As the Sept. 11 tragedy continues to send reverberations across America, the entertainment world remains steadfast in its crusade to help the surviving victims and their families.
LATEST BENEFITS
The latest big-benefit concert to be announced is “United We Stand,” which will be held on Oct. 21. ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys will bury the hatchet (for now at least) and perform at the same show. Other performers scheduled for the eight-hour show at Washington, D.C.’s RFK Stadium will include Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, James Brown, Mick Jagger, Kiss, Ricky Martin, Al Green, Carlos Santana, Bon Jovi, matchbox twenty, Aaron Carter, and the Goo Goo Dolls. (Previous reports stating Britney Spears will also appear have been nixed, as the teen starlet will apparently be prepping for her fall tour on that date.)
Jagger, Bon Jovi, and the Goo Goo Dolls are also among those scheduled to play the night before at The Concert For New York, the benefit headlined by Paul McCartney at Madison Square Garden.
In addition to headlining next weekend’s benefit concert, Paul McCartney will donate all proceeds from his new single “From a Lover to a Friend,” to the families of firefighters who died at the World Trade Center. “I have great admiration for the courage those guys showed,” said McCartney, whose father was a volunteer fireman, in a statement. “I hope that the sales of this new single will help raise money for the firemen and the families.”
A benefit compilation featuring artists like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey will be released on Oct. 16. The album, God Bless America, will contain artists performing patriotic or spirited American songs. The record will contain 15 tracks, and much of the proceeds will go to the Twin Towers Fund, which helps the families of police officers, firefighters, EMS workers and other city employees who lost their lives Sept. 11 assisting in the rescue effort at the World Trade Center. Dion has recorded a new arrangement of the title track. Live tracks have been contributed by Springsteen ‘ the E Street Band, who play “Land of Hope and Dreams,” and Mellencamp, who performs an acoustic version of “Peaceful World.”
MTV is in the process of wrapping up three all-star video remakes of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” The new videos for the song: the “Main Mix,” Jermaine Dupri’s “R’B Mix” and Mick G’s “Adult Contemporary Mix,” are being directed by Jake Scott and will replace the current version, which was put together by MTV and blends news footage from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with scenes from the recording sessions. The video has been put in heavy rotation since its first airing nearly a month ago.
The new videos will feature the artists removing blindfolds, which are imprinted with such labels as “Woman,” “Homosexual” and “Muslim,” while they sing their parts of the song. The blindfolds in the videos are meant to symbolize how people are blind to dealing with issues concerning racism, sexism, homophobia and religion and need to be more open-minded.
The original remake by the Bono-led Artists Against AIDS Worldwide will be released Oct. 30 on a benefit CD alongside a growing number of alternate versions now totaling nine. Half of the proceeds will go to the Global AIDS Alliance, while the remainder will go to the United Way’s September 11 Fund.
Some of the filmmakers who craft tales of violence and terrorism for Hollywood are helping the US Army prepare for possible future terrorist attacks by brainstorming terrorist plots against American targets. The group was assembled through the Institute for Creative Technologies, a University of Southern California think tank that works on virtual training programs for the Army. Although the Army does not know if the terrorist scenarios will prove useful, because it takes several months to over a year for such projects to be completed, the military remains confident that screenwriters and producers are creative people who may come up with fascinating ideas very quickly.
“In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Army and USC’s ICT have worked together to coordinate ongoing panel discussions with some of Hollywood’s top talent,” the center said in a statement Tuesday.
Other contributions have already been hatched in the past few weeks. Most notably, a Michael Jackson led tribute song that is said to have helped raise $50 million dollars for survivors and families of the victims. And a TV telethon that ran a few weeks ago was watched by over 80 million viewers and raised a staggering $150 million.
THE SHOW MAY GO ON
The entertainment world continues to feel executive pressure as the aftermath and an uncertain future create difficult decision-making at the last minute. A decision on whether the twice-cancelled Emmy’s will be aired may possibly come as soon as today after the Academy of Television Arts ‘ Sciences’ executive committee meeting. The Academy is currently planning to stage the awards show on a California military base before a live audience of soldiers. Another option is to tape the show without a live audience and air it sometime in November (probably on the 11th or 18th). The goal is to settle on a ceremony and location that would be unaffected by outside events. The Emmy’s were cancelled Sunday night after United States and Britain launched air strikes on Afghanistan. The show was first cancelled Sept. 16 after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
TOURS CANCELLED
The tragic circumstances and fear of overseas safety also forced Janet Jackson and Weezer to cancel European tours, opting instead to finish and play more U.S. dates before the end of the year. “If anything happened to anyone on this tour, I could never forgive myself,” Jackson said in a statement issued on Oct. 1. “My European fans are among the most loyal, and I was very excited to share this show with them. I have agonized over this decision.” Other artists and bands are also considering canceling or postponing future worldwide tours due to safety concerns of large groups of tour personnel.
