HOPE FOR HAITI

[mrsl]

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I just wanted to send kudos to George Clooney for conceiving this telethon, and his ability to formulate it.

Two complaints - Nothing new. Apparently few of the ladies read our posts regarding singing vs. screaming. I am a happy person, and in most cases cheerful, but I just cannot take today's 'music'. If the banging of the bass in Rap isn't giving me a headache, the unnecessary loudness of the instruments as well as the human voices is.

Exactly when did it become fashionable for men to look like terrorists? So many of them wear those silly knit caps, almost all of them walk around with a two or three day beard, and the grungy clothes give them all that desert dweller look. The caps also make it look like they've shaved their head (another stupid fad), but found their head gets cold now. Many black men look good bald, but white men just look silly. I don't mind a man who becomes bald by nature, but for a young man with a healthy head of hair to shave it all off is ridiculous. I see now why airlines have to be so careful with security. So many men are looking like they need to be checked out closely, and women are walking around in boots that look like lumberjack's footwear, it must be really hard to differentiate the normal people from the weird.

I would have liked to listen to more conversations on the phones, its' kind of nice to know some of our celebrities can actually carry on a conversation with no script for them to read from.
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[Ollie]

Agree on so many of these well-stated points. Last night (Friday), my wife, our band's keyboard player and our drummer's wife joined about 15 other local women-musicians for a Haiti charity event in a club, raising money for a Haitian women's center. They raised about $14,000 and did a funds-transmittal before 11 pm Friday night. This morning, one of our CNN newscaster chums called from the women's center and said they see the new balance in their account. Wheeee. I love that.

First, this is a wonderful use for technology - doing so many bar-patrons' cash-card withdrawals into direct fund-transfers. Great. Second, there was no bleepin' Wyclef Jean paying himself three and four times over - what a bleepin' scumbag. Third, no OTHER administrators or "overhead expenses" have been scammed - er, skimmed - off the donations.

It infuriates me to read about Wyclef skimming off $100,000 as his own cash-salary for his past Haitian charity performances (2004, 2006, 2008 hurricanes), then sending money down to two Haitian companies - a TV production company and an engineering-architectural design firm.

He owns both. Both are "idea" places - they don't produce a thing or design anything. They TALK about it. He, his family members and his band get paid by those places for additional salaries.

WHAT IS CHARITY?!! In his mind, it's a chance to enrich himself. And a few of his friends.

I am SO sorry to see that George was tolerant enough to let Wyclef appear on TV in George's charity.

[mrsl]

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Ollie:

I don't know who Wyclef Jean is, I'll google him when I finish this. I do feel confident about the collected money being organized by George Clooney. On Sunday night, at the Golden Globes, they announced that he was already involved in the plans to organize this event which embarrassed him immensely. Clooney always seems to be there in the forefront to assist in relief to victims of national disasters, and he gets my admiratio
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[jdb1]

Please don't get upset, but the cynic in me just has to ask:

As horrible and affecting as the misery in Haiti is, what are all these "celebrities" doing to assist the millions of unemployed and recession-battered in their own country?

I'm afraid that, as usual, I have little patience with the self-aggrandizing charitable impulses of those who make their living, and perform all their "good deeds," with one eye on the camera. Which among those People cover boys/girls will organize a telethon to create job opportunities, or more to the point, to convince Congress and the business sector to create job opportunities, for their fellow citizens? Don't they know that the unemployed can't afford to attend movies or buy fan magazines, and may have to sell their TVs?

Where is the sainted Oprah when her public needs her so badly? It would be eminently possible for people like Winfrey, George Clooney, et al. to do both: to raise money to help Haiti, and to speak up for the American public, without which they would not be celebrities. Besides, it would give them twice as much camera time.

[mrsl]

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I didn't know how to phrase the question Judith, without sounding like Shreks sister (the ogre). You did it without rancor. I agree with all you said, but must give Oprah her due. She has created jobs for a lot of people with her Angel Network in building whole communities, not just houses, but office buildings too. I know Clooney is always Johnny on the spot after disasters, and I know he does loads of charity work, but I don't know what. It's like Paul Newman. I don't recall where I learned the truth, but many people don't know that every dime from the Newmans Own food chain goes to charities. It's expensive stuff, and usually up to 45 cents more than other comparable items, but I willingly pay the difference because it's a way to help since I have a hard time doing other things.

But Judith, you are correct. Is New Orleans built back up to equal? are the streets and parks back? can you walk on the sidewalks again? and not only NO, but Mississippi? and what about the hole in the middle of New York? Does every school in America have enough computers for all kids to be able to use them during classes? Not everyone has a computer at home as some seem to think.

Everyone seems to have forgotten, or don't care to remember: "Charity begins at home".

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[charliechaplinfan]

At least George Clooney does try to give something back, organising it can't be easy.

Tragedies like this do bring people together. My children's school has had a cake sale today, I baked 100 cakes to sell, I was glad to see that other parents had done the same. If anything nice comes out of tragedy, it's the bringing of people together to do something worthwhile.

[MichiganJ]

I agree that the whole Hope For Haiti nonsense was an egregious example of "celebrity" self importance. Even a cursory glance showed that the entire program was "all about me" (bald heads and unshaved faces and all). For shame.

Having said that, these so-called "celebrities" should stop doing whatever it is they do that passes as entertainment and simply become full-time fundraisers for the various woes and ails that plague our country. And if not that, at the very least they should become outspoken political activists. There are not enough activists out there and everyone loves to listen to celebrities and their political views, particularly congress.

And off topic but relevant: it's award season, and you celebrities who happen to win an award (that you likely don't deserve), please, keep the "thank yous" to yourself and express them on your own time. Remember, you are an "en-ter-tain-er", and despite this being a time of recognizing your talents (or lack thereof), at the podium your job is to entertain. At the very least, juggle or something.

[Ollie]

I have been pleased to that Scam Alerts went up fairly quickly and this is how Wyclef's history of dubious-at-best "charity work" was brought to light. As Haiti's favorite son, he's an anecdote from the "Familiarity Breeds Contempt" Department. Or "...Breeds a belief in getting away with something" Department...

[jdb1]

And off topic but relevant: it's award season, and you celebrities who happen to win an award (that you likely don't deserve), please, keep the "thank yous" to yourself and express them on your own time. Remember, you are an "en-ter-tain-er", and despite this being a time of recognizing your talents (or lack thereof), at the podium your job is to entertain. At the very least, juggle or something.

Here's what I see as the problem with these award shows: except for things like the Nickelodeon awards, which are actually voted on by the viewers, most of these awards are industry-specific, and don't concern us. The only thing that draws me to these programs is a curiosity as to the fancy clothes. Hearing some movie star thank a long list of insiders whom nobody else outside of Hollywood knows or cares about is certainly not very entertaining. We could still have Oscars and Emmys, but in a format more relevant to us outsiders (possibly after the actual awards are bestowed at a private dinner, as in the old days). Of course, I do realize that trying to feel like an insider by watching these exercises in name-dropping and false humility is the point to some people. But not to everybody.

[srowley75]

It's a pity Edina Monsoon wasn't involved. Now there's someone who could organize a charity event.

[youtube][/youtube]

OT, but re: "Celebrity," I'll admit that here and there I'd been wasting my breath grousing about our country's now-inveterate development of the feckless "reality star" who, after spending fifteen minutes on any one of a thousand vacuous programs, then inexplicably graduates to the status of "celebrity" and subsequently moves to a slightly higher-end version of the same crap ("celebreality"). From the look of things it would seem this is the only burgeoning industry in America: the manufacturing of well-paid vagrants.

But eventually I stopped complaining. Because when the dust has settled, what is all this but a variant of outsourcing visited upon Hollywood? Now that most Americans have less money to spend on entertainment, what are the plebs left to do but save their money and stay home from the movies, concerts, and Broadway shows, away from those arenas in which the insanely overpaid make enormous profits, and instead settle for the trashy facsimiles who'll humiliate themselves with gusto for far less cash and leave the downcast with renewed senses of self-esteem besides (be honest - would you rather compare yourself to Brad Pitt or to Jon Gosselin? Jennifer Aniston or Brooke Hogan? the cast of Sherlock Holmes or the cast of Jersey Shore?)

[jdb1]

Yes, the self-esteem angle would explain why there are so many "makeover" shows ("It's not the clothes, honey, it's how you feel about yourself!"). And there must be about 150 dirty/cluttered house/obssessively-hoarding-junk shows on the air now. We may be unstylish, and our homes may be modestly decorated, but by golly, at least we're not badly-dressed household slobs like that bunch!

[Ollie]

This really is great reading - for me. Thanks.

On a vaguely side-note, I've been promoting a syndrome called the GAWI Effect - the Getting Away With It effect.

But I saw someone used "CRI Effect" and I thought - what in the world could THAT be?

Cranial-Rectal Inversion.

Boy. Does THAT sound appropriate for the celebrity issues you've addressed here. The CRI Effect.