Drew Barrymore was on Oprah last night, and donated a cool $1 million to the United Nations World Food Program. Due to rising food and commodity prices, which we’ve all felt the impact of at the local supermarket, the organization needs an extra $500 million dollars to help feed the world’s poor.
The 33-year-old American actress will give the money to the World Food Program, a UN body that delivers millions of tonnes of food aid to more than 70 million people in about 80 countries, she said on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
“I’m able to make this incredible donation - this has changed my life,” said Barrymore, who serves as a WFP ambassador against hunger. “But I encourage everyone to give.”
Later, she said the $US1 million was “by far” the largest donation she has ever made.
Despite the enormous novelty check, this isn’t a publicity stunt for Drew. In 2006 she traveled to Nairobi and wrote an article for Marie Claire magazine, as well as filmed a documentary, about the living conditions and how schooling is helping with the AIDS crisis. You can read her article here.
Drew’s co-star Scarlett Johansson is also doing her bit for charity, selling herself on eBay. You can bid for two tickets to her latest film, He’s Just Not That Into You, and to meet Scarlett. The bidding was at $11,700 last time I checked, and all the proceeds go to Oxfam. The film stars Drew Barrymore as well as Scarlett, and Scarlett has launched a YouTube appeal to raise more interest in the auction.
Note by Celebitchy: Here’s Scarlett’s appeal. She seems kind of antsy at first.
you can watch the video on the website for Ellen’s show
Ellen Degeneres was emotional and in tears on her talk show again– only this time, it was over a situation much more distressing than an adopted puppy.
Ellen spoke out on her show about the recent murder of a gay high school student. The boy was shot in the head by another student after he ask him to be his Valentine.
Ellen DeGeneres took a rare political stance – though she was careful to call it a personal stance, because, she said, “this is important to me” – on her show scheduled to air Friday, regarding the murder of 15-year-old Lawrence King, shot in the head on Feb. 12 by a classmate in a suburban Oxnard, Calif., junior high school.
King was killed because he had asked another boy to be his Valentine, DeGeneres reminded her audience about the news story that sent shockwaves across the country.
As the 50-year-old show host, emphasized, “To be gay you can get killed for it … we need to change the message.”
Choking back tears, she added, “Larry is not a second-class citizen. I am not a second-class citizen. It is okay if you are gay.”
DeGeneres said the country must change the subtext of hatred aimed at certain groups as is found in jokes, movies, speeches and other elements of the culture. “All of it is unacceptable,” she said. “Laughing at someone because he’s gay is just the start of it.”
Noting that change is on the minds of people this political season, DeGeneres said, “We can do it with our behavior … Fight hate.”
I can’t understand why anyone would feel the need to kill another human being because of their sexual orientation. It just makes no sense to me. I keep hoping that our society has evolved enough that this sort of behavior would be a thing of the past, but then another story like this comes out and proves me wrong. My heart goes out to Larry’s family. I can’t even imagine what they are going through.
You can see the video of Ellen talking about the incident here.
Note by Celebitchy: This made me tear up too. I love how Ellen says you should vote for someone who is going to treat us all equal.
Denzel Washington is known for his generous charity, some of which has become the stuff of legend. The Oscar winning actor stars in the upcoming film The Great Debaters, which is out this Christmas and focuses on the success of the debate team in the 1930s at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. Denzel visited Wiley last week to screen the film, and gave the small predominantly African-American college $1 million to re-establish its debate team.
The gift was announced Tuesday by school officials.
Washington was in Marshall last week to screen The Great Debaters, the story of Wiley’s 1930s debate team. He stars as educator and poet Melvin Tolson, who led the all-black college’s elite debate squad.
During his appearance, the 52-year-old actor-director said he would like to see the team get going again.
Marshall is a city of about 24,000, located 140 miles east of Dallas. Wiley has about 900 students.
The Great Debaters opens Christmas Day. It has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best picture drama.
Urban Legend site Snopes.com notes that Washington has also given $1 million to the Children’s Fund of South Africa and $2.5 million to the Church of God. Washington is a devout Christian, according to Wikipedia. Washington, who turns 53 next week, has been married to his wife Pauletta since 1983. They have four children, John David, 23, a professional football player, Katia, 20, a student at Yale University, and twins Olivia and Malcolm, 15.
This week’s National Enquirer had another story of Washington’s kindness on a smaller scale. He made a young struggling actor’s day when he personally called an agent to ask him to represent him:
Denzel suddenly strode into swanky Saks Fifth Avenue [in Beverly Hills] for last-minute Christmas shopping. The superstar soon had a bright-eyed young salesman hopping to fill his orders, and the guy kept making great gift suggestions. Impressed, Denzel learned he’d just arrived in Hollywood from Virgina to follow his dream of becoming… an actor. He was struggling to make ends meet, of course, but told Denzel about a long shot Big Break: A powerful showbiz agent had hinted that he might sign him as a client - but it was a “don’t call us, we’ll call you” situation.
Speaking with quiet authority… Denzel said “Get that agent on the phone now!” When the awed kid made the connection, Our Hero took the phone and said “Hi, this is Denzel washington. I’m with this nice young man who says he’s waiting to hear whether you plan to represent him or not. I want to know if you’re planning to sign him… yes or no. Otherwise, I’ll call my agent - right now - and we’ll find him someone else.”
The stunned agent replied: “Er, yes… of course! I’ll represent him.”
[From The National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker’s column, December 24, 2007]
The article goes on to report that Denzel wrote down his assistant’s number for the young man and told him to call him if he needed any more help.
I love that story! Denzel Washington seems like such a great guy and it’s nice to know he’s still having a lot of success with his career.
Here’s the trailer for the film, thanks to the Evil Beet for linking it. It is directed by Denzel, produced by Oprah and also stars Oscar winner Forest Wittaker. It looks incredible, but it also might get weighed down with too much emotion and predictable tugging at heartstrings, it could go either way judging by this trailer.
Here’s Denzel and his wife Pauletta along with Oprah, Samuel L Jackson and his wife LaTanya Richardson at The Great Debaters premiere on 12/11/07, thanks to PRPhotos.
Gwen Stefani is just as sweet as pie, her baby Kingston is so cute, and so is her husband Gavin Rossdale, and her album is one of the biggest sellers on iTunes. She seems to have it all. So it’s great that she’s sharing it all by starting a scholarship fund for students who have lost their homes or jobs in wildfires.
Pop singer Gwen Stefani has donated $US166,000 from her local concert to provide scholarships for students who lost their homes in San Diego’s recent wildfires.
Proceeds from her October 30 concert in San Diego went to The San Diego Foundation’s fire relief fund.
“When I heard about the devastation of the fires, at first I felt I should cancel my show out of respect. But then it occurred to me there might be a more useful solution,â€? the 38-year-old singer said in a recent statement.
This is a really good way to spend your money Gwen. I know that students that have lost their houses might like more basic essentials, like a bed or food, but missing out on going to college would be absolutely devastating. You’d feel like you couldn’t move forward from the tragedy of losing your home or job and would probably spiral into depression.
Other celebrities to help out after the October fires include Linkin Park who organised a celebrity momento auction on eBay, and L.A. Galaxy soccer club (featuring David Beckham) organised an exhibition game against Hollywood United F.C.
In other Gwen news, hubby Gavin Rossdale has come out and said that little Kingston is his “greatest triumphâ€?, and that he and Gwen aren’t too bothered by paprazzi.
Rossdale and Stefani, 38, have been able to maintain a relatively normal family life without shying away from the spotlight. “If we were going to be followed by paparazzi, it doesn’t mean we would leave him home … we don’t take life too seriously,â€? he says. Adding, in response to a question about giving Kingston a sibling, “We’ll see what happens.â€?
This isn’t the first time that Gwen and Gavin have said they plan on having more children, in August Gwen told InStyle magazine that she “can’t wait to get pregnant again.â€?
Picture note by Celebitchy: Gwen and Gavin are shown at the Juicy Couture store opening in Beverly Hills on 11/7/07, thanks to Splash News.
