By Tim Saunders on
Matt Damon, Wyclef Jean, Carlos Santana, Josh Groban, David Arquette, and the African Children's Choir came together in San Francisco on Thursday night for a fundraising extravaganza to benefit ONEXONE.
The evening raised money to be distributed between organizations such as H2O Africa, Feeding America, Water Partners, and the Yéle Haiti Foundation, and featured an auction that included lots such as the chance to feature Damon on the set of his next movie, The Human Factor. The film – which will be directed by Clint Eastwood – will tell the story of Nelson Mandela's struggle for freedom, and three people paid $20,000 for the opportunity to visit the set.
“If Eastwood doesn’t like the idea of having a lot of people around the set,” Damon said, “I guess my trailer’s going to be pretty crowded with a lot of people playing video games.”
Damon, Arquette, and Jean also took the time to visit the San Francisco Food Bank and help out by filling bags and boxes of food for the city’s underprivileged.
Damon’s philanthropic attitude is something he is interested in passing on to his own children: “It’s a hard thing to explain to a kid,” he told People Magazine, referring to poverty. “And it is also unbelievable the way other kids are forced to live. The way you have to parent them is to show them the world. Explaining the world can only go so far. You can read about devastation every morning – it’s on the front page of the newspaper – but when you actually go there and see it, you realize this isn’t something you can turn the page on.”
Copyright © 2008 Look to the Stars
