DiCaprio, others launch $12 million relief food fund for virus-affected communities
will help launch America’s Food Fund, which has already raised $12 million to help communities impacted by the coronavirus.
The organization said Thursday that the funds will be aimed to help lowincome families, the elderly, individuals facing job disruptions and children who rely on school lunch programs.
The food fund will work with hunger relief organizations World Central Kitchen and Feeding America.
DiCaprio serves as a co-founder of America’s Food Fund with philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs. Apple and the Ford Foundation are also providing money to help launch the new initiative.
“In the face of this crisis, organizations like World Central Kitchen and Feeding America have inspired us all with their unwavering commitment to feed the most vulnerable people in need,” DiCaprio said in a statement. “I thank them for their tireless work on the frontlines, they deserve all of our support.”
JAMES PATTERSON SETS UP FUND TO HELP INDIE BOOKSELLERS
has a history of helping independent bookstores.
The best-selling novelist has donated millions in recent years to booksellers, while also giving millions to schools and libraries and literacy programs. Now, with stores closed or closing nationwide because of the coronavirus outbreak, Patterson has launched a new initiative.
On Thursday, he announced #SaveIndieBookstores, a partnership with the American Booksellers Association and the Book Industry Charitable Foundation. Patterson is contributing $500,000 and is urging others to contribute this month.
“I’m concerned about the survival of independent bookstores, which are at the heart of main streets across the country,” Patterson said. “I believe that books are essential. They make us kinder, more empathetic human beings.
And they have the power to take us away — even momentarily — from feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and scared.”
ABA member bookstores have from April 10-27 to apply for a grant on SaveIndieBookstores.com. Parameters haven’t been set yet for the biggest and smallest donations, and will depend on how much money is raised. Funds are expected to be distributed by May 15.
‘CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND’ STAR RACHEL BLOOM HAS FIRST BABY
“Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” star has had her first child in what she says was a harrowing experience amid the coronavirus outbreak that has struck a close friend.
The 32-year-old Bloom said on Instagram that she and husband returned home Wednesday with the healthy baby girl who had spent time in intensive care in a California hospital.
Bloom’s friend
the musician with whom she won an Emmy last year for writing a song for her CW musical comedy series “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” died from the coronavirus on Wednesday in a hospital in New York state.
“Having a baby in the
NICU during a pandemic while a dear friend was in the hospital 3,000 miles away made this by far the most emotionally intense week of mine and Gregor’s lives,” Bloom wrote in an Instagram post that came shortly before Schlesinger’s death was announced. “As the lovely doctors and nurses helped my daughter get some fluid out of her lungs, we watched the maternity ward around us change hourly to prepare for the upcoming COVID storm.”
Bloom said the whole family is safe, and thanked medical workers, from “those in our NICUs to those directly helping COVID patients like Adam, they are sacrificing so much to fight on the front lines of this war.”
ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER SHARES MUSICALS ONLINE
Iconic composer
is making some of his filmed musicals available for free on YouTube.
On Friday, the 2000 West End adaption of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” starring will be streamable, followed a week later by the rock classic “Jesus Christ Superstar” from the 2012 arena show starring
Further shows will be announced later, all hosted by the YouTube channel The Show Must Go On. Each show will be available at 2 p.m. Eastern for a 48-hour period online, with no charge or sign up required.