The telethon will be hosted by Clooney in Los Angeles, Jean in New York and Cooper in Haiti. All donations will directly benefit Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF and Wyclef’s Yele Haiti Foundation.


“Hope for Haiti” will feature performances and celebrity appearances to be announced in the coming days, as well as live news reports from CNN. “Hope for Haiti” will also be made available to MTV Networks International and CNN International.


Facebook and MySpace have signed on as official social-media partners to help steer viewers to the telethon and drive donations.

Yele Haiti has already raised $2 million through text-message donations, the organization announced on Friday (January 15). By texting “Yele” to 501501, mobile users can donate $5 to relief efforts. Head here to learn more about what you can do to help with relief efforts.

“This is apocalypse,” Jean said about the destruction in his home country. “We spent the day picking up dead bodies, all day that’s what we did. There’s so much bodies in the streets that the morgues are filled up, the cemeteries are filled up.”

Sandra Bullock said Friday she donated $1 million toward Haitian earthquake relief, and Madonna announced she gave $250,000 toward the effort as celebrity aid continued to pour into the devestated country.

Bullock’s contribution went to Doctors Without Borders’ emergency operations in Port-Au-Prince, where three of the organization’s existing facilities were damaged by the magnitude 7.0 quake.

“I wanted to ensure that my donation would be used immediately to meet the needs of the Haitian people affected by this catastrophic event,” said Bullock in a statement.

Madonna’s gift was to Partners In Health, a longtime medical provider in Haiti.
“I urge all of my friends and fans around the world to join me collectively to match my contribution or give in any way you can,” she said. “We must act now.”

Earlier Friday, Not On Our Watch, an advocacy and grantmaking group founded by George Clooney, Brad Pitt and others, donated $1 million to Partners in Health.

The international Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in the earthquake, which devastated the Caribbean nation on Tuesday.

After a strong Martin Luther King Day weekend there’s no doubt left that “Avatar” will surpass “Titanic” atop the box-office charts, but two new movies managed to find their audiences too.

The 3-D phenomenon “Avatar” raked in $54.6 million Friday through Monday in the U.S. and Canada, according to an estimate from distributor 20th Century Fox. The Denzel Washington action film “The Book of Eli” and the Peter Jackson-directed book adaptation “The Lovely Bones” had healthy nationwide openings of $38 million and $20.5 million, respectively. The Jackie Chan family comedy “The Spy Next Door,” meanwhile, had a so-so opening of $13 million.


“Avatar” also had another big weekend overseas, collecting $129 million from 112 territories. Its $14.5-million start in Italy, the last major country where it hadn’t yet launched, was the biggest ever for a film there, Fox said.

As of Monday, “Avatar” had grossed $1.12 billion internationally and $505.1 million domestically. Within the next week, it will probably surpass the $1.24 billion that “Titanic,” Cameron’s prior picture and still the most successful of all time worldwide, collected overseas. Shortly thereafter, it should pass the 1997 film’s domestic total of $600.8 million.

But far fewer people have seen “Avatar” than “Titanic.” Eleven years ago, ticket prices were a lot lower — the most recent estimated average was $7.46, up from $4.69 in 1998. And most viewers are seeing “Avatar” on 3-D screens, which carry a surcharge of several dollars a ticket. “Avatar” has sold fewer than 70 million tickets in the U.S. and Canada; “Titanic” sold more than 125 million.

Still, “Avatar” seems to have plenty of gas left, given its small drop in ticket sales. Best director and best dramatic picture awards Sunday at the Golden Globes should help it with sophisticated moviegoers who don’t often attend big-budget, event pictures.

“I think it will sustain modest drops as we keep moving through awards season,” said Chris Aronson, executive vice president of domestic distribution for Fox.

“Eli” looks as if it will be a success for independent financier Alcon Entertainment, following its surprise hit “The Blind Side.” Produced for $80 million, the post-apocalyptic tale is off to a good start and received an average audience grade of B-plus, according to market research firm CinemaScore, so it should benefit from solid word of mouth.

Despite its religious themes, the movie didn’t play any better in smaller and mid-size markets the way “The Blind Side” has, said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros., which released the movie for Alcon.

Despite a poor performance at three theaters over the last month, “The Lovely Bones” found the young female audience Paramount Pictures was targeting this weekend as it expanded nationwide.

The big question is whether the Peter Jackson-directed adaptation of the bestselling book will continue to play well or will quickly exhaust a small but fervent audience of teen girls and women in their early 20s. Mixed reviews and the movie’s poor performance in limited release indicate that it will not draw many adults.

Paramount hopes it has a smaller-scale “Twilight” on its hands, but with an average audience grade of B, it remains to be seen whether “Lovely Bones” will perform anything like the teen vampire sensation.

The Jackie Chan comedy “The Spy Next Door,” which Lionsgate released for financier Relativity Media, had a mediocre opening of $13 million over the long weekend. Moviegoers, mostly parents with young children, gave the movie a strong average grade of A-minus.

Of the films that opened last weekend, the romantic comedy “Leap Year” saw its ticket sales drop only 35%, making up a bit for its so-so start. Lionsgate’s horror movie “Daybreakers” plunged 68% from its stronger start, and Weinstein Co.’s Michael Cera comedy “Youth in Revolt” dropped off 56% after an already weak opening.

In limited release, the well-reviewed Leo Tolstoy biopic “The Last Station” opened to a solid $98,723 in three theaters after a one-week run to qualify for Oscar consideration late last year.

Big gains at the box office will be difficult in the next several months, because the winter of 2009 was huge.

Amy Winehouse is singing a song of freedom.

The singer, 26, was spared jail time after she pleaded guilty to common assault and disorder on Wednesday at Milton Keynes Magistrates’ Court in Buckinghamshire, England.

She admitted she had drunk too much when she pulled theater manager Richard Pound’s hair and called him an expletive after he had told her she couldn’t have another alcoholic drink while attending a show before Christmas. The court was told that Winehouse had drunk five vodka and Cokes before the incident.


Dressed for court in a short grey skirt, white blouse and pink ballet pumps, Winehouse was given a two-year conditional discharge as well as ordered to pay court costs and compensation to the victim totaling $300.

Judge Peter Crabtree told Winehouse, who was charged under her married name Amy Civil, that she will be “hit hard” if she commits any further offenses within the next two years.

Tiger Woods is being treated for sex addiction at a posh clinic down South, a journalist and author of a book on the affliction said yesterday.

Benoit Denizet-Lewis, a recovering sex addict, said a source with knowledge of the golfer’s treatment has confirmed Woods is at Pine Grove Behavioral Health & Addiction Services in Hattiesburg, Miss.


Among Woods’ first lessons, Denizet-Lewis said, will be that the oft-questioned addiction to sex is very real.

“We mock or it we say it’s not a real addiction,” said the journalist, who regularly contributes to the New York Times magazine. “But it’s very much the real deal.”

The world’s No. 1 golfer will not have an easy time of it as he tries to conquer the demons that led him to repeatedly cheat on his stunning wife with multiple women, Denizet-Lewis said. “He’s not going to be allowed to go out and golf in the morning,” said Denizet-Lewis, author of “America Anonymous: Eight Addicts in Search of a Life,” and his new book, “American Voyeur.”

“He’ll do like everyone else - get up early, eat the same food and go through the same emotions. … It’s a really intense experience,” he said.

Denizet-Lewis, who chronicles people grappling with addiction, said Woods will likely feel intense shame at first.

Patients sign a “celibacy contract” that bans all sexual contact - including masturbation - while in treatment. Also included in the pricy program are 12-step meetings, arts-therapy sessions and brutal honesty.

“People tend to come in and be pretty freaked out,” Denizet-Lewis said. “You arrive, and suddenly it hits you, ‘My God, I’m going to rehab for sex addiction.’ ”

Despite widespread skepticism about rehab for sex addicts, Denizet-Lewis said the addiction is no less crippling than a bout with booze or drugs.

“You can put down a drink or a drug and not have to see it for a while,” he said. “But you can’t go anywhere without your genitalia or your brain - those are attached to you.”

The woodsy, fenced-in Mississippi clinic, which would not confirm Woods’ arrival, is considered among the best at setting sex addicts straight, Denizet-Lewis said.

He added that no one should hold onto the “glib perception” that entering rehab for sex addiction is akin to landing a prize invite to an orgy.

“Trust me, you’re not going to score a lot in sex rehab,” he said.