The poor will always have Paris
Watch out, world, Paris Hilton has developed a social conscience.
The celebrity plans to visit Rwanda as part of her post-jail commitment to use her public status to bring attention to important causes.
“I’ll be going in November, after I get back from filming my movie,” she told E! Online. “There’s so much need in that area, and I feel like if I go, it will bring more attention to what people can do to help.”
The 26-year-old hotel heiress-actress vowed to use her fame to bring attention to social causes after serving a 23-day jail sentence earlier this year for violating probation in an alcohol-related reckless driving case.
“I want to visit more countries where poverty and children’s issues are a big concern,” she said. “I know there’s a lot of good I can do just by getting involved and bringing attention to these issues.”
J-Lo sings through her tears
Today’s theme, then, is celebrity activism. As part of a musical tour to help support a children’s health campaign, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony on Tuesday visited a Bronx elementary school just blocks from where the actress-singer grew up.
“That was so … Oh my God, what did you do to me? Look at my makeup!” said a teary Lopez, 39, after hundreds of schoolchildren greeted the couple with flowers and artwork. “We look at you and see ourselves. This is overwhelming. I remember being in school, being on stage and dreaming of great things.”
Hey, leave them kids alone!
Sarah Silverman is learning that celebrities can be targets, but their kids …? The comic is still hearing negative reaction to her Britney Spears jokes at the MTV Video Music Awards where she called the pop singer’s two children – Sean Preston, 2; Jayden James, 1 – “the most adorable mistakes you will ever see.”
“The joke that everyone was upset about – me calling the kids ‘adorable mistakes’ – was the most innocuous joke,” Silverman, 36, told Us Weekly magazine. “It never occurred to me that would be deemed hurtful or over the line.”
That’s not porn, it’s just art
Speaking of children, Elton John said Wednesday that he owns a photo of two naked girls taken by award-winning photographer Nan Goldin that was seized by police at a British gallery over concerns it amounted to child pornography.
“Klara and Edda Belly-Dancing” is among 149 images comprising Goldin’s “Thanksgiving” installation. Police took the photo from an exhibit held in northeastern England.
“The photograph exists as part of the installation as a whole and has been widely published and exhibited throughout the world,” John said.
The birthday bunch
Actress Jayne Meadows is 87. Director Arthur Penn is 85. Actress Sada Thompson is 78. Actress Kathleen Nolan is 74. Actor Wilford Brimley is 73. Producer Don Cornelius (“Soul Train”) is 71. Actress Liz Torres is 60. Actor A Martinez (“LA Law,” “Santa Barbara”) is 59. Singer Meat Loaf is 56. Sax player Greg Ham of Men At Work is 54. Singer-actor-director Shaun Cassidy is 49. Actor Patrick Muldoon (“Melrose Place”) is 39. Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is 35. Singer Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down is 29. Rapper Lil Wayne is 25. Singer Avril Lavigne is 23.