Could Gwyneth Paltrow’s very generous donation to a food charity last weekend have something to do with dissatisfaction with her chametz-disposal arrangements? The macrobiotic Hollywood star gave almost £40,000 to the Food Bank for New York City — a charity which distributes free food to hungry New Yorkers — at a celebrity-studded benefit event. “I’ve been thinking about all the crap my children eat and how much food we throw away. We have to do better,” she told guests.
When it comes to celebrity donations, few can top Barbra Streisand. The singer has given a whopping £2.5 million to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles for the hospital’s women’s heart education and research programme. “Women need to be educated about female cardiovascular disease and the medical community must be propelled towards change. Just like with breast cancer, the impetus must come from women,” she says. We would be tempted to say “Gwyneth, eat your heart out”, if it wasn’t in such bad taste.
Continuing the Pesach theme, Captain James T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, aka actor William Shatner, is the narrator on Exodus: An Oratorio in Three Parts, a CD telling the Pesach story released by the Jewish Music Group in New York. Shatner says his Jewishness had no bearing on his decision to get involved with the project, although he does have fond memories of traditional, albeit long, seder nights as a child in Canada. These days, he enjoys a “more modern” seder at his daughter’s house, featuring “plenty of English” and taking “a little less time than the old-fashioned ones”.
Tori Spelling may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but she has certainly succeeded in achieving a massive gay following — something which the former Beverley Hills 90210 star seems pretty chuffed about. “I’m a huge fan of gays. They love me; I love them. They consider me kind of a gay icon.” She has said of her latest movie, Kiss The Bride, that the gay theme “was probably one of the top things that made me want to do the movie”. In the flick, Spelling’s fiancé has a fling with a male friend from high school.
Bob Dylan has been awarded a “special citation” Pulitzer Prize for his “profound impact on popular music and American culture marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power”. It is the first time a rock star has achieved the accolade, as historically Pulitzer judges have favoured classical music. What next, we wonder? A Nobel prize for Elvis, perhaps?
Only a couple of years back, Kiss frontman Paul Stanley — he of the elaborate stage make-up — announced his intentions to quit the music business. Now it seems the rocker — born Stanley Eisen — has changed his mind. “The band has never been better. The fact is, we did do a farewell tour and by the end of it I realised that the only thing I wanted to say farewell to was a couple of members, and that the band should continue.” Manufacturers of mascara can breathe a sigh of relief.
She may be about to break up with her husband, according to the tabloids, and has ongoing issues with recreational substances, but Amy Winehouse is still breaking records in the music industry. The 24-year-old has become the first artist to be nominated twice for Best Song in the Ivor Novello Awards. That’s on top of the five Grammys she won earlier this year. And they say her life is in a mess.
Lara Lewington is the Five News showbusiness and weather presenter