Star-Studded Telethon Aims to Help Tsunami Victims

Top Hollywood stars manned the phones and a gallery of pop music stars performed Saturday on soundstages in Los Angeles, New York and London for a telethon to generate aid for victims of the Southern Asia tsunami and earthquake.

Donation totals are to be available Tuesday.

The two-hour commercial-free broadcast included a taped message from former Presidents Clinton and George H.W. Bush, who were asked by President Bush to lead the American fundraising campaign.

“The need is great,” Clinton said, seated next to his White House predecessor.

The elder Bush added: “One of the greatest lessons President Clinton and I have learned over our lives is that one individual can make a difference.”

Performers for the fundraiser included Madonna, Elton John, Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, Nelly, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Kenny Chesney and Brian Wilson. Wilson, of Beach Boys fame, dedicated his performance of “Love and Mercy” to a Swedish cellist who played on his album “Smile.” The musician is listed among the missing in the catastrophe that killed more than 150,000.

“In the next few weeks that number could double or triple,” actor Morgan Freeman said at the start of the show. “Right now we can all work toward one goal: how to bring help to these people in the time of need.”

Clint Eastwood, Robert DeNiro, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Drew Barrymore, Johnny Depp, Goldie Hawn, Kevin Spacey, Renee Zellweger and dozens of other stars either spoke on camera or answered phones during the telethon.

The model for the show -- its stripped-down stagings, the celebrity phone-bank and even the three cities of broadcast origin -- were reminiscent of the Sept. 21, 2001, telethon called “America: A Tribute to Heroes.”

Not only were there some of the same speakers and singers in the two shows (DeNiro, Jones and Wonder, among them), but songs such as “Imagine” and “Wish You Were Here” made repeat appearances sung by different performers.

There were also notable differences that made this gesture stand apart in tone from the “Heroes” telethon that benefited victims of the terrorist attacks that had played out 10 days earlier in New York and Washington.

While there were many somber song selections -- John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and Madonna’s electronica-laced reworking of “Imagine” among them -- the overall tone was markedly more relaxed than the black-clad, candlelit “Heroes” broadcast. Host Jay Leno pitched autographed coffee mugs for $2,500 donations and made jokes about phone-in donors getting a chance to interact with the glitterati. “All you loser guys who never had a chance to talk to Cindy Crawford, here’s your chance,” he said at one point.

The telethon in 2001 reportedly raised about $130 million. It was carried by a bulk of the nation’s broadcasters. In the weeks after the 2001 show, broadcast pundit Bill O’Reilly criticized the eventual distribution of its funds through the United Way charities.

On Saturday, O’Reilly appeared on the telethon for tsunami victims and called on viewers to aid the ravaged nations now in need. Talk-show host Chris Matthews also appeared and briefly interviewed an official with the American Red Cross, the destination organization for all of the telethon’s proceeds.

Matthews asked what assurances the public had that the money would not go toward building “swimming pools in Seattle.” The Red Cross official answered that 94% of the funds would go directly to victims and 6% to operational costs.