Much has been made of their pantyless partying and jailhouse antics, but there are a few Hollywood stars that prefer to use their fame to for more honorable purposes.
Take for example, Paul Newman. Lately, the award-winning actor has been showing the needy the true color of money. Just ask Ypsilanti High School drama teacher Michelle Peet. On Monday the teacher found a $5,000 check from Newman in her mailbox with a note that read the money was to be used to help defray costs associated with the drama club’s upcoming trip to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Newman says he donated the money to aid the drama club’s fundraising effort so the students could perform a 90-minute show abroad. According to Peet, the note read: “The enclosed contribution is sent with every good wish for continued success in your worthy endeavors.”
Peet told a local newspaper that the drama club has been soliciting donations via a mass letter-writing campaign, which included Newman and other celebrities. Peet said Newman’s generous gift will help cover travel, housing at the University of Edinburgh and two daily meals.
Newman’s fellow filmmaking pal, Spike Lee announced today that he plans to make a movie about the struggle against Nazi occupiers in Italy during World War II. Lee says his movie will highlight the contribution of black American soldiers who fought and died to liberate Europe.
Lee told reporters the film would spotlight the courage of black soldiers who, despite suffering discrimination back home, offered a contribution that has so far gone largely unnoticed in other Hollywood movies.
“We have black people who are fighting for democracy who at the same time are classified as second-class citizens,” the 50-year-old filmmaker said. “That is why I’d like to do a film to show how these brave black men, despite all the hardship they were going through, still pushed that aside and fought for the greater good.”
According to Lee, the movie will be based on the novel “Miracle at St. Anna” by James McBride and tell the story of four black American soldiers, all members of the Army’s all-black 92nd “Buffalo Soldier” Division, who are trapped behind enemy lines in an Italian village in Tuscany in 1944.
“This is a wonderful story and what makes it even more wonderful is that it is based upon true incidents,” Lee said. “If you look at the history of Hollywood, the black soldiers who fought World War II are invisible.”
Filming is planned in Tuscany, Rome and the United States and is expected to begin next year.