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This year has seen soem of the biggest celebrity scandals ever, from affairs to trips to rehab to drug scandals, but not all of them were bad this year. Do Something have come up with a list of the most charitable celebrites for the year. Take a look at the top 10…
10. Justin Bieber
Justin Bieber visited and dedicated a music video to the many children battling illness worldwide, even raising $150,000 for a Buffalo, NY children’s hospital. Bieber also works with Pencils of Promise to help build schools and increase education opportunities in the developing world,donating $1 from every ticket sold to the org, which is no small change when you’re selling out giant arenas.
9. Oprah
Oprah donated $40 million to charity, making her The Giving Back Fund’s top celeb philanthropist. O talks education inequities, dedicating a 2-part series of her show to education reform. In September, O presented checks for $6 million in grants to 6 different US charter schools whose groundbreaking leadership provide quality public education.
8. Leonardo Dicaprio
A noted environmentalist, Leonardo DiCaprio took on preserving endangered tigers this year. He traveled to Asia to witness the tiger population threats firsthand, and met with world leaders from the 13 tiger-inhabited countries, including Russia’s Prime Minister Putin. Leo launched Save Tigers Now with the World Wildlife Fund, and in November, donated $1 million for tiger conservation.
7. Matt Damon
Last YearMatt Damon co-founded Water.org to provide safe drinking water & sanitation in developing countries. This August he traveled to Ethiopia to increase water conditions there. He also personally reached out to top celebs like Stephen Colbert asking them to promote the initiative. Recently, he helped design the organization’s water bottles with 100% of the proceeds going to the cause.
6. Nick Jonas
Nick Jonas isn’t just 1/3 of the The Jonas Brothers and their Change for the Children Foundation. A leading diabetes advocate, Nick became this year’s National Chair for JDRF’s Walk to Cure Diabetes. He supports the cause everywhere he can, writing a blog that promotes diabetes awareness and even offering a personal visit for diabetes-sufferers who made a difference in their communities.
5. Ellen DeGeneres
Before and after other celebrities spoke out for the issue, Ellen dedicated episodes of her show to the harms of bullying. She teamed up with the The Trevor Project to raise over $150,000 for LGBT people struggling with mental health issues and delivered a heart-wrenching important message about the epidemic.
4. Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore launched the DNA Foundation to combat child sex trafficking. Since then, the couple has traveled to meet with world leaders to discuss ending slavery worldwide. On Valentine’s Day the two sent roses to survivors. Ashton also used his Twitter to successfully pressure Craigslist to shut down their harmful ‘adult services’ section.
3. Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift is a Tennessee girl, so when Nashville flooded this year, she jumped to its aid & donated $500,000 the relief effort. She also posed for a picture next to her favorite Nashville landmark to raise additional funds for the cause. Later this year, Taylor joined Scholastic to promote literacy through READ NOW.
2. Alicia Keys
Keep a Child Alive founder Alicia Keys worked harder than ever this year to make sure her organization continued to provide AIDS treatment worldwide. She launched the celeb-packed Digital Death Campaign, raising $1.1 million dollars. Alicia also announced that she and hubby Swizz Beatz adopted a South African village where they will build schools and provide support for the residents.
1. Lady GaGa
In 2010, Lady Gaga had breakout popularity and breakthrough advocacy. Gaga called for the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, walking the VMAs red carpet with service members and speaking at a rally. Her ladyship also hosted the Hands Up for Marriage Equality event supporting same-sex-marriage and was the face of MAC Viva Glam, with 100% of the proceeds going to prevent HIV/AIDS worldwide.
source: This year’s top 20 Celebs Gone Good: [Do Something]
Popularity: unranked [?]
J&D Foods, a US company specializing in bacon products, has commissioned an artist to create a life-sized bust of actor Kevin Bacon out of bacon.
The piece — which took three months to make — is called “Bacon Kevin Bacon” and comprises of a Styrofoam core covered in dried “bacon bits” a bacon-based crunchy salad topping.
Looks more like Conan O’Brien, no?
J&D Foods’ co-owner Justin Esch told AOL:
“It should be in art gallery somewhere, but it would also look nice on a coffee table. I think it’ll tie together any room nicely. Bacon makes everything better, including art.”
Artist Mike Lahue created the artwork, which is due to be auctioned on eBay this week for the charity Ashley’s Team, a non-profit organization that helps children with cancer and their families. (Already 22 bids, $305.00)
The eBay ad advises that Bacon Kevin Bacon is not edible. The sculpture has been lacquered to ensure that the buyer doesn’t have a revolting piece of rotting meat on their hands.
Ha! Like someone would try and eat it.
Popularity: unranked [?]
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CityRag linked with Load of Dirt
The Brittany Murphy Foundation has re-opened its website after a story broke about the foundation being unlicensed this weekend — and promises to give back all the donations people made while it figures out that whole “we weren’t really a charity” thing.
Reportedly, the foundation — run by Brittany Murphy’s husband, Simon Monjack and mother, Sharon Murphy — hadn’t filed the necessary documents to qualify as a charity or nonprofit group. As soon as we called the foundation for comment, the website immediately shut down.
But late Sunday the website resurfaced with a message — it would return all the donations “until we have our non-profit status approved before proceeding to insure that we can truly honor Brittany’s charitable desires.”
The website is no longer taking donations and now holds itself out as a private foundation which awaits 501(c)3 non-profit status.
source: Brittany Murphy Foundation — No Charity Here [tmz]
Popularity: unranked [?]
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The Beaver Pond linked with Wednesday Celebrity Links
Humanitarian Coco sent a call to action to all of her Twitter followers today: “Get this shirt & lets start a Haiti movement! WE GO HARD! WE DON’T PLAY!â€
Everything about this woman frightens me!
source: [coco twitter]
Popularity: unranked [?]
The original “Calendar Girls” have taken their clothes off for charity again 10 years after they first inspired a Hollywood movie and started a national craze for nude calendars.
Wearing little more than a smile and a trademark set of pearls, six members of the Yorkshire-based Women’s Institute have been reunited for a new 2010 calendar.
The youngest of them, Chris Clancy, is now 57; the oldest, Beryl Bamforth, is 75. They are pictured in typical WI scenes, their modesty protected only by a baby-grand piano, a tea pot and sprouting broccolli on a vegetable patch.
The women launched the full color calendar for Leukemia Research at Harvey Nicholls in Leeds yesterday.
Angela Baker, 63, whose husband’s death from lymphoma led to the idea for the first calendar, was surprised that people were celebrating their reunion.
“Thank you for coming,” she said. “We were a little worried whether anyone would turn up 10 years on but it has been brilliant to see you are.”
With a combined age of 379, the women are perhaps old enough to know better by now. But Mrs Baker suggested not and said she could not rule out another calendar in the future.
She said: “I think if we’re all still there, and we didn’t look too awful … [but] we would definitely have to have bigger props.”
[Click thumbnails for a larger view]
  
When they made the original calendar in 1999, the women’s ambition was to generate enough money to buy a sofa for a hospital waiting room.
But over the next decade, they found themselves traveling the world, being portrayed in a West End play and by Dame Helen Mirren in a film, and have now raised around £2 million for Leukemia Research.
Meanwhile, almost every WI, fire brigade and sports team in the country have followed their lead.
The 2010 calendar is the first to be shot in color rather than sepia.
Mrs Baker, 63, who can be seen playing the piano in February, said: “I was a bit apprehensive about colour, because older women can look a bit funny in colour, and we wanted it to be just as good as the first one.
“Then, when I did see it in colour, I thought ‘Well, maybe, why not?”‘
Popularity: unranked [?]
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F-Listed linked with Archive SNATCH LOVERS «
A New York middle school got a surprise visitor: Britney Spears.
The pop star dropped by John Philip Sousa M. S. 142 in The Bronx on Wednesday to present a $10,000 check to be used as an endowment for the school’s year-old music program.
As she entered the school (which was not in session due to the Jewish holiday), she was treated to a performance by the Sousatones, the school’s eight-piece band, led by director Sal Mazzola.
“When you’re ready to take us on the road for an opening act, we’re ready,” he told Spears.
Spears, who plans to tour in 2009, replied: “You’ll be the first people I call.”
Mazzola told the students in advance they would be playing for a “high-profile” guest, but they only learned it would be Spears earlier that morning. (Some kids guessed it would be P. Diddy or Barack Obama.)
Spears was also serenaded by a chorus of seven girls, including soloist Rachel Lewis, 14, who sang “I Am Woman.”
The donation came from Elizabeth Arden, which is behind Spears’s fragrances, Believe, Fantasy and Curious.
“I really enjoyed the time I spent at the John Philip Sousa Middle School. I’ve been working with the people at Elizabeth Arden for the last five years, and I know how passionate everyone is about the school. I loved hearing the school orchestra and the children sang so beautifully. The fact that Elizabeth Arden made such a large donation for the school music studio in my name was so generous.”
source: Britney Spears Goes Back to School – for a Cause [people]
Popularity: unranked [?]
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Allie Is Wired - The Entertainment Blog linked with Britney Spears Sure is Sneaky!
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