eBay, the world’s largest online marketplace, is teaming up with Brad Pitt’s Make It Right to take charitable fundraising to a whole new level with a physical space and interactive bidding. Fans are invited to walk through a gallery featuring one-of-a-kind celebrity experiences and mementos to be auctioned off for charity on eBay Celebrity. Smartphones add a hands-on element to visually innovative displays, enabling attendees to participate in an interactive bidding process via dimensional QR codes by utilizing the eBay mobile app to bid in real time as well as track auction progress.

The elite exhibition brings celebrity charity auction items to life in New York’s famed Chelsea Market, with 100% of proceeds going to Make It Right, a non-profit foundation building sustainable, affordable homes in disadvantaged communities. Launched in November, eBay Celebrity is a unique shopping destination that combines celebrity experiences, memorabilia and merchandise with philanthropic causes.

Read more. Very interesting I think.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie continue to put their money where their mouths are when it comes to charity. Their Jolie Pitt Foundation’s 2010 tax filing just became available. Of the over $2.3 million they gave away in 2010, $1 million went to Doctors without Borders treating patients in Haiti. But sometimes it’s the little things that count, too. Brad paid $3,000 toward a funeral for beloved New Orleans civic leader and his friend, Pamela Dashiell, who died unexpectedly at age 61 in December 2009. Dashiell had been a leader in New Orleans’s famous Lower 9th Ward where the most damage occurred from Hurricane Katrina. Big donation are wonderful, but something like that kind of breaks your heart.

The Jolie Pitt Foundation is also kind of a template for smart giving. For example, under a micro financing plan they loaned 201 needy Cambodians $21,000 for small businesses to purchase crop seeds and agricultural tools– a similar program to Kiva.org. All the money has been paid back.

Read more. Thanks Gabriella.

Angelina Jolie is being honored: Her directorial debut, “In the Land of Blood and Honey” is on at this year’s Cinema for Peace gala 13th February 2012 with the “Cinema for Peace Honorary Award for Opposing War and Genocide “excellent.

Jaka Bizilj, founder of Cinema for Peace: “We are proud to George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn now welcome with Angelina Jolie’s leading philanthropist in the world of film as an honorary prize winner may be. These artists prove by their actions that artists can influence our society for the better.”
The director and her team of actors, among whom are Serbs, Croats and Bosnians, the award personally opposed.

Bosnia is the focus of this year’s Cinema for Peace gala. The Foundation has opened an office in November 2011 in Sarajevo, which deals mainly with the investigation of the genocide in Srebrenica.

The gala with 600 guests at the Konzerthaus Berlin, in addition to the guests of honor Angelina Jolie and Madame Catherine Deneuve and Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Christopher Lee, Bianca Jagger, Luc Besson, Jolie’s husband Brad Pitt and a host of filmmakers and Oscar winners expected. Among the German celebrities are expected including Liefers Jan Josef, Anna Loos, Nastassja Kinski, Michael Mitter Meier, Boris Becker, Franziska van Almsick, Mario Adorf and other eminent personalities.

Read more. Thanks Gabriella. (Be sure to watch the SB Calendar on the left of the updates). Congratulations Angelina on behalf of SimplyBrad.com!

Occupy Wall Street has its fair share of celebrity supporters, including many whom have gone down to Zuccotti Park to check out the encampment. And while their mission extends far past kudos from Hollywood, they just received one of their biggest movie star endorsements.

Brad Pitt, as star of this fall’s “Moneyball,” has done a lot of talking about rethinking baseball’s financial system, but in doing so, he’s also made a lot of allusions to broader fiscal issues. In a press conference to promote the film in Japan earlier this week, Pitt brought up the OWS protestors as necessary agents of change.

“I think what you’re seeing in America is questioning a system that has not served us very well,” the star said. “A system that, I mean for example, is defined for corporate lobbyists instead of the best needs for the people and people are feeling screwed a little bit there.”

Pitt went on to comment, in a seeming allusion to OWS, that those protesting a system need to have answers, too.

Read more.

Brad Pitt is the latest star to add his name to an auction to be held next week to help victims of Tropical Storm Irene. Pitt and the person he played in “Moneyball,” Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, have autographed an A’s jersey for the auction.

The event, “Going To Bat For Vermont Farmers,” will be held November 12th, and includes autographed memorabilia from numerous stars including David Beckham, Evan Longoria, Albert Pujols, and CC Sabathia.

Pitt’s jersey was just added to the collection last night and is already up to $420.

Read more.

Hi there. My name’s Maggie and my Uncle, Henry Chalfant, directed a film called ‘Style Wars’ in the early 80′s. It’s become cult classic, documenting the very beginnings of hip hop, grafitti and breakdancing.

Style wars

Catherine Keener helped us organize a massive celebrity art auction to restore the original negative and some never before seen b-roll and transfer it to hd. A very expensive process. We threw a huge party here in nyc that was a big hit but we want to get the word out to all the fans / collectors about this incredible auction.

Brad Pitt was amazing and and agreed to participate. He donated an incredible original piece that incorporated his meticulous design element with his off-color humor, lol, and it’s great. it’s truly my favorite piece from the show.

We’d like to get the word out to any of his fans who might be interested in putting a bid down. the opportunity is incredible and we would be so thrilled if you were to link the information below to your site.

Read more. Thanks Maggie.

Comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is coming home on March 10 to help Brad Pitt “Make It Right” in the Lower 9th Ward.

DeGeneres has signed on to host “A Night to Make It Right,” a gala that aims to raise enough money to finish Pitt’s goal of building 150 environmentally friendly houses in the neighborhood that was virtually wiped out after the levee breaches in 2005. Seventy-five ultra-modern homes are finished, and DeGeneres and her fans have raised more than $1.6 million, so far helping 300 people return home.

“I’m so happy I can be a part of this incredible foundation,” DeGeneres said. “Brad Pitt is amazing — not only for what he started, but also because, who else can make a hard hat look like a jaunty fall fashion accessory?”

Pitt probably will leave the hard hat at home in the French Quarter that night, when Mayor Mitch Landrieu serves as honorary co-chair. Details are still being worked out, but a press release promises the party will feature “a guest list of major entertainers, political leaders, corporate donors and philanthropists … a dinner menu celebrating the finest culinary traditions of New Orleans, and grand afterparty.”

Read more. Thanks Gabriella.

The Children’s Hospital & Research Center Oakland and Stand Up To Cancer through Oakland A’s Community Fund is partnering with Columbia Pictures’ Moneyball for a benefit screening this Monday (09/19).

Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman, is directed by Bennett Miller and centers on the true story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane and his succes in putting together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players.

Event Details:
Film premiere, 6 p.m., Monday, Sept. 19
Paramount Theatre of the Arts, 2025 Broadway, Oakland.

Read more/discuss. Thanks Anu.