Celebrity charity

[xoxo]

the following are excerpts from a new york times article about actors and charity work.
i thought it was interesting.
the source is the official new york times website.

Megastars Out to Save the World: Those Halos Can Tarnish in an Instant
By CARYN JAMES
Published: November 13, 2006


For the star who has everything — money, fame, awards — the latest must-have accessory seems to be a saintly halo as images are burnished by high-profile attempts to save the world. Trying to turn themselves into glam versions of Mother Teresa has its perils, though. George Clooney addressed the United Nations Security Council without derision, lecturing its members about their responsibilities in Darfur, but Madonna had to do a whole damage-control tour after adopting a baby boy from Malawi.

When Gwyneth Paltrow appeared in tribal makeup for an AIDS-charity print ad, jokes flooded the Web and threatened to eclipse the campaign.

And for every benign image of Brad Pitt hammering nails in India while building Habit for Humanity houses with Jimmy Carter, there’s the risk of a Gwyneth Paltrow debacle. When she appeared in a print ad over the line, “I Am African,” with tribal stripes painted on her English-rose complexion, scathing jokes flooded the Internet and threatened to overshadow the ad’s purpose, to raise money for the AIDS charity Keep a Child Alive. The tightrope that charitable celebrities have to walk reveals how volatile the relationship is between the stars and their public, how easily a credulous audience can turn cynical.

And, she said, stars create a valuable ripple effect. “When a Mira Sorvino attends a rally and speaks eloquently and passionately against the rape of women in Darfur, people read about it in People magazine, they see it on CNN, they want to get involved.”

At the highest reaches, though, celebrity activism goes far beyond participating in rallies or telethons and becomes an integral part of the star’s persona, the ultimate stage of his or her megastardom. In an industry so saturated with image making that a trip to a club can seem like a career choice, it would be naïve to think that spin plays no role in charitable moves, however sincere the star’s motives.

Mr. Clooney has been among the most successful at managing the altruistic side of his persona, partly by adopting a Bono strategy of choosing a specific issue, in Mr. Clooney’s case the genocide in Darfur, and becoming well informed. More originally, though, he has put a self-effacing attitude to good use. He has taken his dad, the journalist Nick Clooney, along on fact-finding trips to Africa. On the day of his speech to the United Nations in September, he and his father appeared on the weighty BBC World News report. When asked if he could change minds on the Security Council by urging them to send peacekeepers to Darfur, George Clooney replied: “My job isn’t really to change their minds. My job is to make sure that cameras and lights follow where I go” in the region, calling attention to the crisis and the United Nations’ responsibility there. It’s hard to find a less messianic or more palatable strategy.

If Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were a bit less adept at spin, they could easily be ridiculed for messianic aspirations, with two children adopted from Cambodia and Ethiopia and the famous sojourn in Namibia for Ms. Jolie to give birth there. But they are almost always photographed with one of their children in their arms, walking embodiments of caring parents (however many nannies may be trailing off camera). Last week brought pictures of Ms. Jolie and her son, Maddox, sitting among children in a refugee camp in New Delhi on a day off from shooting her new movie. A constant stream of photographs like that can offset any number of reported scuffles between the Pitt-Jolie bodyguards and the paparazzi.

But Madonna’s nanny was photographed carrying her adopted baby home from the London airport, a terrible public relations move that illustrates how the spin slipped out of Madonna’s control early on. Arriving in New York with her three children for the damage-control tour 12 days later, she carried little David through the airport herself, in a nicely compensating maternal photo. If someone has to proclaim her sincerity on “Oprah” and “Dateline,” though, it may already be too late to recover.

Madonna’s frequent shape-shifting may have made the public skeptical, even though she has consistently inhabited her wife and mother role for years now. More likely, callous though it may sound, by adopting an African baby she seemed to be copycatting the Jolie-Pitts, latching onto a celebrity trend.

Such trendiness is sure to backfire because no one likes to feel played, especially a public enamored of its starry idols. When attempts at altruism are so clumsy they seem like ploys, members of the public feel they’re being treated like idiots.

sorry--the exact source would be: www.nytimes.com
**again this article is in exceprts. to read full article, please go to nytimes.com
mods, is this enough for sourching the article?
never posted a topic like this before lol.

[xoxo]

^^lol, true.
i adore angelina, i think she's beautiful and fascinating. i also think the article is correct abt. she and pitt being spin-adept.
i know that jolie, like all otr. celebs, calls paparazzi befroehand, they all "arrange" candids and stuff.
i don't care tho somehow, i love her anyway.
maybe i love her partly for being a manipulative bitch who works the press like putty in her hands
and i love how the article points out madonna's lack of ability to do the same with her adoption situation.
maddonna DOES look like she's copying jolie
angellina thought of all this stuff first and works it the best
i've become a fantard of hers in the worst way lol
nitelite and me need matching t-shirts with angelina on them

[Mel1973]

snark, snark, snark, snark..........................boo, hiss, blah
not really, though I did read into this article a little differently than you.... at some points, the article seems to indicate that they "use" the children to deflect bad publicity. Meh, whatever works for them, I guess. I have nothing bad to say about them at the moment.

OOOOOh, but I do want to say that I do remember the Gwyneth Paltrow fiasco - and thought it was a damn shame that she genuinely seemed interested in a cause (AIDs) and the public attacked her and made all sorts of racist allegations. .. AJ can appear in blackface for a movie and people eat that shit up - Gwyneth Paltrow had her face painted with tribal makeup for an AIDs Charity and it's racist?? Dammit, I did have something bad to say..

[moomies]

Kinda off-topic but here are some celeb charities.

Stuff We Love: Charitable Celebrities


by Kimberly Potts (see more from this contributor)

We all love to read about the scandalous behavior of celebs,, but some of them are actually out there doing good too. Here, we spotlight five stars who aren't just showing up at charity events to drop off a check and pick up swag; they're actually creating and actively raising millions — and in the case of legendary philanthropist Paul Newman, hundreds of millions — for the causes nearest and dearest to their hearts.

Filmmagic.com

The Leary Firefighters Foundation

By: Comedian and actor Denis Leary
Founded: 2000
Why: A fire in an abandoned warehouse in Dorcester, Massachusetts, in December 1999 killed six firefighters, including Leary's cousin and a childhood friend.
Fund-raisers: Auctions, pro-am hockey games and star-studded dinners that have featured Leary pals like Harrison Ford and the entire Sopranos cast.
How's it doing? Leary's foundation has raised more than $2.5 million, which has been used to buy updated equipment and training for firefighters in New York and Boston, and raised almost $2 million for the family members of the 343 firefighters who died in the September 11 attacks in New York. The Foundation has also pledged to donate funds to the New Orleans Fire Department after it was revealed that New Orleans firefighters used their own personal boats to rescue thousands of people after Hurricane Katrina.
Denis says: "It's not just the big fires. If you're in a car accident, if you fall down the stairs, if your cat is stuck in a tree... Who do you call? You call a fireman."
You can give to: LearyFirefightersFoundation.org

Filmmagic.com

The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research

By: Emmy winner Michael J. Fox
Founded: 2000
Why: The Spin City and Back to the Future star announced in 1998 that he had been diagnosed with the disease seven years earlier.
Fund-raisers: An annual benefit dinner that has included concert performances and appearances from celebs like Heidi Klum and John Mayer adds to the organization's coffers every year, as do private donations, movie-premiere benefits and sporting events like golf tournaments. The Foundation also started Team Fox, a program that raises research funds through grassroots community efforts like sponsoring a team for the New York City Marathon.
How's it doing? The charity estimates that it has funded more than $80 million in research, on its own and with other groups. In addition, the Foundation recently collaborated in the launch of PDGene, a Website that lists studies on genes implicated in Parkinson's, and Fox still says the Foundation's ultimate goal is to help researchers find a cure for Parkinson's before 2010.
Michael says: "[The Foundation] is everything I hoped it would be. It's pure of motive, it's well staffed, and it's easy to follow. For me, as a layperson, I can pick up the phone anytime and say 'Where are we today?'"
You can give to: MichaelJFox.org

NYRP

New York Restoration Project

By: Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated singer and actress Bette Midler
Founded: 1995
Why: Midler wanted to revamp abandoned parks in New York City's most economically downtrodden neighborhoods.
Fund-raisers: The annual Harlem River Festival, a spring picnic event and Midler's annual "Hulaween" costume ball. The NYRP also opened the New Leaf Cafe in Upper Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park; the critically acclaimed restaurant is open to individuals and group events like weddings. In fact, actor Laurence Fishburne and actress Gina Torres were married at the New Leaf in 2002.
How's it doing? The NYRP has restored city parks like Fort Washington Park, Fort Tryon Park and Highbridge Park; removed more than 850 tons of garbage from parks around the city; provides community programs like field walks and bicycling; and even created Swindler Cove Park, a new park on the banks of the Harlem River at a site that was once an illegal dump.
Bette says: "When I moved to New York, I was very disappointed in how parts of the city looked. I was so upset I didn't sleep for weeks... People were throwing their garbage out the window, leaving their lunches on the ground... Finally, I realized I needed to do something — even if I had to pick up the stuff with my own two hands."
You can give to: NYRP.org

Filmmagic.com

Newman's Own

By: Oscar winner Paul Newman
Founded: 1982
Why: Newman wanted to create a line of foodstuffs that would taste great, and that would provide him with profits he could funnel to his favorite charities.
Fund-raisers: The Newman's Own product line started with salad dressings and has expanded to include spaghetti sauce, popcorn, salsa, salad dressings packaged with salads at McDonald's, lemonades, fruit juices, steak sauce and a spin-off line of organic goodies including cookies, coffee and cat food.
How's it doing? The company's products have earned more than $200 million for Newman, who, incredibly, donates 100 percent of his profits to his favorite charities, including civil rights groups, schools for the deaf, theater programs for low-income children, and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a summer camp in Connecticut for seriously ill children.
Paul says: "This is not a celebrity issue. This is a political issue, and the concept that a person who has a lot holds his hand out to someone who has less — or someone who isn't hurting holds his hand out to someone who is — is simply a human trait that has nothing to do with celebrity. I am confounded at the stinginess of some institutions and some people. I'm bewildered by it. You can only put away so much stuff in your closet... So, I don't think that there's anything exceptional or noble in being philanthropic. It's the other attitude that confuses me."
You can give to: NewmansOwn.com


Filmmagic.com

Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health

By: Oscar winner Jane Fonda
Founded: 2001
Why: Longtime teen-pregnancy activist Fonda, who was appointed as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund in 1994, endowed the Center to help fund research, training and educational programs that would explore, among other topics, the connection between sexual abuse and teen pregnancy.
Fund-raisers: The initial funding for the Center came directly from Fonda's bank account. In fact, she told a reporter that signing on for her role opposite Jennifer Lopez in the big-screen comedy Monster-in-Law was a decision she made mainly to raise cash for the Jane Fonda Center.
How's it doing? Among its many projects, the JFC has created a high school curriculum that encourages teens to avoid peer pressure about sex, encourages peer advisor relationships to foster positive attitudes about sex in teen girls, and has sponsored professional seminars about the relationship between sexual abuse and teen pregnancy that led many of the physicians and health-care workers in attendance to change their policies to be more proactive about teen health issues.
Jane says: "My goal for the center is to provide the very best training in the Southeast for professionals in the areas of early child development, adolescent reproductive health, and patient advocacy — most especially in the areas of violence and sexual abuse. We want to reach child-care workers, case managers in child protective services, teachers of sexuality education and people who need and want training in parenting skills."
You can give to: gynob.emory.edu/jfc_prog_teenservices.cfm

source:
http://entertainment.ivillage.com/li...wc8t-1,00.html