Report: Young Starlets Care A Bunch About Charity And Stuff
As George and his A-list Clooneyites take a step back from electioneering, the resulting vacuum has found an unlikely demographic with which to fill the celebrity-grandstanding void: Hollywood's young starlets, whom, inspired by their patron saint Angelina Jolie's willingness to get her hands dirty with some face-to-face human suffering along her far-flung orphan-collecting travels, have now taken it upon themselves to do more for their own pet causes. The LAT reports:
Even tweens are hip to the importance of altruism. Last month, Variety launched a nonprofit initiative to highlight junior Hollywood's philanthropy and sponsored a Power of Youth event that drew [Dakota] Fanning, Miley Cyrus and Raven Symone.
"In Hollywood, there are bright, young kids who understand social issues like global warming," [Howard Bragman, founder of Fifteen Minutes PR, a Los Angeles public-relations firm that specializes in crisis management] says. "In Washington, there's a 60-year-old guy making fun of it."
"It's such an exciting time for youth culture," says [Scarlett] Johansson, who plans to take a trip with Oxfam every year. "I don't think we've seen such a surge in interest about what is happening in the world since the '60s."
As for [Paris] Hilton, there has been no word whether her jaunt to Rwanda will ever happen. The outing was originally planned by Playing for Good, a new charity organization geared to celebrities. Hilton's debut as a humanitarian was to be fodder for a new reality show called "The Philanthropist." Think "The Simple Life" meets "Ghandi."
"We're restructuring the organization, but we hope to reschedule Paris' trip for next year," says Maria Bravo, co-founder of Playing for Good. "I don't think she will stop going to clubs. But hopefully, she can combine doing good with fun and not drinking and driving."
Imagine the good that could come from combining their efforts: It's too exciting to think about what a Disney Channel-underwritten African stop for the sellout Hannah Montana tour, featuring opening acts Symone and The Cheetah Girls (with a special appearance by Fanning interpreting a poignant passage from current bedside reading The Age of Turbulence) could do to sensitize these young artist's existing fan bases to the plight of the less fortunate—only perhaps slightly less so when one factors in the image of Paris Hilton performing several hundred yards away at the sparsely attended South Stage of the first annual Rwandan Care-achella Festival.