Richard Gere And Lionel Richie Recycle For A Great Cause
It appears Rent fever has trickled up to the pantheon of celebrity do-gooder gods, as Richard Gere has penned his very own AIDS song, with just a little help from Lionel Richie's desk drawer of abandoned sheet music:
Richard Gere has co-written a song with Lionel Richie to raise awareness about the spread of AIDS in India.
The Pretty Woman veteran is following in the footsteps of Sharon Stone who helped write new track "Come Together Now" in a bid to raise money for the victims of August's Hurricane Katrina.The Buddhist actor has pledged to help spread the message about HIV to India's youth via the country's version of Pop Idol and American Idol.
He explains, "We did some stuff with Indian Idol. I asked Lionel Richie if he had a song like "We Are The World," and he did.
"We changed some lyrics and created a song around HIV and responsibility, they (contestants) performed it on the show."
Their hearts are true, but may we humbly suggest that in future interviews, Gere and Richie drop the tad-too-honest song recycling backstory? It kind of gives the whole affair a slapdash feel, which is not exactly the tone you want to hit when encouraging the youth of developing nations to go the extra safe-sex mile. Even Stone managed to work through her "what rhymes with Katrina?" hurdles and throw together a few original bars for her disaster relief effort.
