Affleck, Damon, Cheadle Ante Up for Darfur
Everyone was all in for a good cause.
Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle were among the Hollywood types who gathered Wednesday at the Rio Pavilion in Las Vegas for a no-limit Texas Hold’em tournament benefiting victims of the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Also forking over the $5,000 entrance fee were Adam Sandler, George Lopez, Ray Romano and Jason Alexander, who optimistically said, “When there’s no actual money for me, I’m very good.”
This was the second annual Ante Up for Africa event, an idea cooked up last year by Cheadle and professional card player Annie Duke in conjunction with the World Series of Poker. More than $850,000 was raised in 2007.
Tournament proceeds are going to Not on Our Watchthe advocacy and aid group started last year by Cheadle, Damon, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and producer Jerry Weintrauband ENOUGH, a joint initiative of the International Crisis Group and the Center for American Progress that’s working to end civil conflicts in Darfur, Uganda and Congo.
“It’s just great to see everybody,” Cheadle said as the first hand (which Alexander won, of course) was dealt. “Don’t expect to win, because it’s mine.”
George Clooney: Still Single
Good news for any ladies angling to be the next to steal George Clooney’s heart: He’s still available.
Despite recent reports that Clooney has already moved on from ex Sarah Larson, sources tell News that Clooney is still licking his woundsalone. “He is not dating anyone at all,” says a source. “Anyone who says he is already dating doesn’t know what they are talking about.”
We’re told that Clooney, rather than wining and dining the ladies on his annual summer vacation at his villa on Italy’s Lake Como, has been playing host to friends and, believe it or not, getting work done.
“He’s doing a lot of reading of scripts and writing,” says a source in Italy.
So what about the supposed “mystery brunettes” that were seen on one of Clooney’s boats back on June 14? Well, News has identified the dark-haired beauties.
The older woman in the pics is the wife of a Clooney business associate, and the younger brunette is none other than our colleague Olivia Munn, host of G4’s Attack of the Show, who was visiting Clooney with her boyfriend/close Clooney pal, actor Bryan Greenberg.
Strike Deadline Looms for Hollywood Actors
To strike or not to strike? That is the question dogging Hollywood.
But while filmmakers, TV producers, casts and crews are holding their collective breaths with the Screen Actors Guild contract due to expire at midnight, union president Alan Rosenberg says there is no immediate work stoppage in the, um, works.
“We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of the Screen Actors Guild,” he says in a statement. “Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction.”
Right now, SAG has a seemingly bigger headache to deal with firstthe very real threat of all-out civil war with its sister union, the American Federal of Television & Radio Artists. AFTRA reached a separate agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers weeks ago, triggering infighting among the thespian set.
In one corner, stars like Viggo Mortensen, Laura Dern, Jack Nicholson and Holly Hunter have urged AFTRA to vote down the pact, claiming it undercuts much of the Screen Actors Guild’s agenda, which focuses on new media pay scales, DVD residuals and a bigger say over product placement.
In the other corner: Tom Hanks, Susan Sarandon, Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin, all of whom back the AFTRA deal, claiming it will create new opportunities for actors.
George Clooney has attempted to play peacemaker, calling for Hanks and Nicholson to meet together to help hash out a truce.
SAG is ponying up $150,000 worth of advertisements, robo-calls and email blasts to persuade AFTRA folks to just say no to the contract.
AFTRA’s national executive director, Kim Roberts Hedgpeth, labels such tactics “appalling” and “divisive.”
“Whether the attempts by a sister union to interfere in the ratification of your contract are motivated by politics, fear, naïveté, inexperience, or the intention to do harm to your union, there is an undeniable reality: It is a disgrace,” she says in a message posted on the union’s website.
Unlike the Screen Actors Guild, which covers actors in film and television, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists represents thesps in live events (a remnant of its history repping radio acts) and video, which includes some cable and reality shows. However, with the advent of series shot in digital video, the two unions have been squabbling over jurisdictional rights.
But with both SAG and AFTRA’s contracts set to end at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, the question remains: Will the industry once again see another walkout like the crippling three-month Writers Guild of America strike that ended in February?
As the unions battle it out over whose terms will ultimately prevail, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is trying to head any potential work stoppage off at the pass, taking out ads in Monday’s trades calling a strike “harmful and unnecessary.”
AMPTP says a work stoppage would result in $2.3 billion in lost wages and more than 37,000 people out of work.
“The industry is shutting down because SAG’s Hollywood leadership insisted on 11th-hour negotiations and dragging these talks into July so they can continue attacking AFTRA,” the rep said in a statement.
SAG says it will continue negotiating with producers for “as many hours as it takes” to make sure its concerns left out of the AFTRA deal are satisfied.
Reporting for Nightline from the Congo, it’s … Ben Affleck?
If you tuned in to Nightline last night, you saw a report from the Congo about the political and humanitarian crisis there. But, the interesting part about it was who was reporting the story: Ben Affleck.
According to Reuters, Affleck has made three trips out to the Congo, and he contacted ABC News to see if they wanted to send a camera crew along with him. He also wrote an essay about his trips for the late-night news program’s website. It’s a refreshing view from Ben, whose trips to the war-torn country have mostly been under wraps.
“I view this as a long and ongoing learning experience to educate myself before making any attempt to advocate or ’speak out,’” Affleck writes. He also says that “it makes sense to be skeptical about celebrity activism. There is always the suspicion that involvement with a cause may be doing more good for the spokesman than he or she is doing for the cause.”
What it looks like he’s doing is taking the George Clooney route when it comes to celeb activism: Do what you need to do in the background, and only speak out when you feel the time is right. Also, it seems that his message is a gentle one, unlike the annoying hectoring and overt showmanship we often get from the likes of Sean Penn and Tim Robbins (though Robbins isn’t nearly as bad as Penn).
If you want to see Affleck’s report, there’s a video accompanying his essay on the ABC News website.
[via Mediabistro]