Former Playboy Playmate and Baywatch swimsuit beauty, Donna D’Errico volunteered to serve food on Thanksgiving at the LA Mission in downtown LA. We have mixed feeling about celebrities who volunteer at the mission- do they just do it for the photo op and good publicity? Would they do it if there were NO paparazzi to document their generosity? Whatever – Donna is like J.Lo – she’s 50 and looks absolutely gorgeous!
Photo Credit: BACKGRID-USA
You can count on seeing the Seinfeld family out together at least once every year at the Good+Foundation – a charity that Jessica founded 15 years ago. It started out with Jessica and her friends packing up their nearly new baby and children’s clothes and donating them to low-income mothers. Through the years the charity has grown considerably and they help needy parents and kids in many more ways. Above, Sascha is already 18 and her brother Shepherd is 12. The son missing is Julian, 15. (Jerry confesses that one of the very few times he lost his temper in front of his kids is when he caught Sascha watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians.)
Photo Credit: BACKGRID-USA
Let’s not overlook the fact that Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) and his wife Isla Fisher have donated a million dollars to help Syrian refugees. He ONLY allowed the charity to publicize that fact because it might stimulate others to donate. And they are right. We have YET to hear about any OTHER celebrities who have donated to the cause. Now maybe some others will think about contributing. The Cohens have three young kids and much of the donated money will be used to help the Syrian children.
Photo Credit: Pacific Coast News
It’s a tradition. Every year at holiday time, celebrities turn up at the Los Angeles Mission downtown to dish out Christmas dinner for families on skid row. This year Emmy Rossum, Harry Hamlin, Lisa Rinna, and Garcelle Beauvais were among the famous volunteers. We can’t help but wonder if they would actually show up if there were no cameras. (What’s your opinion?) Harrison Ford’s chef son Ben (Ford’s Filling Station) was there cooking, so he was too busy to pose for many photos.
Photo Credit: AKM-GSI
We thought Lena Dunham was brave when she wore that too-tight jogging outfit for “Girls,” but she topped herself when she turned up on the Hamptons beach in this teeny bikini. And her “cover-up” really doesn’t. She nonchalantly did several interviews on the sand. Let’s face it, more people look like Lena in a bikini than Jessica Alba. And Lena was there for a good reason – the Paddle for Pink charity event raising money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. And that’s what really counts.
Photo Credit: AKM-GSI
Wow. Rihanna has never looked more like a full-fledged movie star than she does in this photo taken at her own Diamond Ball in Beverly Hills. Rihanna is never boring with her attire, but she’s rarely seen looking this glamorous. Zac Posen created the dress for Rihanna’s first fund-raising event for her own charity dedicated to the memory of her grandparents. She wears it well.
Photo Credit: Pacific Coast News
Nothing is more irritating than a celebrity charity scandal – and they are ALL TOO common! You may recall, not long ago, Kim Kardashian put a boatload of clothes for sale on eBay when Kanye cleaned out her closet. She called it a “charity auction.” But according to RadarOnline, the fine print revealed that only 10% of the proceeds went to charity – and THAT was the Life Change Community Church that her mother Kris Jenner founded! Kim pocketed $180,000 from the charity sale and her mother’s “church” got $20,000. Since “churches” like Scientology, don’t pay taxes, all KINDS of tax funny business could be going on there.
The Beckhans wasted no time cleaning out their closets to donate clothing they no longer wear to the Red Cross charity shop in London. They packed up twenty boxes of garments (some David’s) and a truckload of shoes and delivered them to the Red Cross to aid typhoon victims in the Philippines. The news spread fast and the shop was mobbed with collectors – some buyers listed the stuff on eBay immediately. Kim Kardashian wanted to jump on THAT bandwagon so she bragged on her blog that she too, donated clothing to be sold on eBay to help the disaster victims. The difference between Kim and Victoria is that 100% of the Beckhams donations went to charity, but Kim only donated a measly 10% of her proceeds and kept the rest!
(Top photo: Kim in a bondage dress from her collection. Bottom Photo: Victoria instagramed this photo of herself surrounded by boxes.)
Ben Affleck will jump at any chance to play poker and not be criticized for it. In the past he lost a lot of money gambling in Las Vegas and other places, but this weekend he didn’t have to keep it quiet – it was all for a good cause. Ben and other actors, including poker-fiend Jennifer Tilly, attended a charity benefit for the Geffen Playhouse and each player paid $1250.00 for a seat in the poker tournament. Ben didn’t walk out a big winner and on top of that his vintage Chevy Malibu wouldn’t start! As Ben stood helpless, the valet had to give his car a jump start.
Don’t waste your sympathy on singer Dionne Warwick, who declared bankruptcy this week. Dionne was the Whitney Houston of her day and had 56 hit songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1962 and 1998. She was spokesperson for The Psychic Friends Network, and their TV ads with 900 numbers bilked gullible viewers out of untold millions from 1991 to 1998. Dionne earned well over 3 million dollars a year for that job. Later she founded The Warwick Foundation supposedly to raise money for AIDS, but an investigation proved that 90% of the money donated actually went to pay for Dionne’s fancy lifestyle and salaries for employees. The foundation dissolved in disgrace. Dionne owes the IRS and the state of California ten million dollars in taxes and we can only hope she pays up like the rest of us have to.
