The EGO Has Landed

Like most of my fellow Americans, I spent some time last nigh watching the "Hope for Haiti" telethon. I want to believe that most of the celebs who showed up to sing, man the phone lines, and convince us to give to the relief effort were genuine in their desire to help the Haitain people. I want to think that they were really there out of the goodness of their hearts, and that their top...nay, only priority was to help.

But I have that nagging feeling that while some of them were indeed there sincerely, others were there to "be seen".

As my husband pointed out, "Who cares?" They were there to raise money, and they raised money. Haitain people are in dire need, and really, who the hell cares how the aid gets to them?

I'm going to give George Clooney, Samuel L. Jackson, and Bill Clinton a free pass on this one. I fully believe that they were compelled to go because the plight of the Haitain people truly speaks to them. You can criticize George Clooney here, but let me just give you fair warning that this is NOT the appropriate venue to question the motives of Bill Clinton or Samuel L. Jackson. I won't have it.



I have to admit that I tried to call last night because once I realized SLJ was manning the phone lines, I knew that if I ever got through, I would definitely get SLJ on the horn. But then I was worried that I'd lose my cool if I ever had the chance to talk to him directly, so I rethought the call. Also, I was worried that I might get Mel Gibson on the line and that would not end well.

While I'm on the topic of Mel Gibson...

Can I just ask...WTF? Why was that asshole let within a ten mile radius of this telethon?




This jerk has a laundry list of victims resulting from his own personal earthquakes. I couldn't even get over seeing Hollywood's favorite Anti-Semite sitting next to Steven Spielberg at the phone bank. REALLY?

I mean, wasn't there enough celebrity power there? Did they really need the likes of Gibson there? Talk about having no standards. Again, the people of Haiti probably wouldn't turn down any money garnered through Gibson's fundraising attempts, but still....

Maybe he should have just given anonymously and then disappeared into the woodwork....where he BELONGS!

I get that they were doing the whole "humble" thing and not introducing the celebrities by name before performing. Madonna launches into "Like a Prayer" without so much as a, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Madonna!" Ok, I'm down with that. But it seemed like they were trying so hard to NOT make it an ego-fest, that it became quite a massive ego-fest.

Ok, and what was with Julia Roberts? I was sitting around in my sweats in my living room, and I was dressed better than she. I understand that she wanted to go with the understated look. You know, a natural disaster has struck. This isn't a runway show. But really, Julia? You didn't have something a little less frumpy in your wardrobe? Jesus, I was almost ready to crack my wallet open to donate to the Julia Roberts wardrobe charity.



Maybe I shouldn't be such a negative nelly, but I am always really skeptical of these egomaniacal Hollywood types.