Names and faces
Lady Gaga and advocacy organization Global Citizen have raised $35 million to fight the coronavirus and are organizing a TV special featuring Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Billie
Eilish to combat the growing virus. On Monday, Gaga said that the money was raised in seven days and will benefit the
World Health Organization. The pop star and Global Citizen also announced “One
World: Together at Home,” a televised event aimed at fighting the coronavirus. It will air April 18 at 8 p.m. EDT simultaneously on ABC, NBC, CBS, iHeartMedia and Bell Media networks. “I would like to reiterate our deep gratitude to the medical community. My heart is very achy and warm for those who are ER doctors as well as nurses who are sleeping in cars to make sure they don’t infect their families or their patients. What you are doing is putting yourself in harm’s way to help the world and we all salute you,” Gaga said during a news conference Monday. The multi-hour TV special, which will also stream live online on several platforms, will include appearances by Elton John, David Beckham, John Legend, Eddie Vedder, Kerry Washington, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Lizzo, J Balvin, Andrea Bocelli and Maluma. Gaga said the money raised will help buy much-needed protective gear for health workers, improve lab capacities and further research and development into possible drugs and vaccines to treat the new coronavirus. However, the singer explained that the TV special is not a fundraiser: “Put your wallets away … and sit back and enjoy the show you all deserve.” After more than 20 books, 78-year-old
Anne Tyler says she still finds ways to
challenge herself. Her new novel, Redhead by the Side of the Road, is, of course, set in her longtime home of Baltimore and features the family and romantic entanglements and other narrative touches. But she said the story’s main character, Micah Mortimer, a self-employed tech consultant/repairman confronting the fallout of decisions made years before, pretty much came out of nowhere. “This is the first book I’ve written where I began with no idea,” Tyler, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist known for The Accidental
Tourist, Morgan’s Passing and Breathing Lessons, said in a recent email interview. “I was wracking my brains for something to write about, and a single sentence popped into my head: ‘You have to wonder what goes through the mind of a man like ———— ————.’ (I didn’t have a name for him yet.) I was baffled. Why should I have to wonder? I thought, and then up popped the next sentence: ‘He lives alone; he keeps to himself …’ The rest of the book was up to me, but at least I was on my way.”