Look To The Stars News: Anthony Anderson

Keanu Reeves To Race For Charity Again

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:30:00 -0000

After winning last year’s event, actor Keanu Reeves will once again get behind the wheel for the annual Toyota Pro/Celebrity charity race at the 36th Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach next month.

The celebrity race has been held every year since 1977, and has attracted stars such as Gene Hackman, Jason Bateman, Rick Schroder, Stephen Baldwin, Donny Osmond, Sean Patrick Flanery, Nancy Lieberman, Daniel Goddard and Josh Brolin. 2008’s race was won by ESPN/ABC pit reporter for NASCAR Nationwide Jamie Little.

Every year, Toyota donates $5,000 to Racing for Kids, a non-profit program benefiting children’s hospitals in Southern California, in the name of each celebrity racer, and another $5,000 to the winner’s charity of choice. The car company has donated close to $1.6 million to various children’s organizations since 1991.

This year’s participants will drive Scion tCs in a 10-lap race, as part of the 36th Annual Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, on April 17. Joining Keanu in this year’s race are Christian Slater, Jesse McCartney, Tony Hawk, Zachary Levi, Adrien Brody, Anthony Anderson, Adam Carolla, Brian Austin Green, Patrick Warburton and Tika Sumpter.

Get more info at the official Grand Prix of Long Beach website.

Celebrities Flock To Charity Billiards Tournament

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:00:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

New York Giant and Super Bowl Champion defensive end Justin Tuck hosted the first ever Tuck’s Celebrity Billiards Tournament in New York on Monday, July 13.

The event attracted a host of stars from music, film and sports, including John Legend, Kelly Rowland, Spike Lee, Vivica Fox, Anthony Anderson and many more.

The star-studded tournament raised $140,000 for Tuck’s R.U.S.H. for Literacy, a charity initiative founded by Justin Tuck in 2008 to encourage children to READ, UNDERSTAND, SUCCEED, and HOPE as they continue to nurture literacy in their lives. This charity program is committed to raise funds to donate books and other reading materials to benefit the local New York and Central Alabama communities.

To find out more about the initiative, click here.

Dean Cain To Host Hero Awards

Fri, 29 May 2009 15:00:00 -0000

Actor Dean Cain will host the 2009 Hero Awards on Saturday, May 30, to honor everyday people who have gone out of their way to help others and their community.

Set to take place at Universal Studios in Hollywood, the Awards will be filmed for television broadcast and will benefit Feed the Children. Presenters will include Tatyana Ali, Anthony Anderson, Tom Arnold, Nnamdi Asomugha, Corbin Bernsen, Sharon Case, Erik Estrada, Kelly Hu, Jason London, Willie McGinest, Judd Nelson, Chester Pitts and Efren Ramirez. Musical guests include Gloria Gaynor and Brian McKnight.

Honorees will include:

NANCY DAVIS – Diagnosed with the illness 16 years ago, she founded The Nancy Davis Foundation for Multiple Sclerosis and has raised millions in her Race-to-Erase-MS.
KATHY IRELAND – Author, actress, CEO & Chief Designer of Kathy Ireland Worldwide, she continues to give back by dedicating countless hours of personal time and financial resources to philanthropic and non-profit projects.
DR. TODD PRICE – Director and President of International Medical Outreach, he supervises medical and humanitarian aid projects around the world. In this past year alone, his foundation has sent over $70 million dollars worth of resources abroad.
DOROTEA LIGUORI – Compassionate international jewelry designer, entrepreneur and philanthropist; she recently co-funded the ABC Baby Center for Feed The Children in Africa.
JOLANDA & JIOVANNI JONES – This mother and 16-year-old son saved the life of a teenage driver by pulling her from the rubble of a fiery crash seconds before the car exploded.
ZACH SMOTHERS – This 12-year-old rescued his 3-year-old cousin from the bottom of a pool and, repeating what he saw on TV, administered CPR to save her life.
USMC LANCE CORPORAL JEREMY LEPSCH – A Marine who saved the life of a motorcyclist whose leg had been severed in an accident.
MADELYN EAVES – The 3-year-old who called 911 to save her pregnant mother.
HERO- A German Shepherd who saved a stranger from a car wreck and is now being trained as a search and rescue dog.

More information about the event – and tickets – can be found at the official website.

Celebrities Urge People To Stop Using The "R" Word

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:00:00 -0000

Written by Delinda Lombardo

Celebrities & Special Olympics Bocce Athletes joined together for the Southern California’s inaugural Celebrity Bocce Tournament held on the lawn at the historic Culver Studios, where all proceeds benefited the Special Olympics Southern California, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

This inaugural event saw guests, athletes and celebrities strolling the lawn dressed in white attire while eating and drinking One Hope Wine, while asking the world to “Spread the Word to End the Word.” It was just one such event encouraging people to stop and think before using the disparaging and hurtful word: ‘retard.’ To learn more, please visit www.r-word.org.

Kristy Swanson

The participating Bocce teams were each comprised of four players, one celebrity and one Special Olympics Bocce Athlete as team captain. KCAL9 News Anchor Pat Harvey and Olympic Decathlon Gold Medallist Rafer Johnson served as the events co-chairs, while the event’s emcee was Jesse “Boy Toy” Lozano of KIIS-FM.

Maureen McCormick

Participating celebrities who would like you to think twice before the using the ’Word" included: Joe Mantegna, John Ratzenberger, Kristy Swanson, Matthew Gray Gubler, Victor Alfieri, Yvette Nicole Brown, Maureen McCormick, Jeremy Ratchford, Brandon Molale, Jimmy Jean Louis, Sunny Mabrey, Jason Dolley, Ethan Embry, AJ Michalka, Anthony Anderson, Jillian Claire, Marta McGonagle, Danielle Petty, Nancy LaScala, DB Freeman, Andrea Freedman, Lloyd Eisler and Anya Monzikova.

Joe Mantegna

Special Olympics Southern California (SOSC) offers year-round sports training and athletic competitions for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and closely-related developmental disabilities. All programs are free to the athletes and their families. By instilling lifelong habits of physical fitness and influencing each athlete’s willingness to accept new challenges, Special Olympics changes lives. Many new doors are opened as athletes build on their athletic successes and gain the courage to try new things in all areas of their lives- classroom, workplace, home and the community. For additional information, please visit www.sosc.org.

John Ratzenberger

Hollywood Steps Out For World Kidney Day

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:30:00 -0000

A host of celebrities will come out for World Kidney Day tomorrow to encourage people get blood tests to check for early signs of kidney disease.

Mario Lopez, Hilary Duff, Brooke Burns, Kevin Sorbo, Constance Marie, Deana Carter, Lou Gossett Jr, Courtney Hansen, Eva Tamargo, Stacy Keibler, George Lopez, Phillip Palmer, Andy Garcia and Anthony Anderson are just some of the stars who will attend KEEP It Hollywood on Thursday, March 12.

The National Kidney Foundation of Southern California’s “KEEP It Hollywood” event is a pre-Kidney Early Evaluation Program (KEEP) that includes a mini-screening (blood pressure cuff, finger prick & a few health questions asked by some of the best doctors in the country) allowing numerous celebrities and influential community members to take part in the fight against Kidney Disease through early detection, evaluation, and intervention for World Kidney Day.

World Kidney Day is a global health awareness campaign focusing on the importance of our kidneys and reducing the frequency and impact of kidney disease and its associated health problems worldwide. The campaign is celebrated every year on the second Thursday of March in more than 100 countries on 6 continents. Celebrity supporters of the campaign include Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks, Enrique Iglesias, Maria Petrova and many more.

The KEEP It Hollywood event will raise awareness of chronic kidney disease, a condition suffered by over 26 million American adults. To be part of the event, be at Guy’s North in Studio City, California, between 9am and 2pm tomorrow.

Ryan Sheckler Hosts Celeb-Studded Charity Golf Tourney

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:30:00 -0000

Written by Jennifer Beckmann

X Games champion, reality star and budding philanthropist Ryan Sheckler will take to the links with 120 others to raise money for five charities.

The 18-year-old skateboarding phenomenon will host his first celebrity golf tournament – the Ryan Sheckler X Games Celebrity Skins Classic – on July 29 at the renowned Trump National Golf Course in Palos Verdes, CA. Many celebrities and professional athletes will participate, including Jerry O’Connell, Anthony Anderson, Audrina Patridge, Kendra Wilkinson, Dean Cain, Kevin Federline, Brody Jenner, Verne Troyer, Mia Hamm, Vicki Hurst, Bode Miller, Baron Davis, Carey Hart, Travis Pastrana, and Dave Mirra.

The tournament aims to further the mission of the Sheckler Foundation and raise funds for four additional charities: the Athlete Recovery Fund, which provides financial support to seriously injured BMX, FMX, and skateboard athletes; Boarding for Breast Cancer, a youth-focused awareness organization; Road 2 Recovery, which provides financial assistance and emotional support for motocross athletes coping with career-ending injuries; and Wings for Life, a spinal cord research foundation.

Says Sheckler, “I’ve always had a desire to help the kids who support me in my career and may not have had the same opportunities that I did. I have reached a point where I have the ability to give back, and I’m honored to have such a great response for this tournament from my professional colleagues and friends.”

The event will include a $10,000 hole-in-one putting contest and an 18-hole skins tournament, where the winner of each hole will receive $10,000 for the charity of his or her choice. Additional funds will be raised with a silent auction at the event’s dinner reception.

Ryan Sheckler became a professional skateboarder at 13, and has won numerous gold medals at competitions including the Gravity Games and X Games. Ryan also has his own clothing line and stars in “Life of Ryan,” a reality show aired on MTV.

The Sheckler Foundation was created in 2008 as an avenue for Ryan and his family to give back to the community that has supported Ryan’s athletic career. The Foundation supports medical research to cure childhood disease; enrichment programs for children in low income areas; and action sports athletes who are injured on the job. In April 2008, Sheckler donated his own Range Rover to the top fundraiser for the Children’s Cancer Research Fund 5K Run/Walk.

For more information on the Sheckler Foundation or to register for the tournament, please visit their website.

Artists Come Out To Shake the Blues

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:17:00 -0000

Written by Crystal A. Johnson

The charity Artists for a New South Africa (ANSA) held its annual concert and auctions on Thursday November, 15, 2007 at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. The “Shaking the Blues” benefit supports ANSA’s work fighting HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and Africa, with a portion of the proceeds going to the Treatment Action Campaign, a grassroots organization at the forefront of South Africa’s fight against AIDS.

Among the celebrities in attendance were Blair Underwood, Eric Benet, Anthony Anderson, Alfre Woodard, Heroes star Jimmy Jean-Louis, and Grey’s Anatomy star James Pickens Jr. Event chairs include Jackson Browne, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson, George Lopez, Carlos Santana's wife Deborah, Alfre Woodard and Forest Whitaker.

Not only was a baseball signed by Hall of Famer Dave Winfield on hand at the silent auction, but Dave and his wife Tonya attended the event. Close friends with Samuel and Latonya Jackson, the Winfields hope to personally visit South Africa soon.

The musical line-up featured stirring performances by The Roots and friends, Erykah Badu with Edith Funker, Nikka Costa, Doyle Bramhall II, Keb Mo, and Taj Mahal. The Roots roused the crowd with a rendition of Bob Dylan's Masters of War, and the audience rose for Erykah Badu's performance of her classic On and On.

In keeping with many other recent celebrity events, acknowledgement was given to the writers’ strike; James Pickens Jr spoke of supporting the writers before he introduced the grand finale performance by Taj Mahal.

Movie and K-ville star Anthony Anderson served as auctioneer for the live auction. As Blair Underwood battled for a diamond earring lot, Anderson comically referred to him only as “the man with the orange leather jacket on”. Underwood’s counter-bidder upped the ante, requesting a date with her opponent be included along with the earrings, which she won at $9,000. Not only did Underwood accept, but he promised it would be a dinner at the world-famous restaurant Spagos.

To encourage higher bids on a private lunch with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Anderson jokingly suggested that the winner could take a picture with Tutu and put it on Myspace.com to be the envy of their friends. The lunch went for $15,500.

Los Angeles-based non-profit organization ANSA was originally founded in 1989 by noted members of the entertainment community, with an initial goal of supporting the struggle against apartheid. Over time, the organization’s focus has shifted to the fight against the African AIDS pandemic, advancing democracy, and equality in South Africa.

The effort to raise money is not over. If you want help the cause their are several items available at the online auction. To bid on the online items: www.charityfolks.com/ansa.

Look To The Stars News: Anthony Anderson

Keanu Reeves To Race For Charity Again

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