‘WE ARE WORLD’ SPAWNS NEW FEED-AFRICA EFFORTS

Despite its slip to No. 2 on this week’s Billboard Magazine Top 100, “We Are the World” continued to spawn more offspring projects this week than a fertile sturgeon.

Child actors, comic-strip artists, magicians, TV stars and a Kenyan distance runner all joined the burgeoning efforts to fund the USA for Africa Foundation and help to alleviate hunger in 21 famine-afflicted African nations.

Madonna’s “Crazy for You” will oust “We Are the World” from the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart when it is formally released Monday, according to Billboard associate publisher Tom Noonan. Noonan attributed the record’s drop to the No. 2 spot after only four weeks as No. 1 to “burnout” and “over-exposure.”

Still, the movement that the anthem-like hit single created continues to grow with no signs of slowing.

HBO, which premiered an hourlong special on the making of “We Are the World” Wednesday, reported Friday that the documentary had the highest viewership of any HBO special broadcast since the pay-TV network began keeping viewership statistics in January, 1982. The special, which HBO paid $2 million to broadcast eight times in the month of May, encores tonight at 10 p.m.

A spokeswoman for the neophyte anti-famine foundation that sprang from the success of “We Are the World” said Friday that its estimated total revenues to date holds at $36 million, as was reported two weeks ago. Harriet Sternberg said that is because a regular running accounting of contributions has not been the fledgling foundation’s top priority and not because contributions have slowed. In fact, she said, checks and spinoff project proceeds have only increased in the past two weeks.

“It’s hysterical,” she said.

Keeping track of the various USA for Africa spinoff projects through the letters that have been coming in to the foundation offices at the rate of 700 a day has been a full-time occupation for foundation volunteers, according to Sternberg.

“You hear about preschoolers holding car washes. They wash three cars and raise $10,” she said.

Some of the more notable spinoffs that materialized this past week include:

--A Cartoonists for Africa project, begun by a Baltimore, Md., couple who are organizing comic- strip artists and illustrators to produce a single portrait, featuring about 100 familiar cartoon characters. Dick Tracy, Broom Hilda, members of the Family Circus and Dudley Do-Right will all gather together on a five-fold all-purpose greeting card. Jim and Barbara Dale hope to have the prototype card completed by May 19 to display at the annual New York Stationers’ Show. Once on the open market, proceeds will go to Africa.

--A Thanks America Run by 29-year-old Kenyan distance runner Kip Mibey, who is jogging 3,070 miles across the United States to show African appreciation for America’s charitable efforts. Mibey told The Times on Friday that he is running about 12 miles a day on the Los Angeles leg of his appreciation run. He ran from Hollywood to Los Angeles City Hall Friday and will double back to Studio City, Burbank and Universal Studios next week.

He said he doesn’t plan to open his throttle to 25 miles a day until he gets to Palm Springs on May 18. He plans to finish his run later this summer in New York City.

--A Magicians for Africa show, to be held May 30 at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. Harry Anderson (star of TV’s “Night Court”), David Copperfield and Doug Henning will bury the sleight-of-hand hatchet for a $100-a-ticket dinner and $50-a-ticket late evening cocktail show, all proceeds going to African relief.

--A “Children of the World” recording and video project, conceived by KMGG-FM (105.9) deejay Sonny Melendrez.

“I woke up one morning and ‘We Are the World’ came on the radio and I could have sworn kids were singing it!” Melendrez told The Times.

It turned out to be Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, trying to out-falsetto one another during the chorus of the well-known 6-minute, 22-second version. But Melendrez said it gave him the idea of putting together 40 children for a multiracial, multicultural rendering of the song, not unlike a Coca-Cola commercial that was widely broadcast on television 10 years ago.

Instead of advertising a soft drink to the refrain of “I’d Like to Get the World to Sing,” the youngsters will be raising more African relief funds through yet another single, album and video version of “We Are the World,” he said.

An open casting call last weekend drew about 1,500 children between the ages of 6 and 14 to audition for the session. The record and video will also feature several child stars, including Ricky Schroeder, Emmanuel Lewis and Danny Pontero.

They will hold their first rehearsal today at 10 a.m. at a Methodist church in Hollywood, Melendrez told The Times.

The current plan calls for a chorus to be sung in English, with solos in various other languages. After the single is released, the next step will be a nationwide search for songs written by children to put on an album. Then, Melendrez says, he wants a 45-minute home video “that children can buy to explain to their parents about world hunger.”

Though it is not sponsoring the production, the USA For Africa Foundation will get the proceeds from the single, album and video.

--Another child project, called “Kidds for Kids in Africa”, sponsored by NBC’s Saturday morning pre-puberty version of MTV, “Kidd Video.” Producers are assembling their own repertory of 40 child actors and singers for a May 23 recording and video session in North Hollywood.

“Kidd Video” publicist Jerry Digney said the group will contribute proceeds to UNICEF “since it is totally involved in children’s undertakings” and “the USA for Africa Foundation already seems to have plenty of money.”

Meanwhile, the “We Are the World” single that started the snowballing charity work in this country appears to have stalled at 4 million in sales after an initial unprecedented consumer demand for the $1.98 recording.

Billboard’s Noonan told The Times on Friday that the slip after only four weeks at No. 1 was a result of a huge early consumer demand for the record.

“People went out and bought this in staggering numbers,” Noonan said. “In the two years I’ve been back doing charts, I don’t remember any single selling like that.”

Billboard’s chart positions are determined by a point system based on both sales and radio airplay. Though the single remained at the top of the sales heap, most of the 190 radio stations that report their playlists to Noonan each week said that Madonna had taken over No. 1 on their most-requested record lists.

“The radio, TV and print exposure this record got caused a burnout factor that worked against it,” he said.

The “We Are the World” album remains the nation’s top-selling album, however.

Because of routine lag time between recording a record, pressing it, distribution to retailers, sales and return of receipts, none of the proceeds from either the single (released on March 1) or the album (released on April 1) have been passed on to the USA for Africa Foundation from Columbia Records. Foundation officials said this week, however, that CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff plans to pass the first check over to the foundation on May 15.

Meanwhile, the foundation announced appointment of a nine-person board of directors this week to oversee the allocation of funds, and a 12-person advisory board and 12-person medical task force to aid in disbursement decisions. Foundation creator Ken Kragen and his two biggest clients, Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers, are among the appointees. Michael Jackson, who co-wrote “We Are the World” with Richie, also sits on the board of directors.