Stars stage concert for hurricane victims
Actor Morgan Freeman led a star-studded benefit concert for hurricane victims last night, telling a national television audience that the state he calls home “will rise again” from the ruins of the storm’s destruction.
Freeman, who lives in Tallahatchie County in northern Mississippi, described families living in tents on sites where their homes used to stand before Hurricane Katrina. But he assured viewers that the people would bounce back.
“We will rise again,” the Oscar winner said. ”Mississippi crawled out of the rubble and helped their neighbours and got about the business of surviving.”
Nearly 40 celebrities went on stage at the University of Mississippi for the three-hour concert benefit called ”Mississippi Rising”, which was shown on MSNBC and aired on commercial television stations throughout Mississippi and Louisiana, and on Mississippi Public Television.
Singer Macy Gray performed a soulful rendition of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”.
Sitcom star Ray Romano got back to his stand up comedy roots and former “Designing Women” co-stars Delta Burke and Jean Smart manned the celebrity phone bank, alongside actor Gerald McRaney, a Mississippi native, and actress Marilu Henner.
In a taped documentary, Whoopi Goldberg toured the coast narrating scenes of the destruction.
“You look at 'The Wizard of Oz’ and you see things flying up in the air…this is where everything goes that didn’t land,” Goldberg said as she flew over destroyed homes.
“That’s the thing about Mother Nature, she really doesn’t care what economic bracket you’re in,” Goldberg said.
Donations will go to the Mississippi Hurricane Recovery Fund, which was started by Governor Haley Barbour, and to a similar fund in Louisiana administered by Foundations for Recovery.
The concert was organised by two Mississippi natives: Sam Haskell, former worldwide head of television for the William Morris Agency in Hollywood, and Lanny Griffith, a long-time friend of the governor who is chief executive officer of the Washington lobbying firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers.
Before becoming governor, Barbour was chairman and CEO of the firm.
