Wyclef Jean

Credit: Alex Hoerner/Oxfam

Good Deeds

Fergie and Scarlett Johansson Join will.i.am to Fight Poverty

Originally posted 09/24/2008 05:00PM

After releasing the star-studded pro-Barack Obama videos "Yes We Can" and "We Are the Ones," will.i.am has rallied Fergie, Scarlett Johansson, and other celebrities for a new mission: to fight global poverty.

The Black Eyed Peas frontman, 33, has written the song "in my name" to support Global Call to Action Against Poverty. The tune encourages citizens to call on their governments to keep their promises to the world's poor.

Says will.i.am: "We can be the generation that ends poverty."

Credit: Sara Jaye Weiss/Startraks

Good Deeds

Wyclef Jean Launches Partnership to Help Haiti

Originally posted 05/20/2008 06:30PM

When Wyclef Jean announced the launch of Together for Haiti, a new partnership formed in response to the food crisis in his native country, he had a special guest in the crowd.

"I thought Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt were big, but I gotta say Paul Simon topped that," says Jean. "People talk like they're gangsters, but Paul Simon was actually in Africa when grenades went off on stage."

Simon, in a blazer and hat, appeared at the news conference in New York City, where Jean announced that his own foundation, Yele Haiti, is partnering with the World Food Programme and the Pan American Development Foundation to help provide food, create jobs and support local agriculture in Haiti.

Simon shook hands with Jean and the two chatted as a crowd formed around them. "We talk; he'll tell you I'm a personal friend of his," says Jean, who collaborated with Simon on his latest album. "Paul will show up for a cause; he ain't gonna show up for a music video!"

Also among the crowd: Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, author of End of Povery, model Petra Nemcova, and Jean's pastor.

"If I decide to run for president, don't do me wrong. I will denounce everything!" Jean joked with his pastor.
– Tiffany McGee

Daily Insider for February 5, 2004

Originally posted 02/04/2004 11:23AM

February 5, 2004WHEN A PALM PILOT WON'T DO At a black-tie gala honoring director Oliver Stone at the recent Bangkok Film Festival, actress Bai Ling enjoyed chatting with Val Kilmer so much that she wanted to exchange phone numbers with him – but apparently neither of them had a slip of paper. "First she wrote her phone number on his shirt sleeve in blue magic marker," a spy told us. "Then he wrote his number right on her belly."

Read More