Among the top names trying to help with the ongoing writer’s strike are Drew Carey and George Clooney. Carey has made sure that writers don’t go hungry while they’re picketing. He made an arrangement with Hollywood diners that he would personally cover the checks of anyone who comes in and shows their WGA cards!

Bighearted Drew Carey’s kept it hush-hush, but he’s secretly buying lunch and dinner for all picketing writers in LA and Hollywood for the duration of the… strike. Drew quietly made arrangements with area diners like Norms, Swingers, Mel’s and Denny’s - so all the writers have to do is flash their WGA cards and get fed!

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker's column, January 21, 2008]

Drew doesn’t even need writers for his game show “The Price is Right,” so that’s incredible of him to do! Carey is known for his generosity and even took all the crew members and their family from his new show on an all-expenses paid weekend trip to Las Vegas when he first started the job.

George Clooney is also trying to help striking writers. He wants to set up an all-star “mediation panel” to help negotiate a deal between the writers and studios. He plans to be on the panel, and is trying to get director Steven Spielberg and fellow actor Tom Hanks involved:

Hollywood’s Triple-A list actors have started becoming integrally involved in trying to solve the Writers Guild strike against the Hollywood CEOs. I’ve just been told that George Clooney today is volunteering to personally set up a so-called “mediation panel” including himself and with plans to ask Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and John Wells (the executive producer of ER and a controversial ex-WGA president) to be part of it, plus 3 or 4 bigwigs who are siding with the producers.

[From The Huffington Post]

Tom Hanks has also spoken out about the writer’s strike and urged the studios to get back to the bargaining table. At the premiere of Charlie Wilson’s War he said that many people have been affected by the strike and that they need to be considered too:

“There are caterers and carpenters … and electricians and gaffers,” the 51-year-old said. “There are a lot of people out there associated with the industry, for whom the sooner this work stoppage is over the better.

“I just hope that the big guys who make big decisions up high in their corporate boardrooms and what not get down to honest bargaining and everyone can get back to work.”

[From Reuters.com]

Now that the Golden Globes have been canceled there’s a huge concern that the Oscars, scheduled for February 24, won’t go on due to the strike. It’s no wonder that the big stars are stepping up and trying to solve the problem. Hopefully the strike will be resolved soon or we’re looking at a lot less original content and films for the future.

Drew Carey is shown on 9/4/07 in NY, thanks to WENN. George Clooney is shown at the People’s Choice Awards on 1/7/08, thanks to PRPhotos. Here are more pictures of Clooney at the People’s Choice Awards looking slightly goofy.

I really like Drew Carey. I don’t find him to be the funniest guy around, but he’s taken what life’s given him and worked with it pretty well. He’s a chubby dork and he works it like no other. He doesn’t pretend to be cooler than he is - I mean when you host “The Price is Right” how cutting edge can you be? Drew has started doing videos for the nonprofit Reason Foundation. His first video was about hellish Los Angeles traffic. Pretty mild topic, most people would agree with what he has to say. His second video? Legalizing medical marijuana. Probably a bit more controversial. I can’t help but wonder what his 73-year-old “Price is Right” viewers would think about that.

Drew Carey has his issues—with the federal government, that is. “I think it’s clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana. People who need it should be able to get it—safely and easily,” Carey said, describing the point of “Drew Carey Defends Medical Marijuana,” the second installment of The Drew Carey Project, his ongoing short-form documentary series posted on reason.tv.

In the new video, Carey first stands on a Brentwood—”where O.J. used to live”—street corner and points out all the places, including a pharmacy, a liquor store and Starbucks, where you “can get anything you want to bring you up and down.” The former sitcom star then visits a West Hollywood facility that sells physician-prescribed pot, which is legal in California, to people suffering from a range of debilitating ailments, from chronic back pain to cancer. The video also features interviews with average, gainfully employed, middleclass people who use medical marijuana to ease what ails them, as well as with L.A. County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Steve Whitmore, who says that “dispensaries are low on the priority scale of law enforcement,” in terms of who is partaking of pot within those walls.

“I think it’s clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana,” Carey, standing in a gas station parking lot, says in closing. “If that bothers you, it if makes you nervous that people are out there using marijuana to ease their pain, drive down to any old gas station in America like this one, buy yourself a nice, cold brew and pop the top. They really take the edge off.”

[From E! News]

Drew Carey actually makes some pretty good points, in terms of how readily available much more dangerous drugs are. I’m not really going to throw myself into the old medical marijuana debate – we’ve already established that I am adorably naïve and randomly old-fashioned, so we’ll leave it at that. I do generally understand the arguments both sides make. Here’s Drew’s video for the Reason Foundation:

I guess a nicer headline would have been “Drew Carey engaged” but what’s interesting about that? E! stared off their article about the engagement with the line “The way to Drew Carey’s heart turned out to be through his stomach” – because his new finance is a recent graduate from a cooking school… and because Drew’s a little portly (though certainly less than he used to be). I have to give them props – E always comes up with the best intros for their stories. If you were ever forced to sit through hours of the “Drew Carey Show” in high school because your dad thought it was funny but has a pretty simple sense of humor and didn’t know better - like I was - then you know Drew has a mild obsession with burgers and beer. I’m not sure someone who graduated from cooking school is going to want to spend a lot of time on hamburgers, but I’m guessing if she’s willing to marry Drew Carey, she’s willing to do a lot of things. Okay that was unnecessarily mean. I’m still mad at Drew Carey because I once had a dirty dream about him, and now I feel creepy whenever I see him on TV. *Shiver*

“The way to Drew Carey’s heart turned out to be through his stomach. The sitcom star turned game show host popped the question Tuesday to girlfriend Nicole Jaracz, a recent culinary school grad, according to Carey’s rep, Christina Papadopolous. “It will be the first marriage for both. No date for a wedding has been set yet,” she said in a statement. “They are both very happy and excited about their future together.”

“Aside from the thrill he must be feeling that his beloved Cleveland Indians are in the playoffs, Carey has been busy gearing up for his big debut as Bob Barker’s successor on The Price Is Right. Barker retired in June and Carey, a former stand-up comic and a veteran of his self-titled sitcom and Whose Line Is It Anyway, was tapped to come on down in July.

“After his gig hosting CBS’ The Power of 10 this summer, production kicked off on new episodes of Price and went smoothly for the most part, minus one trip to the emergency room. Carey’s left arm got banged up in August when he caught it in a spinning wheel while rehearsing the Grocery Game, which has contestants guessing the price of common household items. After his hand was fitted with a splint at a nearby hospital, Carey proudly showed off pictures of his injured appendage that he took with his iPhone.”

[From E! News]

I’m not sure if it’s the greatest idea to marry a guy who got injured by the big slow wheel on the Price is Right. Bob Barker managed to do it for like 300 years, and doesn’t look the worse for wear. In other Drew Carey/Price is Right news, here we have a video of a lady peeing on the show. Why? Well probably because she heard that someone actually agreed to marry Drew Carey.

“Three weeks ago, I scooped that ‘Price is Right’ host Drew Carey got contenstants p’so jazzed they’re peeing their pants - literally!’ … and related how one woman got so excited over winning a price that the dam broke, and she needed changing! Drew confirmed my exclusive on the Sept. 14 telecast of ‘Entertainment Tonight’ when he was asked: ‘What’s the craziest thing a contestant has done so far?’ Grinning, Drew responded: ‘A woman peed her pants!’”

[From the National Enquirer print edition, October 8, 2007]

Congrats to Drew and Nicole. May many years of culinary happiness be in your future.