If you’d like more stories about celebrities doing nice deeds, please comment on this one, even if you’re dissing Bradley Cooper in any other area of his life. The dude is milquetoast but he does random kind deeds, just like his ex girlfriend, Renee Zellweger. I actually like him a lot more after this story, which could be leaked by his publicist but if so they did it expertly. Only the National Enquirer has this news, which makes it sound real to me. I know a lot of you diss the Enquirer, but they get more genuine scoops than the other gossip rags, they just paint everything with the same awesome, sensational brush. I love that rag so much. Anyway supposedly Bradley Cooper was filming in Philadelphia, which is where he’s from, and sent his assistant to buy thousands of dollars of winter coast for the homeless. He then personally handed them out, and when one guy told him he liked his coat, Cooper gave it to him!
The 36 year-old actor, who is filming “The Silver Linings Playbook” in his hometown, Philadelphia, shelled out thousands of dollars on coats, gloves, hats and scarves for the homeless.
“While filming in Philly, Bradley noticed a lot of people shivering on the streets,” a source told The Enquirer.
“He knew that the weather was only going to get worse, with early snowfall and blistering cold temperatures predicted, so he sent his assistant to several discount stores to buy thousands of follars of clothing.
“The Bradley returned to the area and began to hand out the clothing himself…
“One homeless man mentioned that he liked the designer jacket Bradley was wearing,” recalled the source. “It had been given to him by his pal Robert De Niro, but Bradley still gave the guy the coat off his back – literally.”
[From The National Enquirer, print edition, November 21, 2011]
Ok, I was buying this story until they added the detail that Cooper gave a guy the jacket off his back and that it was given to him by De Niro! That’s a little much. Still, if Cooper’s dad used to take him to homeless shelters I could see him going to his hometown, remembering what his dad taught him and wanting to help. Cooper’s dad passed away earlier this year and he started wearing his dad’s wedding ring as a remembrance to him. The guy may have a soft heart underneath that confusing GQ exterior. Plus, this was in The Enquirer, not in one of the publicist approved magazines like People or US. After reading this nice story, I almost forgot that Cooper is fake-dating J.Lo!
The simple fact that many of us love to hate on Gisele Bundchen is easily evidenced by the responses to this recent post, in which the very effusive supermodel just doesn’t seem to realize when she’s leaking not-so-subtle airs of condescension towards the unwashed masses (including her own sisters). Quite simply, the woman has a chronic case of verbal diarrhea and could easily use a few lessons in diplomacy.
I do agree that Gisele doesn’t come off well in print interviews; and certainly, she must be least slightly insufferable in person at times. So when I first heard about Gisele’s surprise visit to children suffering from cancer, my first thought was, “What the hell are these poor kids going to do with modelling lessons?” Yet the story itself turns out to be genuinely sweet and rather moving as well:
She’s known for striding down some of the world’s most famous catwalks, so it was an altogether different kind show for supermodel Gisele Bundchen when she surprised a group of young cancer patients this weekend.
The Brazilian beauty, 31, met the girls – all patients at the Jimmy Fund Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – at a Boston salon, where, after a pampering session, she taught them how to strut like a model.
The world-famous fashion figure, ranked 60th in Forbes’ list of Most Powerful Women, was so moved by the experience that she left in tears.
As part of a special Girls’ Weekend Out, the 29 youngsters were treated to hair styling, make-up, manicures and pedicures at Salon Pini & Co. Little did they know they were about to meet the “model of the millennium.”
WEEI show host, John Dennis, helped organise the model’s unexpected appearance through the Gisele’s husband, New England Patriots star, Tom Brady.
Mr Dennis told the Boston Herald about the surprise: “I asked them to turn down the music, and said ‘Can I have your attention, because we’re not done yet. You all look beautiful. This looks like a room of supermodels. I think the only way we could raise the level of supermodel-dom in this room is to bring out the world’s most famous supermodel.’”
Her effect on the patients was special, he said: “I’ve spent some time with the kids from the Jimmy Fund, and the one thing you notice is that there’s a deep and abiding sadness in their eyes. And even today, it was there still. But when she came in, it went away.”
Patient Hannah Baiona, 15, described meeting the Boston-based star. “We all started clapping and everyone was excited… She individually met with us all and gave us each a rose, and gave us each a hug, and we got to take pictures with her. She was mostly saying hi to everyone, being like “It’s nice to meet you! You look so pretty. You look so good!’”
The high school sophomore, who is in remission from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, told the Herald: “We made a fake little catwalk in the salon, and we each walked down it. Then there were three girls that were in wheelchairs, and she strolled them down the catwalk. Another girl and I didn’t want to walk alone, so she waked arm-in-arm with us.”
The supermodel was so moved by meeting the patients that she left the salon in streams of tears.
Mr Dennis said: “Her face was turned away from the kids and she started crying uncontrollably. The tears were streaming down her face. She was emotionally drained. She said ‘I love all of you,’ and got in the elevator before they could see her face. It was unbelievable.”
If you so desire some pictorial evidence of this event, a few rather blurry Facebook photos are available here, and here is some video footage of Gisele pushing the wheelchairs of these kids down an imaginary runway:
Now here’s the obvious question — did Gisele make this visit out of sheer selflessness, or was she simply trying to improve her public image? At this point, the reason behind her actions really doesn’t matter because she reportedly did grow overwhelmed with emotion, and she definitely did make these kids feel important for the day.
So while Gisele will probably go back to acting like her blissfully pompous self once again in short order, she did a good thing here. Model behavior, if you will.
This story comes from Mike Walker in the National Enquirer. Walker regularly runs celebrity hero stories that seem implausible and too good to be true. I know this and I’ve read his column for years, but I still got choked up hearing this story about how Jeff Bridges allegedly collected food after the Golden Globes and handed it out to homeless people afterwards. Somehow only Walker has this story, which again could be fan fiction. It’s still really touching and sounds like something Bridges would do.
After attending the Golden Globes, Jeff raised eyebrows when he raided tables and the kitchen area for food, stuffing several bags with cold cuts, bread, cookies, cakes, cheeses, crackers and an array of leftover gourmet meals. Jeff’s assistants humped the mini-deli of yummies out to his limo while he exited via the red carpet and signed autographs for clamoring fans. Said my source “When Jeff finally got into the limo, he directed his chauffeur to a freeway underpass on the outskirts of L.A. When they pulled up, Jeff hopped out, waved a band of about a dozen homeless people over to the car – then started handing out the bags of food. After chatting a while, the star – who’s actually made several trips to the same underpass, passing out warm bedding and clothing as well as food – got back in his limo and took off as the homeless people applauded and cheered!”
[From National Enquirer, print edition, Mike Walker's column, March 28, 2011]
I like to think that Bridges has a soft spot for the homeless, that he took time out on the night of the Globes to deliver food, and that he’s been quietly doing charity work without telling anyone for years. That would be the Bridges we know and love, the nice guy who doesn’t seek publicity for his good deeds.
Jeff Bridges is shown at a True Grit photocall on 2/10/11. Credit: Fame Pictures
These are some newish photos of Johnny Depp, dressed up in character as Jack Sparrow, on set in England yesterday. While he had all of his junk on this morning (or maybe it was yesterday), he also paid a visit to a London school. The photos are here – Johnny looks hilariously deranged standing next to normal children. What would you do if you were a kid and Jack Sparrow came to visit your school? You would freak the f-ck out, right?
OH to be a kid again. Hollywood Lord JOHNNY DEPP was a surprise guest at a London school’s assembly this morning.
The actor – who is currently filming the fourth Pirates Of The Caribbean movie in Greenwich – took some time out to make an impromptu trip to Meridian primary school dressed as his character Captain Jack Sparrow.
His visit came after one of the school’s pupils, Beatrice, wrote a letter to him saying: “Captain Jack Sparrow, at Meridian Primary School we are a bunch of budding young pirates and we were having a bit of trouble mutiny against the teachers. We’d love it if you could come and help. From Beatrice De Lap aged nine, a budding pirate.”
Teachers only found out the actor was coming ten minutes before he arrived and parents were shocked when their kids came running out telling them what had happened.
Aw… a kid wrote a fan letter and Johnny showed up! That’s magnificent. I imagine there were a few damsels-in-distress/teachers who were swooning too. But just one little criticism, because my mom’s a teacher: I bet those kids weren’t able to be calmed down for the rest of the day. Ideally, this is the kind of visit that should be scheduled for the end of the school day, not the morning. Still, it’s an adorable thing to do, and bless him.
Photos of Depp in costume in Greenwich on October 6, 2010. Credit: Bauer-Griffin.
This is a cute story that kind of warms my heart. However, it also smacks of positive PR and I wouldn’t put it past Renee Zellweger and her people to stage something like this. That may sound too cynical and normally I wouldn’t assume something like that about Renee, but she seems to be playing the game lately and this is Hollywood. The official version is that a guy paid Renee’s expired meter while she was getting coffee and she gifted him with a sweet note and a $100 Starbucks gift card. It all seems too convenient that the paparazzi just happened to be there to capture the moment and even get a photo of Renee’s note. (And several agencies have these photos so it’s not like one guy just happened upon the scene. Still, she’s wearing the same workout gear she wears everywhere so she didn’t dress up for the occasion.)
She’s usually the one drinking (and carrying) the coffee. But on Wednesday, Renée Zellweger was the person serving it.
The actress was preparing to leave a Santa Monica, Calif., Starbucks when a fellow coffee-drinker noticed that her parking meter was about to expire. In the nick of time, the man slipped some coins into the meter, saving the actress from a possible ticket. Her reply? Zellweger gave him a $100 Starbucks gift card – with a sweet message.
“Wow,” the note read. “Thank you so much for the kindness. Warmly, with gratitude, Renée!
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard a nice story about Renee extolling kindness on strangers. In late 2007, she gifted a pair of Manolo Blahniks to a girl who worked at a makeup counter at Neiman Marcus who was admiring them. That story could have been PR too, but it sounded genuine to me. Maybe Renee is just the type of person who likes to share her success in small meaningful ways with the people who brighten her day. If this is PR, it’s genius and more celebrities should follow suit. I would love to hear about a campaign to spread joy to the nice people we encounter during the day. Even if it was a marketing campaign for a product or service it could go a long way to spreading kindness. I loved that free hugs campaign, but this would be a little less touchy-feely. I would love to give some small token to the guy who holds the door open for me (I’m visiting the South now, and they all do it, but it still makes me smile every time!) or the cashier who is especially friendly. Maybe Renee started a trend!
Update: the guy was a photographer: I wrote this whole story and was then downloading the photos from WENN, when I saw the photo agency’s version. This guy wasn’t a random citizen as People reports – he was a paparazzo! They write: “The unnamed photographer spotted a parking attendant doing his rounds as he was waiting for the movie star to leave her coffee shop retreat after a shopping trip in Santa Monica, California. The quick-thinking snapper dropped coins into her meter to make sure Zellweger didn’t get a ticket.” So Renee may have given the gift card to thank the guy with the benefit of getting into the paparazzi’s good graces and receiving some positive press out of it. She seems to have succeeded on both counts! Aw, now I like her more.
Yesterday we discovered that Angelina had flown straight from the Super Bowl in Miami to the Dominican Republic to meet with Haitian earthquake survivors and refugees. At first, I thought Angelina was just doing a day-long trip to the Dominican Republic, but she stayed on and traveled to Haiti, arriving in Port-au-Prince to view the earthquake damage first-hand, and to meet with more refugees and survivors living in-country. We still don’t have access to so many of the photos coming out of her trip, but PopEater has a great slideshow. UNHCR online also updated their site with comments Jolie made in-country, and there are more details about where she traveled and what issues she was focused on, including the Haitian SOS Children’s Village.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, February 9 (UNHCR) – UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie arrived on Tuesday in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, where she visited earthquake survivors and met aid workers from local and international organizations.
Jolie, who said she was in Haiti to “listen and to learn,” visited medical centres, the UN mission and met with vulnerable children. On her arrival in the Haitian capital, Jolie was briefed by the United Nations Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General Edmond Mulet on the scale of the humanitarian operation to date and the challenges that remain.
She also visited a cash-for-work programme run by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in the Carrefour district of Port-au-Prince, which is enabling Haitians to earn an income as they help their country to recover. “To give people the ability to work towards their own future is so important at this time. It helps to restore their hope and respects their dignity,” said Jolie.
The programme is assisting some 40,000 people with an aim of reaching more than 400,000. She commended the participants who told her they were happy to clean up their country and then sang her a song about Haitian pride.
In the Santo area of Port-au-Prince, Jolie visited SOS Children’s Villages, a worldwide programme to raise children inside their own countries. Since the earthquake, the organization has begun providing additional care for children who have been newly orphaned or who have lost contact with their parents as a result of the catastrophe. SOS is working to reunite children with their family members and will continue to care for those without any caregivers.
Jolie applauded their work, while stressing that “new adoptions should definitely not be encouraged as an immediate response to the emergency. Haiti had many trafficking problems before the earthquake and now must keep a very close watch on the children. I would encourage as much support as possible to groups like SOS and UNICEF providing care for children in country.”
The acclaimed actress also visited a tented hospital set up and run by UNHCR partner, Médecins Sans Frontières, in the commune of Delmas, also in Port-au-Prince. “I was struck by the strength and spirit of the Haitian people. Children as young as nine months old were coping with amputations with extraordinary resilience. I even met a little 10-year-old boy who had recently had his leg amputated, who was giggling to himself about a silly book as he sat on the floor,” Jolie revealed.
“These doctors are extraordinary,” she said. “For all the patients that had to have amputations there are also a high number of limbs and lives that the doctors have managed to save.”
“It will take years to rebuild Haiti,” Jolie said, after seeing the devastation from the January 12 earthquake. “Every day, the UN, governments, NGOs and local organizations are providing more people with protection, food, water, shelter and health care, yet the needs are still enormous and the displacement could last a decade.
“Providing adequate shelter to the displaced is of paramount importance, especially as the upcoming rainy season threatens to add to the devastation. Everyone is bracing themselves for a second wave of tragedy.”
Before arriving in Haiti, Jolie spent a day in the Dominican Republic, where she visited Haitian earthquake victims in the local public hospital and in nearby shelters. “I was heartened to see the care being provided by Dominican doctors and nurses and to witness the generosity of local society, which is caring for discharged patients and their families in their recovery,” she said.
While touring the SOS Children’s Village, the Haitian people began chanting “Angie! Angie!” apparently. In addition to that, the President of Haiti Children (Mercy and Sharing), Suzie Krabacher told Radar: “I think Angelina is an angel for visiting the area and bringing more attention to all the work that still needs to be done in Haiti and I wish her the greatest success.”
I get that there is a significant number of people who question Angelina’s motives as a goodwill ambassador for the UNHCR. But she’s been at this for nine years, and at this point, if all she needed was a quick press hit, she would have found an easier way to get it rather than donating millions of dollars and spending the days, weeks and months putting her time and energy where her mouth and wallet are. To my mind, her motives are pure, and I think she does more good than harm for the UNHCR and for the SOS Children‘s Village program.
To donate to the SOS Children’s Village program, go here. To donate to the UNHCR, go here.
UPDATE: There’s a short video of Angelina in Haiti too:
Is this why Angelina flew into Miami solo? So she could jet off from Miami to the Dominican Republic? Maybe. So it seems that right after Brangelina’s PDA-filled Super Bowl, Angelina jetted off to the Dominican Republic to visit with some Haitian refugees, survivors of the January 12 earthquake. According to the Associated Press/Huffington Post, Angelina spent Monday at the Dario Contrera Hospital speaking with several patients. Angelina released a statement about her trip, saying: “”It is incredibly horrible to see a catastrophe of this size hit a people who have been suffering from extreme poverty, violence and unrest for so many decades.” Jolie was accompanied by Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, a representative of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (of which Angelina is special goodwill ambassador):
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic — Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has met with hospitalized Haitian earthquake victims in the Dominican Republic.
Dario Manon is a spokesman for the Dario Contrera Hospital in the capital of Santo Domingo, where dozens of survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake in neighboring Haiti are receiving medical help.
Manon says Jolie toured the hospital Monday and spoke with several patients. He told reporters: “She spoke with several children and a Haitian woman who recognized her and requested help.”
The actress was accompanied by Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the son of Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa.
Jolie is a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency.
There are a few photos from the trip, but it doesn’t look like many agencies were alerted ahead of time. I found one photo from Angelina’s trip, here. It sounds like Angelina didn’t spend the night in the Dominican Republic, she probably left the same day she came in. Which some people will complain about, but I can see how she probably didn’t want to take any resources that should be used for refugees (bed, blankets, water, et cetera). And hey, at least she wasn’t there to deliver the word of Xenu, you know?
To donate to the UNHCR – who lost several staffers in the Haitian earthquake – go here.
George Clooney’s star-studded Haiti relief telethon is coming on tonight, on pretty much every channel you could think of. CNN, MTV, ABC, NBC, VH1, and many, many more. Clooney admitted in a new interview that he’s been up for days trying to organize this thing, and last minute guests and performers are still being added today. Meanwhile, there has been some talk of making the guests and performers pay a “cover charge” for entry into the telethon, but it hasn’t really gotten any traction. It might have been a good idea, but I think Clooney is just focused on getting the damn thing on the air without any technical difficulties and he’s probably not focused on trying to force all of his celebrity friends donate seven-figures immediately.
Not to say they aren’t already, though. George himself put up a million dollars, which he will likely announce during the telethon. Also, Leonardo DiCaprio was the first star to put up a million dollars for Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, with the money being directed to “near-term assistance and long-term recovery efforts.” Here’s more:
George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio are opening up their wallets to help victims in the earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
Clooney is donating $1 million to Friday’s “Hope for Haiti Now” celebrity telethon. He will officially make his donation during the telecast.
He told Entertainment Tonight that he’s been up “three days straight” trying to put together the broadcast, which will air on all four leading U.S. networks, dozens of cable channels and internationally on Internet websites. Brad Pitt and Robert Pattinson are among the participants; Beyonce and Madonna have been added as performers.
Meanwhile, DiCaprio also has donated $1 million.
His money will go to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund (CBHF) to support near-term assistance and long-term recovery efforts, his rep tells UsMagazine.com.
His donation, dispersed through the Leonardo DiCaprio Fund, which fosters awareness of environmental issues, will help with immediate relief efforts as well as with longer-term redevelopment and infrastructure projects, including a focus towards sustainable development.
“I am grateful for the generous gift Leonardo DiCaprio and his Foundation have made in support of our Clinton Bush Haiti Fund,” former President Clinton said. “Combined with the outpouring of donations from Americans and citizens around the world of all means, this support will go a long way to help save more lives, reach more people with emergency assistance, and help the Haitian people build their nation back stronger and more secure than it was before the earthquake.”
Beyonce will be performing from London (probably standing right next to Sparkles!), and Madge will perform in New York. Hopefully the divas will keep it to their hits and not try to push some “new material” on us. My guess for Beyonce is “Halo” and for Madge… “Don’t Tell Me”. Wouldn’t that be awesome? I love that song. Ah… Madge. The other musical performers include: Bruce Springsteen, Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift, Justin Timberlake and Keith Urban.
Clooney also did an MTV interview that aired last night. He told the audience: “It’s a big world out there, and we all have a lot of responsibility to look out for people who can’t look out for themselves. So what we can do is first and foremost, raise money. Period. That’s it …If I thought we could all pick up shovels and go in there and help without being in the way, I think a lot of people would do that.” I’ll be watching (and donating!).
Clooney at the Golden Globes on January 17, 2010. Credit: FayesVision/WENN.com
While I was eating an early dinner yesterday afternoon (my eating habits are like a senior citizen’s), I watched the first ten minutes of Oprah. She had Wyclef Jean on, and he broke my heart. Within five minutes of clips and discussion about the situation in Haiti, Wyclef’s voice broke and tears started rolling down his cheek. It was genuine – Wyclef has spent a large part of the past two weeks in Haiti, trying to find his friends, employees, family members and just people. People who are trapped, people who have lost everything, people who don’t have water or hospitals or food or communication.
Later on, I was reading Gawker and I came across this interesting summary/essay/appeal to Wyclef in regards to his Oprah appearance and the continuing reports that Wyclef’s charity, Yele Haiti, is perhaps not the best charity to be donating to at this time. In a piece called “Wyclef Jean: Give The Millions You’ve Raised To Those Who Can Help Haiti Now,” Gawker’s John Cook makes it clear that while he completely respects and has sympathy for Wyclef and the truly genuine heartbreak Wyclef is feeling, the best thing for everyone would be if Wyclef pulled back:
Ego and financial improprieties aside, Wyclef Jean has demonstrated a genuine desire to help the people of Haiti. To do that, it’s time he acknowledge his personal foundation isn’t equipped to provide disaster relief and donate to those who can.
We and others have demonstrated this week that his charity Yele Haiti is fraught with chronic management problems that make it less effective, transparent, and ethically managed than any charity ought to be. And this afternoon, Jean appeared on Oprah to address some of those concerns.
During the show he offered abundant proof of his anguish over what has happened to his homeland. When he spoke of what he has seen there, he was earnest, heartfelt, and moving. He told Winfrey about the friend who was crushed when a building collapsed onto his car, and how it took him two days to get the body out. About the 14-year-old he pulled out of the rubble alive. About the school for artists that his charity, Yele Haiti, sponsored that was “wiped out,” killing everyone inside.
He was there to witness it, and deserves credit for that. He also deserves credit for the extent to which he has used his celebrity to draw attention to the problems facing Haiti before and after the earthquake.
In the years before the earthquake, Jean has done some undeniable good for Haiti. Pwoje Lari Pwop, a Yele-affiliated program that employs 2,500 elderly Haitians a day to collect garbage on the streets of Port-au-Prince, has been repeatedly cited to us by even the charity’s harshest internal critics as an example of what Yele is capable of doing. The organization has sponsored thousands of schoolchildren in primary schools. They host rap competitions and soccer matches.
There will be a time, hopefully soon, when clean streets, scholarships, and rap competitions will number once again among Haiti’s most urgent needs. But right now, Haiti needs, as Jean himself put it, “logistics on the ground—the helicopters, the trucks.”
One day, Yele Haiti may outgrow its ethical and administrative failings, but today Yele simply doesn’t have enough of those things to make a dent.
As of 2007, the last year for which it has released a tax return, Yele Haiti was running close to a half million dollar deficit, its president and his deputy were resigning amid a “crisis” brought about by Yele’s failure to reimburse its employees own expenses, and its programs in Haiti were often being administered in what one source who worked for Yele there described as a slapdash and unprofessional fashion. It simply does not have the immediately available organizational capacity to provide the people of Haiti the help that Jean desperately wants them to have.
Which is why the best way for Jean to help is to do what George Clooney is doing: Deploy his celebrity to raise money, and then direct that money to the people who best know how to help. Yele Haiti stands to raise millions of dollars on Friday night as one of five charities participating in the “Hope for Haiti” telethon — vast multiples of the sorts of funds it’s previously had access to. Jean may see this crisis has an opportunity to achieve the ambitions for Yele that he laid out for Winfrey. But it’s not a time for ego.
It’s time for him to remove himself from the equation. He can offer the millions of dollars that have been pledged to Yele to one of the other worthy organizations that will benefit from Friday’s telethon — Partners in Health, the Red Cross, Oxfam and UNICEF — or others who already have helicopters and trucks in Haiti. It would be a laudatory move, which would assure Yele’s future donors — who are going to be vital if Jean wants to expand and beef up its ongoing programs — that its plans are not interwined with its founder’s ego. The appearance that Yele is attempting to take advantage of this situation to transform itself from a shaky if well-intentioned personal foundation into a disaster relief organization does a great injustice both to Yele’s donors and the Haitians they are trying to help.
In explaining why he’s been able to raise an astonishing $1 million a day through text donations, Jean told Winfrey that people who wanted to help said, “We’re gonna give our money to Wyclef, because he came from Haiti, he’s been doing this.” That’s a sad and telling misreading of the shocked and horified Americans who want to help. No one wants to give their money to Wyclef. They want to give it to Haiti. And he can help them do that by turning it over to the professionals.
Giving the money Yele’s raised in the immediate aftermath of the quake to other non-profits would also preserve Jean’s credibility as the most prominent celebrity voice in America when it comes to Haiti. Because he does himself and his homeland a disservice when he goes on Oprah and tells embarrassing lies like, “I put my first $1 million into the charity.” That claim is contradicted both by Yele’s founding executive director and the internal financial documents we reported on earlier today. Or when he flatly — and dishonestly — insists to Winfrey that he has “never in any form taken payment for myself” from Yele, despite clear and repeated evidence to the contrary in Yele’s tax returns and in internal financial documents. Lies do not inspire confidence that Jean and Yele have turned the corner just yet.
I think John Cook explains his position really well, and I agree. It’s not about finding fault with Wyclef for what he is and is not doing, or giving him credit for what he’s already done or what he will do – it’s about what can help the Haitian people in real terms, here and now, with an eye towards pragmatism and realistic goals. It’s not about Wyclef, and I’m saying that even though I really do admire him, admire his good heart and his love and passion for Haiti.
Wyclef in Miami, recording a message for Haiti on January 16, 2010. Credit: Johnny Louis/WENN.com
Even though Katherine Heigl is far from my favorite person, she keeps doing things that make me like her. She seems to adore her special-needs adopted daughter, which is really amazing, and becoming a mother seems to taken Heigl’s edge off. Add to that the activity surrounding Heigl’s charitable foundation, The Jason Heigl Foundation (named after Katherine’s brother who died many years ago), and I have admit that Katherine might be growing on me. That is, until she farts out something insane and narcissistic again, which should be any minute. So let’s just enjoy this moment of Heigl love: The JH Foundation is funding a new project in Hollywood – it seems that there’s an epidemic of Chihuahuas being abandoned or rescued by shelters in LA, and now those rescued puppies are being sent all over the country to find homes. As in, boxes (or crates) of Chihuahuas are being flown around the country at great cost, just so they don’t have to be euthanized, and Heigl’s picking up the tab.
A local organization plans to transport 35 Chihuahuas to new adoptive homes in Colorado this week. It’s an increasingly popular solution to the overabundance of Chihuahuas in California animal shelters.
SpcaLA, a private rescue organization that operates adoption centers in Long Beach and Hawthorne, is the latest group to move adoptable Chihuahuas to other parts of the country where there are fewer small dogs to be found in animal shelters.
Actress Katharine Heigl’s foundation recently arranged the transport of nearly 70 Chihuahuas to a New Hampshire humane society, which found new homes for each of them almost immediately.
SpcaLA was able to afford to move the dogs thanks to a private donor, Leslie Capin, who recently won $1 million in Paw Nation’s Cutest Dog Competition and decided to use the money to help pets in need. Pet Airways, the animals-only airline that launched earlier this year, offered a discounted fare. Their flight is scheduled to depart Thursday morning from Hawthorne Municipal Airport. A Denver-based rescue organization will arrange for them to be adopted in Colorado, where shelters are crammed with larger dogs but few small ones are available for adoption.
Proponents of the plan to transport Chihuahuas to other states argue that doing so is a way of killing two birds with one stone. “By moving the supply to the demand, we are negating the need for purchasing from an unscrupulous backyard breeder or puppy mill and reducing the current population of Chihuahuas” in California shelters, spcaLA President Madeline Bernstein explained.
But some fear that dogs adopted in far-off states will not have a similar safety net to those adopted from local rescue organizations — which typically provide ongoing support to new pet owners and will take back a previously adopted animal if things don’t work out. But Chihuahua-transport supporters believe that, by working with reputable rescue groups in the states to which the dogs are sent, they can ensure that adopters have knowledgeable local advisers to turn to if they need help with their new pets.
According to Kathy Davis, interim general manager of Los Angeles Animal Services, the city’s municipal animal shelters take in more than 300 Chihuahuas each month. Shelters in the San Francisco Bay Area report similar numbers, with many in the rescue community placing at least part of the blame for the number of owner-surrendered Chihuahuas on pop culture. “We call it the Paris Hilton syndrome,” Deb Campbell, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco animal care and control department, said in an interview with The Times’ Maria L. La Ganga.
See, I don’t even like Chihuahuas, but I think this nice. Of course, my neighbor with the yappy Chihuahua will probably end up rescuing a half a dozen more, just to spite me. But still, saving puppy lives is great, and it’s a non-traditional solution to save lives. I have to think that it’s very, very expensive to send all of those dogs around the country, but maybe it is the best solution. If Katherine doesn’t mind paying the tab, God bless.
Okay, these photos broke my heart. F-ck! These poor babies:
