime is accused of retaliating by organizing a militia of Arab nomads, known as the Janjaweed, to reign terror on the region’s African inhabitants, an allegation the Khartoum denies. It has been estimated that over 200,000 people have been slain since the conflict arose, and the United Nations now states that the humanitarian crisis in Darfur is the worst in the world. However, plans to send 26,000 UN peacekeepers into the region are now in doubt due to restrictions imposed by the Khartoum, as well of the failure of Western countries to offer help.

“We tend to not get to see enough of what we need to see anymore,” said Clooney. “It seems as if at times celebrity can bring that focus. It can’t make the policies, it can’t change people’s minds really, but you can bring a camera where you go because they’ll follow you and you can shine a light on it. That seems to be my job.”

Clooney is the ninth person to be made a United Nations Messenger of Peace since the program was established in 1998 by former Secretary-General, Kofi Annan. Each Messenger of Peace is chosen from the art, music, literature, or sports worlds to focus attention on UN work, with each Messenger holding the post for three years. Former Messengers of Hope include Michael Douglas, Muhammad Ali, and Vijay Amritraj.

Clooney said his new role was to raise awareness about UN peacekeeping efforts generally, and he would “go wherever I have to to bring some attention.”

He also plans to lobby countries to fulfill their UN peacekeeping funding commitments, and specifically mentioned the United States, which he said owed $1.2 billion.

“There are some groups protecting 250 square kilometers of desert with no helicopters and no radios that work,” he said. “These men and women risking their lives for peace are your responsibility. So either give them the basic tools for protecting the population and themselves or have the decency to bring them all home because you can’t do it halfway.”

George Clooney was born in Kentucky in 1961, but spent part of his childhood in Ohio. After attending – but not graduating from – university, Clooney caught the acting bug. His father was a journalist and talk show host who often used to take young George to the set with him, and the experience added to his son’s wish to become an actor.

Clooney spent the 1980s appearing as minor characters in shows such as The Facts Of Life and The Golden Girls, but it wasn’t until he appeared as Dr Doug Ross in ER in 1994 that he achieved stardom. This was followed by his first movie role in Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, opposite Quentin Tarantino.

There was no looking back for Clooney after that. The rest of the 90s was spent with starring roles in One Fine Day (opposite Michelle Pfeiffer), The Peacemaker (opposite Nicole Kidman), Batman And Robin, The Perfect Storm, and Three Kings.

But it was his appearance in Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 remake of Ocean’s Eleven, alongside Don Cheadle, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon, that really shot his star into orbit. As well as spawning two sequels, the film set up a friendship that would help raise awareness of one of the worst humanitarian crises of the new century, and also raise much needed funds for the charities that are involved.

In 2006, Don Cheadle started to write a book about the crisis in Darfur. His passion for the subject attracted the attention of Clooney, who visited the Sudanese region armed with a video camera. The footage he shot of refugees was shown around the world and became a call to action for the two actors. In September of that year, Clooney spoke in front of the UN Security Council, to raise their awareness of the crisis and plead for their help. In December, Clooney accompanied Cheadle on a tour of Egypt and China, in which the pair met with government officials to convince them to pressure Sudan’s Khartoum to bring a halt to the fighting.

Cheadle’s book, Not On Our Watch, was published early in 2007, and in May, Cheadle and Clooney launched the Not On Our Watch organization at the Cannes Film Festival. Their fundraising was an immediate success, with over $9.2 million raised during the first month, and another $750,000 raised in June. The money was donated to a number of charities that work in Darfur, including the International Rescue Committee, Oxfam, Save the Children, and the World Food Programme.

In October, Clooney appeared in Cheadle’s Darfur Now film, and talked about his experiences in the region, as well as the atrocities he had witnessed during his visits. And in December, both Clooney and Cheadle received special Peace Medals from Nobel Peace Prize laureates in Rome.

Clooney hopes his Messenger of Peace status will help him raise awareness of the horrors he has seen in Darfur, and he will continue to work towards the goal of sending peacekeepers to the Sudan to protect the innocent people being butchered, raped, and tortured every day.

“There’s a lot more responsibility with this one than with an Oscar, which all you really have to do is, you know, drink after the party.”

Mia Farrow Blocked From Darfur Peace Rally

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:03:29 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Police have stopped actress Mia Farrow from holding a rally in Cambodia as part of a campaign to end atrocities in Darfur.

Around 100 baton-wielding military police blocked Farrow, who established Fund4Darfur in 2007, and her fellow activists from entering the compound at Tuol Sleng, the Phnom Penh high school at the center of Cambodia’s Killing Fields.

“Darfur has nothing to do with Cambodia,” said Phnom Penh police chief, Touch Naruth. “Go protest in Darfur!”

The group planned to hold a peaceful rally in which they were to lay flowers and light a symbolic Olympic torch in the compound. The event was to follow similar rallies in Chad, Rwanda, Armenia, Germany, and Bosnia as part of a campaign to persuade China to push the Khartoum government in Sudan into ending the violence in Darfur.

“Our hearts are breaking for what happened in Cambodia today,” said Farrow, who is on the advisory committee for the Dream For Darfur campaign. “The Chinese government was trying to prevent us from commemorating the genocide in Cambodia, and denying survivors the chance to show solidarity with the people in Darfur.”

The United Nations is currently trying to deploy a peacekeeping force in Darfur, where international experts say 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million driven from their homes during fighting between Sudan’s government and Darfur rebels. China is a major investor in Sudan’s oil industry, and has been accused by lobby groups of breaching international rules and encouraging bloodshed by selling Sudan weapons that have been diverted to Darfur.

“I grieve every day about what is happening now,” said Darfur refugee Omer Ismail, part of the group in Cambodia for the rally. “As we gather here, [there continue] the attacks, the rapes, the systematic murder of innocent men, women, and children.”

The Cambodian government has threatened Farrow and her supporters with deportation and other unspecified “consequences”.

In other news relating to Darfur, George Clooney has been named as a United Nations Messenger of Peace by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Clooney is the ninth UN Messenger, and joins Michael Douglas, Jane Goodall, Muhammad Ali, and Vijay Amritraj in helping to expand understanding of how the ideals and objectives of the UN demand everyone’s attention.

UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said Clooney had been “recognized for focusing attention on crucial international political and social issues”, especially in Darfur. Along with fellow actors Don Cheadle and Brad Pitt, Clooney, 46, has used his celebrity status to raise public awareness and money for refugees through their Not On Our Watch initiative.

Clooney is currently visiting the Sudan, and will receive his designation on January 31 at UN headquarters.

Vijay Makes Charity Work In India a Big Deal

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:52:48 -0000

Written by Crystal A. Johnson

Former tennis star Vijay Amritraj is not only devoted to calling attention to the plight of those in need in India, he also backs up his devotion to these needs by hosting two charity events back to back.

At seven AM on Friday morning Amritraj hosted his 2nd Annual Celebrity Charity Golf Classic. Among the celebs to support the golf event were Golden Globe Winner Elke Sommer, Wonder Woman movie star Cathy Lee Crosby, James Sikking (Hill Street Blues/Doogie Howser), former soap star Tom Hallick and it was quite a big deal when two of the game show models from the hit Deal or No Deal hit the course at Simi Valley’s Lost Canyons Golf Club.

The day of efforts to raise money included raffles, silent and live auction items. Among the silent auction items included tickets donated by the Tiger Woods Foundation to the Masters champion play.

The next evening Vijay hosted a Gala Banquet at the Beverly Hilton. Chuck Norris was honored at the gala for his work with children. One of the evening’s hosts was Parminder Nagra of Bend It Like Beckham fame and the tv series ER. Parminder looked absolutely stunning in her pink Sari. Many of the Celeb Golfers returned for round 2 of the charity oriented weekend. Tom Hallick conducted the live auction. Briefcase #18 model A.K.A Marisa Petroro modeled beautiful jewelry during the live auction. However, the biggest live auction prize of the night was comprised of roundtrip airfare to London, the two tickets to join Vijay at Wimbledon and then join him for dinner. This prize went for $30,000.

Determined to generate the most money he could for the foundation, Vijay offered to the same opportunity to the bidder who would match $30,000. Much to his pleasure, someone did make a matching bid.

The silent auction offered a wide variety of great items including a sneaker autographed by LA Lakers star Kobe Bryant, reserved seating to see Dr. Phil McGraw’s and Jay Leno’s shows.

Vijays says, “Since my appointment as UN ambassodor of Peace, I have seen the first-hand magnitude of a plight that exists all around us. The more I saw, the more it became obvious to me that something had to be done…” The Vijay Amritraj Foundation helps with a multiple causes in India which include helping those with HIV/AIDS, education of women, children and the blind. To learn more, go to www.vijayamritrajfoundation.org.

Double the Effort to Raise Funds for Charitable Causes in India by Vijay Amritraj

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 18:18:06 -0000

Written by Crystal A. Johnson

As Jimmy Connors’ famed Wimbledon opponent, James Bond’s co-star in Octopussy, and a UN Ambassador of Peace, Vijay Amritraj is considered many things to many people. But on the weekend of October 12th, Vijay will be showing his charitable side as his foundation hosts its Charity Celebrity Golf Classic at Lost Canyons Golf Club, and its Gala Banquet at the Beverly Hilton on Saturday October 13th. The beautiful Parminder Nagra – star of Bend it Like Beckham and ER – will be among the hosts at the Gala Banquet.

Among the celebs expected to attend either of the events are Chuck Norris, Rick Schroeder, Charles Durning, and Beverly Johnson. It also looks like it is a done deal for a few of the NBC models from the game show Deal or No Deal will be celebrity golfers. Many more celebs are expected to confirm this week. The Dr. Phil show provided VIP passes and other goodies for auction.

The funds raised by the Vijay Amritraj Foundation will help people in India in a wide variety of ways including educating women, children, a school for the blind and provide healthcare for AIDS/HIV afflicted.

Look To The Stars News: Vijay Amritraj

Vijay Amritraj To Honor Bush And Clinton At Charity Gala

Related past articles

George Clooney - A Messenger Of Peace

Related past articles

Mia Farrow Blocked From Darfur Peace Rally

Related past articles

Vijay Makes Charity Work In India a Big Deal

Related past articles

Double the Effort to Raise Funds for Charitable Causes in India by Vijay Amritraj

Related past articles