Geldof hopes that Live 8 will finally help Africa eat
TWENTY YEARS AFTER the Live Aid concerts, musical superstars are joining in a new five-city spectacular to push a political solution for African poverty.
Organizer Bob Geldof on Tuesday announced plans for Live 8 concerts on July 2, just days before leaders of the world’s richest countries, the G8, meet in Britain.
Madonna, Paul McCartney, U2, Bon Jovi, Brian Wilson, Coldplay, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z and others will perform in London, Philadelphia, Berlin, Paris and Rome.
The 1985 Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia drew a TV audience of millions around the globe and raised $40 million for poverty relief in Africa.
This time, the free concerts are intended to create “political heat” to persuade G8 leaders to cancel Africa’s unpayable debts and double its aid.
“Twenty years on, it strikes me as being morally repulsive and intellectually absurd that people die of want in a world of surplus,” Geldof said. “This is to finally, as much as we can, put a stop to that.”
Michael, meet your new family
Lindsay Lohan‘s father has been sentenced to up to four years in prison after pleading guilty to a variety of crimes, including driving while impaired and attempted assault.
The latest occurred in February, when Michael Lohan, 45, was charged with drunk driving after running his car into a utility pole on Long Island.
The attempted assault charge stemmed from an attack on his brother-in-law with a shoe at a party last May.
He also pleaded guilty to aggravated harassment for making a threatening phone call to another brother-in-law, and to criminal contempt for breaking a court order by driving onto his estranged wife’s driveway.
Was Oliver stoned?
Director Oliver Stone faces charges of suspicion of drug possession and driving while intoxicated.
Stone, 58, was arrested Friday night at a police checkpoint on Sunset Boulevard. A search of his Mercedes turned up unidentified pills.
In 1999, the Oscar-winning filmmaker pleaded guilty to drug possession and no contest to driving under the influence and was ordered into a rehabilitation program.
No, no, Christian – glass menagerie
Christian Slater, who is appearing in a revival of “The Glass Menagerie” on Broadway, has been arrested on a charge that he groped a woman.
After arguing with a girlfriend on Manhattan’s Upper East Side early Tuesday, Slater, 35, allegedly walked up behind the woman and grabbed her buttocks.
In 1998, Slater served 59 days in jail for an August 1997 incident in which he binged on drugs and alcohol, beat his girlfriend during a brawl and assaulted a police officer.
Now they’ll both always have Paris
It’s official: Hotel heiress and “Simple Life” star Paris Hilton is engaged to Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis.
Hilton, 24, announced earlier this month on “The View” that the pair planned to marry. Latsis, 27, proposed last week after she returned from a European tour to promote her horror flick, “House of Wax.”
No wedding date has been set. It would be the first marriage for both.
The birthday bunch
Actor Andy Griffith is 79. Singer Pat Boone is 71. Actor Morgan Freeman is 68. Actor Rene Auberjonois (“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”) is 65. Guitarist Ron Wood (Rolling Stones) is 58. Actor Jonathan Pryce (“Evita”) is 58. Actor Powers Boothe is 56. Country singer Ronnie Dunn (Brooks & Dunn) is 52. Actress Lisa Hartman Black is 49. Actress Teri Polo (“Meet the Parents”) is 36. Model Heidi Klum is 32. Singer Alanis Morissette is 31.