Katrina telethon stars expected to skirt politics

09/08/2005 8:49 PM, Reuters
Steve Gorman

The last time rapper Kanye West appeared on a TV show to raise money for Hurricane Katrina victims, he accused U.S. President George W. Bush of racism. This time, producers feel confident he'll just sing.

He and the rest of some two dozen music, film and TV stars taking part in Friday's multi-network telethon for hurricane relief have all agreed to keep their politics to themselves for the sake of maximizing viewer pledges, producer Joel Gallen said on Thursday.

"Everybody is in the same spirit of what this evening is about, which is to raise as much money as possible," he said. "They're going to channel their feelings into inspiring people to donate, and leave the politicizing at home."

Gallen said this message had been conveyed in conversations with all the performers, including West.

The hourlong, commercial-free show, dubbed "Shelter From the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast," is the most ambitious of several televised fund-raisers that have been quickly organized in the aftermath of Katrina.

The program will air live on eight U.S. broadcast networks in the Eastern time zones and on a tape-delayed basis elsewhere. It also will be carried by more than three dozen U.S. cable channels, numerous radio stations and Web sites, as well as broadcasts in more than 140 countries.

Proceeds will go to disaster relief efforts of the American Red Cross and Salvation Army.

In addition to West, the show will feature performances by about dozen other recording stars, including Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, the Dixie Chicks, Alicia Keys, Paul Simon, Rod Stewart, Neil Young and U2.

At least 10 other celebrities are slated to appear, among them Jack Nicholson, Chris Rock, Jennifer Aniston and Louisiana native Ellen DeGeneres.

Gallen said he also sought to enlist New Orleans-born rock 'n' roll pioneer Fats Domino, who survived floodwaters that inundated his neighborhood, but was told that the 77-year-old musician was still "recovering from the trauma" of his ordeal.

Domino, however, was reported to be on the bill for a live concert benefit slated for September 20 at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Gallen said the tone and format of his show would be similar to a two-hour multi-network special he produced four years ago, 10 days after the September 11, 2001 attacks on America. That telethon raised more than $150 million in pledges.

West surprised viewers last Friday when he used a similar NBC telethon for hurricane relief to accuse Bush of racism on the government's response to the storm, saying "Bush doesn't care about black people."

His remarks made it into the live, East Coast broadcast but were cut from tape-delayed feeds that aired later in the West.

Gallen said the live feed for this week's multi-network show would air on a 30-second time delay to be used strictly as a safeguard against obscenity, not to censor unscripted comments.