George Clooney and Brad Pitt to appear at Venice Film Festival and do some charity work
Posted on August 26th, 2008 by Hot Momma
George Clooney makes his way to Venice on a Taxi boat
George Clooney and Brad Pitt will continue doing some noble work at the Venice Film Festival this week to support charity and do a little press work. George and Brad will appear on the red carpet Wednesday next week to support the Coen brothers film “Burn After Reading,” which opens the 65th edition of the festival, that runs through Sept. 6.
And since it’s not easy to get the two busy stars together at the same time, they are taking advantage of this scheduled red carpet work, to appear Tuesday night at a fundraising event for their charity, ‘Not On Our Watch’. The charity, was launched last year by the stars and some of their “Ocean’s Thirteen” colleagues. Among the group’s donations was a $500,000 grant in March to keep helicopters and airplanes flying aid into Darfur — topping off a $1 million donation a year earlier for the same program.
According to executive director Alex Wagner, ‘Not On Our Watch’ has raised more than $7 million to help victims both of the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan and the cyclone in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Clooney will discuss the issues and where the charity puts its money at the fundraising dinner on Venice’s Giudecca island, which will be attended by some 200 industry insiders and Italian VIPs, Wagner said.
Clooney has spoken for several years about the crisis in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and about 2.5 million people displaced in three years of fighting between African rebels and government troops allied with Arab militia known as the janjaweed.
George went on a UN technical mission including Darfur and neighboring Chad in January, sharing his impressions with reporters upon his return to draw attention to the crisis.
Bettina Luescher, a spokeswoman for the World Food Program at UN headquarters in New York City, said of the stars: “They shine the light on the real emergencies and step up where we really need help.”
Without that money, Luescher said, the World Food Program had been on the verge of shutting down the air service to Darfur, which brings 3,000 aid workers a month to the stricken region. The UN food charity fed 3.3 million people there last month alone.
The air service is critical given deteriorating security, which makes road convoys vulnerable. Nearly 100 World Food Program food trucks have been hijacked this year alone.
Source and Photos: AP
Older (Possibly) Related Posts:
No comments yet.