David Walliams Splashes Out For Charity

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:15:16 -0000

British comedian David Walliams has completed his second epic charity swim… and swallowed some water at the same time.

“Swimming and throwing up… it shouldn’t really go together,” said the star of Little Britain. “It was really tough.”

The 36-year-old swam across the Strait of Gibraltar, from Spain to Morocco, with Olympic rower James Cracknell. The event was part of Cracknell’s 10 day “Swim To Africa” adventure, which raised money for Sport Relief.

Cracknell’s trip started from Dover on February 27, when he rowed across the English Channel in atrocious weather conditions. This was followed by cycling 1,400 miles through France and Spain.

The final leg of the trip was the 12-mile swim, and having Walliams along was a boost for Cracknell’s morale. Walliams is certainly no stranger to swimming long distances – in 2006 he swam the English Channel and raised $2 million for Sport Relief in the process.

“I can’t believe David volunteered to do that after having done the Channel,” said Cracknell. “[The swim] was horrible.”

But Walliams had his own way of dealing with the cramp-inducing swim, and hummed Elton John songs to himself to keep his mind off the sharks that seemed to circle around the pair.

“I was singing to try and get me through it,” he said. “I was singing Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word and Your Song. When you’re in the water, if you start thinking about where you are, you think ‘I want this to be over.’ But if you think about nice things like Elton John songs, it kind of passes the time. I found it really tough. About two hours in I started to get seasick. The sea was really rough and I swallowed a lot of seawater. I started feeling really nauseous and throwing up. I got really demoralized so I had to talk to myself and say ‘you’ve got to do it, you’ve got to do it.”

The pair completed the swim in four and a half hours.

A Game, A Dress, And A Brawl For Charity

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 15:29:30 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

A special surprise for Look to the Stars readers

Be sure to visit Look To The Stars tomorrow, Wednesday March 12, to read our exclusive interview with Leeza Gibbons as she tells us a little about the causes that are closest to her heart.

Between a Rock and a hard place

It’s a case of a bad boy wanting to be good with singer Kid Rock. The Devil Without A Cause looks like he is turning over a new leaf, and is returning to the Waffle House restaurant where he was arrested last year – but this time it’s for charity.

The 37-year-old was charged with battery after a brawl in Duluth, Georgia, in October. But the musician has now decided to make amends by greeting fans and signing autographs at the scene of the crime as part of a fundraiser for a local homeless shelter, Nicholas House.

“For a while now, we’ve been working with Kid Rock’s management to try and turn a negative into a positive,” said Waffle House spokesperson Pat Warner. “We’re hoping to raise some money for a worthwhile charity.”

The event will occur later today, March 11.

Tennis for charity in the desert

Another event taking place today is the fourth annual K-Swiss Desert Smash Charity Tennis and Golf event being held at the La Quinta Resort in Palm Springs. The event benefits the Coachella Valley chapter of Variety – The Children’s Charity and features a special tennis match between 2008 Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic.

Other celebrities expected to attend include Bush frontman (and husband of Gwen Stefani) Gavin Rossdale, Borat star Ken Davitian, and David Spade.

Theron shares her threads for charity

Another star in the mood for giving is the stunning Charlize Theron, who is auctioning off the first red carpet gown she was ever given to wear by a designer.

No, the dress isn’t made from red carpet – it’s actually a one-of-a-kind silk dress designed exclusively for the actress’ debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 by Narciso Rodriguez.

All of the proceeds from the auction, which can be accessed through Theron’s eBay page, will go to the Charlize Theron African Outreach Project, a mobile clinic that serves more than 3000 high school students in Theron’s home country of South Africa. The project was launched in 2007 in association with the Entertainment Industry Foundation to create a safer, healthier, and better life for families in South Africa, especially those touched by the effect of HIV/AIDS.

The auction runs until March 13, and the bids have already gone over $1,000.

Other auctions running on eBay Giving Works right now include the chance to have lunch with JAG and Bruce Almighty star Catherine Bell in LA. The auction runs until March 17, and proceeds go to Communities in Schools, nation’s largest dropout prevention organization. The original Hannah Montana, Miley Ray Cyrus, is also holding an auction right now. The young star is selling an autographed chair, with proceeds to go to Variety – The Children’s Charity.

Leona Lewis – a star on the rise

Another star with an interest in South Africa at the moment is singer Leona Lewis. The 22-year-old X Factor winner is currently enjoying a meteoric rise to fame, with her album Spirit holding the record for the fastest selling debut album ever released in the UK. And now the young star has witnessed the extent of the AIDS pandemic during a recent trip to South Africa.

Lewis has just returned from a 3-day trip to Johannesburg with Sport Relief, an initiative of Comic Relief, in which she raised awareness of the plight of AIDS orphans and sufferers. But it was all almost too much for the singer, who describes in her diary how she broke down while visiting some of the worst cases.

“Some of the horrors I have seen will never leave me,“ she said. “It’s amazing to see the great work that Sport Relief does firsthand and the difference they make, their projects and centres keep communities going and give them something to be proud and positive about.”

In response to her trip, Lewis has just announced that the stunning purple gown she wore for her performance at last month’s Brit Awards will be auctioned on eBay, with all proceeds going to Sport Relief.

“It’s been a great pleasure for me to work with Leona Lewis right from the start,” said Roberto Cavalli, who designed the dress. “She has an incredible voice, beautiful eyes, and a fresh and positive attitude. I’m happy that a dress I have created for her for an important occasion is now being auctioned for a charity. It’s a sign of her great generosity and I’m proud that the name Roberto Cavalli is linked to it.”

As if all of that is not enough, the singer is also donating the proceeds from her new double A-side single, Footprints In The Sand/Better In Time, to the charity.

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David Walliams Splashes Out For Charity

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