Piven in New York charity frame of mind

09/05/2007 8:55 PM, AP


Jeremy Piven makes freaking out look good on "Entourage," which shows his character, Ari Gold, decked out in the designer attire required of a high-strung, high-powered Hollywood agent.

In real life, Piven is happy to loosen the tie.

"I'm a pretty casual person," the 42-year-old actor told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I usually gravitate toward things that feel good — just, like, a really soft T-shirt or something like that."

He's gravitated to New York this week to feel good as the host of Thursday night's fourth annual Fashion Rocks at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The concert, part of New York Fashion Week events, will team with the online auction site Charity Folks to benefit the charity Keep a Child Alive, which supplies treatment in Africa and the developing world for HIV/AIDS-infected children and their families.

The concert's list of scheduled performers include Aerosmith, Alicia Keys, Avril Lavigne, Carrie Underwood, Fall Out Boy, Fergie, Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Lopez, Ludacris, Martina McBride, Mary J. Blige, Santana and Usher.

Some of the money raised by the concert and the online auction will also go to other charities favored by the participants. Piven is auctioning off two tickets to a performance at the Piven Theater Workshop — founded in Evanston, Ill., by his mother, Joyce, and late father, Byrne — to benefit the theater's scholarship and community outreach programs.

Piven's tickets and the other items, such as VIP backstage passes and concert tickets, will be up for bid on the Charity Folks Web site until Sept. 23.

Piven said he doesn't know what to expect from his concert role.

"It's totally uncharted territory," he said. "Some people do extreme sports — you know, people like Laird Hamilton surf, like, 60-foot waves — I just, like, host things that I'm totally under-qualified to do."

The concert will be telecast Friday in a two-hour special on CBS.

Piven, who won an Emmy for "Entourage" last year, is nominated again this year. His mother, who accompanied him to the Emmys the last two years, turned down an offer to join him this time around, he said.

"I think she said, `Five times is enough,'" Piven said.

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Fashion Rocks is a production of Conde Nast Media Group, a unit of Conde Nast Publications.

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On the Net:

http://www.charityfolks.com/fashionrocks

http://www.fashionrocks2007.tv