Kirk Douglas is my new hero. Today the legendary actor and his wife Anne dedicated their 400th school playground. Ten years ago the pair set up a foundation to build safe play areas for Los Angeles-area kids. After the dedication, 91-year-old Douglas played in the playground and even slid down the slides.
Kirk Douglas and his wife have dedicated their 400th school playground — completing a decade-long effort to give Los Angeles kids a place to frolic.
The 91-year-old actor took a ride down a slide during the unveiling Wednesday at a Los Angeles elementary school.
Douglas and his wife, Anne, created a foundation that has provided more than $8 million to build or refurbish play areas in the Los Angeles school district.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was on hand for the dedication and praised Douglas and his wife for their efforts. The governor and Douglas worked together in a 1979 movie called “The Villain” and have remained friends for three decades.
That’s amazing. These pictures make me ridiculously happy. What a great example to set for other people – especially celebs with the money to make such a positive impact.
Here’s Kirk and Anne Douglas at the kindergarten playground dedication ceremony at Ivanhoe Elementary School in Silver Lake, Los Angeles. These are easily my favorite celebrity photos ever. Images thanks to WENN.
Gerard Butler with his nieces at the Nim’s Island premiere
It seems that every now and then a Hollywood celebrity does something good, like donates a large amount of money to a worthy cause, or brightens a sick child’s day with a visit, or raises awareness about global issues.
While these are excellent actions that applaud, I always think it can’t compare to daring rescues or other selfless gestures made by civilians in times of crisis. Gerard Butler performed his own rescue in Scotland ten years ago, the kind of action that movies are made about.
The actor was handed a Certificate of Bravery by the Royal Humane Society of Scotland in 1997 after putting his own life on the line to pull a child from the River Tay.
But the 300 star refuses to accept he was brave: “I didn’t feel like a hero at all.
“I was initially gripped by fear and an empty feeling, thinking that the boy was dead.”
That is absolutely amazing – I admire anyone who will do that for a stranger. The most incredible story I’ve ever heard was one of a skydiver who was posthumously honored with a Star of Courage by Australia for giving his own life to save another.
On July 29, 2006 Melbourne woman Kimberley Dear was to have made her first skydive in America. But when engine failure caused the plane to plummet to the ground seconds after take-off, Mr (Robert) Cook, her instructor, clipped his skydive harness to hers and demanded she use his body as a mattress. He was killed on impact.
Still recovering physically and emotionally from the accident, Ms Dear said: “There aren’t many people who would put their life on the line for a stranger - you might do it for the people you love but would you do it for someone you just met?”
It’s hard to believe that people can chose to save someone’s life at the cost of their own. I don’t know if I could risk my life for a complete stranger.
Gerard Butler is obviously reaped good karma from his rescue - his career has been going from strength to strength in recent years. He appears this summer in Nim’s Island.
Butler is rumored to be dating Cameron Diaz.
Gerard Butler is shown with his nieces at the premiere of Nim’s Island on 3/30/08, thanks to PRPhotos.
Here’s yet another reason to adore NBC’s hit comedy “The Office:” the show recently paid tribute to a young fan who passed away unexpectedly from the flu by airing an “In Memoriam” segment at the end of Thursday’s episode.
By all accounts, Nathan Robinson was a 15-year-old who loved math, music and The Office.
On Thursday night, Robinson’s favorite TV show paid on-air tribute to the Massachusetts high-school student who died March 14 of flu-related complications.
The in memoriam dedication appeared during the end credits of the NBC comedy’s 9 p.m. episode. It was accompanied by grainy home video of Robinson playing the show’s theme on the piano.
It appears the powers that be at The Office learned of Robinson and his rendition of their theme music after the Boston Globe ran a feature on the teen March 21.
The story noted Robinson’s love of everything from Beethoven to the paper pushers of Dunder-Mifflin. It also recounted how a few weeks before his death, Robinson and a friend got to talking about their favorite TV series. When the friend suggested Robinson, a talented pianist, take a crack at the show’s title tune, Robinson did. The resulting 32-second video, “Nathan Plays Piano,” was posted on YouTube the day after Robinson’s death.
The clip, which even after the Globe story ran could hardly be called an Internet phenomenon, was starting to head that way in the wake of its exposure on The Office. On Friday, the video was attracting thousands of views, and dozens of comments.
“I saw this while watching The Office last night, like everyone else here. And, like everyone else here, I was moved by it, so I just had to go on here and watch his playing,” one post said. “He was so talented…”
Said another: “Classy move by The Office to pay tribute to one of their fans. Rest in peace, young man.”
Kate, the friend who shot and posted the video—she didn’t want to disclose her last name—wrote in an email to E! News Friday that it was overwhelming to see people from all over reach out to Robinson.
“It was really amazing!” Kate wrote. “Nathan was such a fan of The Office, and he would have been so excited.”
I am getting teared up just thinking about this. How many TV shows have ever paid tribute to a fan like this? It’s pretty awesome. I can’t think of a single snarky thing to say right now, and that’s a big deal. Kudos to the producers at “The Office” for paying tribute in such a low key, heartfelt way.
Ricky Martin has done an extraordinary amount of charity work in his attempts to bring attention to child trafficking. While a lot of celebs sign on to champion a cause and never do much more than attend a few fancy dinners, a select few remain devotedly committed to their cause – and Martin is definitely one of them. On Saturday he went to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where he met with young victims of human trafficking that were used for sexual exploitation. The stories shared are truly heartbreaking, and highlight how incredibly important this cause really is.
Martin held infants and listened to a 14-year-old rape victim’s song during his visit to a shelter in the northwestern city of Siem Reap, home of the famed Angkor temples. “She sings like an angel,” Martin said after the girl finished a song she composed about the plight of trafficking victims. The girl was among 65 victims sheltered at the rescue center of Afesip, a French non-governmental group working to combat human trafficking in Cambodia.
The pop star also held the 3-month-old daughter of a 22-year-old woman who was sold by her father to a brothel and is now HIV-positive. The woman broke down in tears as she urged Martin to keep fighting against human trafficking. “I’m not going to stop,” Martin said, pounding his fist on his knee as he sat on a tiled floor. “All of you are my heroes. You are a gift of my life.”
Martin, who arrived in the country Wednesday, met with Interior Minister Sar Kheng and visited various projects run by non-governmental organizations fighting child trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Ricky Martin first learned about the horrors of child human trafficking in February when he attended a U.N. conference about it. Since then he has actively campaigned to bring attention to the cause in Latin America. He said that Cambodia is a model for change, as they already have over 200 NGOs devoted to ridding the country of the crime. Martin said he plans to take the information he learned in Cambodia home and use it to “motivate people, organizations, governments in Latin America.” Cambodia and Thailand are still the worst havens for child human trafficking in the world, but Martin is right, they’ve made some important inroads. He’s had a ton of publicity in Latin America for his attention to this cause, and hopefully will stick with it and help bring on much-needed change.
Here’s Ricky Martin at the 8th Annual Latin Grammy Awards on November 8th. Images thanks to PR Photos.
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,” 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 triumph”, 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,” he says. Adding, in response to a question about giving Kingston a sibling, “We’ll see what happens.”
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.”
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.
It appears there’s a chance – a chance – that I might have misjudged Nicole Richie’s ability to be a decent parent. I’m not saying I’m totally wrong, but it appears that, if nothing else, fiancé Joel Madden has been a good influence on her. When the two set up the Richie Madden Children’s Foundation, I assumed it was just to get some good PR, and detract from Nicole’s DUI and spending 84 minutes in jail while pregnant. A lot of celebs seem to talk about how they’re starting a charity, and then you never hear about it again. That’s what I assumed would happen here. Kind of like Paris Hilton’s peacekeeping mission to Africa that we’ve been hearing about for so long. But it appears that the Richie/Madden duo actually are trying to do some good with their charity – they handed out $200,000 worth of baby goods to 100 needy families through the Los Angeles Free Clinic.
The couple hosted a surprise baby shower Monday for 100 expectant and new moms at the Los Angeles Free Clinic in Hollywood, where they handed out more than $200,000 worth of gifts. “The looks on their faces were priceless,” Richie told reporters after the shower. “Some of them didn’t even believe us [when they saw the gifts]. They thought we were joking.”
The Richie Madden Children’s Foundation, Madden said, was an idea the couple had when they found out they were expecting. “We grew up in Los Angeles,” he said, “and we want our child to be a part of the community, and to know that there’s a responsibility to help the community.” And it’s a family affair. “We named it the Richie Madden Children’s Foundation because we each have families and our families are close, and our family is involved,” Richie said. By her side with his arm stroking her back during moments in the conference, Madden quipped, “We’re lucky that we have families that get along and love each other,” adding, “I think it’s great that our child will grow up as a part of that family.”
Amongst the goodies given to families in need were Baby Bjorn products, cribs, mattresses and toys from Fisher-Price. “Everything they got, we got,” Richie says, “so everything that will be in their nursery, will be in our nursery.”
People reported that for Nicole’s baby shower, guests were asked to bring gifts to donate to the charity instead of for the couple – though each guest did bring a book for the baby. I don’t want to sound naive, but I’m pretty impressed. There are few people less in need of baby supplies than celebrities. Nicole still got to have the fun of a shower (and I’m assuming the dumb games involving storks and diapers and such) but they actually managed to do something really great and useful for people in need. Hopefully this is a positive indication that Nicole is maturing and able to think about the needs of others.
Picture note by Celebitchy Nicole Richie is shown on 11/26/07 before having lunch with Paris and Nicky Hilton for publicity purposes.
A 8-year-old disabled boy wanted to meet Jennifer Aniston on the set of her new film, Management, in Madras, Oregon. Kind-hearted Aniston made sure that the little guy was able to get on the set immediately, and she took time out to personally meet with him, signing a photo for him and spending time talking to him.
Isaiah Beeson suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, which causes brittle bones that are weak and can easily break. He is a big fan of Aniston and loves to watch Friends repeats. His grandfather told the National Enquirer that Aniston really went out of her way for Isaiah, and that he couldn’t stop talking about what a “super nice lady” she was:
[Jennifer Aniston] was in her trailer prepping for a scene when she heard that Isaiah Beeson - an 8-year-old with a debilitating bone disease that confines him to a wheelchair - wanted to say hello.
“Jennifer made arrangements for Isaiah to be brought on-set immediately,” the child’s grandfather, Danny Beeson, told The Enquirer in an exclusive interview. “It was second nature to her to want to make his day, and it was a dream come true for the little guy.
“Isaiah’s only eight, but he knows and loves Jennifer from watching ‘Friends’ repeats with his mom.
“He’ll never forget how Jennifer made time for him… [Her] attention really raised his spirits.. He kept saying what a ’super nice lady’ she was after he left the set.”
[From The National Enquirer, print edition, December 3, 2007]
This touching story reminds me of Colin Farrel, who also spends time with disabled fans and does small acts of charity without asking for recognition or seeking publicity. It’s telling that the only magazine covering this story is The National Enquirer, and it suggests and Aniston tried to keep it quiet. There are no pictures of her with the boy, and the article is accompanied by just a small picture of Isaiah with his mom. If she wanted the news to get out she would have called someone on-set to come and take photos so that she could get some positive press out of it.
Aniston may not be going out of her way to do charity, but she’s not too caught up in her career to be kind to fans. Last summer when asked if she was interested in world affairs, she quipped “No, I’m not interested in any of that. I like to just focus on me and my tabloid career.” We know she sure didn’t try to use this opportunity to get some press. Maybe she figures that charity is her ex’s thing and she’s damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t.
Aniston is reportedly doing some public charity, though, she is slated to appear in the upcoming Oprah-produced reality charity show on ABC “The Big Give.”. She was announced as taking part in the show this spring along with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, and that’s when filming took place. I’m not sure why we haven’t seen the show yet.
Header image is an older one of Aniston from 8/29/07, thanks to WENN. She has really stayed out of the spotlight lately, probably because she’s filming in Oregon.
