| | |  Entertainment 
Celebrities Go Low-Key, and Sometimes Nameless, in the Haiti Telethon
 Alessandra Stanley - New York Times
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January 23, 2010
| | George Clooney hosts a star-studded telethon feauring Madonna, U2, Bruce Springsteen and dozens more to raise money to help earthquake victims in Haiti. (Associated Press - Jan. 22) | |
George Clooney is the un-Jerry Lewis of celebrity telethons. The star-studded fund-raiser on Friday that he organized for victims of the Haiti earthquake was a study in carefully muted star power. More than 100 of the most famous actors and music stars in the world went on stage pretending to be nobody.
Hollywood telethons tap into the best and worst in people: unstinting generosity, and an obsessive fascination with celebrities. Viewers are drawn to famous faces but at the same time turned off by too much piety and self-congratulation. Especially when the tragedy is as dire as Haiti’s, success is measured not just in the many millions of dollars raised, but by the degree of restraint. Friday night’s event, shown on dozens of networks and streamed across hundreds of Web sites, was a case study in giving it all while holding back.
Mr. Clooney, who has put together these kinds of gala charity drives before, notably the telethon for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, explained to viewers that this was their opportunity to help neighbors in desperate need with “swiftness and expertise.”
It was expertly swift and deliberately unglamorous — stars wore varying shades of brown and black and studiously avoided the “I” word. Beyoncé, Madonna and Sting, sang without being identified; stars like Mr. Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio (who have each already donated $1 million) were not introduced. Mostly, they told vignettes about people in Haiti — brave survivors and rescue workers. The most showbiz-y of all was the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, who chimed in live from Haiti, describing the misery there framed by images of desperation, sometimes with a little too much bathos for a newsman.
There were a few concessions to viewers’ curiosity. Occasionally, the camera swooped to the rows of celebrities manning phone banks, from Reese Witherspoon to Robert Pattinson and Taylor Swift. When it zoomed in on a star talking to a donor, both sides of the conversation could be heard. And the stars were intent on being just plain folks. Julia Roberts, chatting companionably with the mother of small boys, said, “Fantastic, it’s such a great age, isn’t it?” A woman told Steven Spielberg that it was “cool” to be on the phone with him, and he replied, “It’s so cool to talk to you!”
People tune in to be entertained as well as educated. At times the telethon was perhaps a little too self-consciously low-key and somber. At the end of the night, even the Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean broke off his own mournful ode to his homeland and said, “Enough of this moping, man, let’s rebuild Haiti,” and he and his band began rocking out.
But overall, it was an effective tradeoff: an excess of restraint in the pursuit of extravagant generosity.
100% of funds raised by hopeforhaitinow.org will go towards relief efforts in Haiti and there are NO backend costs. Additionally, the Entertainment Industry Foundation has waived all administrative fees. Donate NOW at hopeforhaitinow.org |
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