The top names in entertainment, including such names as John Legend, Amy Adams, and LL Cool J, are hosting Zoom fundraisers through Richard Weitz's "Quarantunes" series to raise money for coronavirus frontline initiatives.
Hollywood agent Richard Weitz, a partner at WME, told Cheddar on Friday that the idea for the charitable musical series came from wanting to make his daughter’s birthday special amid the pandemic.
“I was throwing a surprise birthday for my daughter Demi who was turning 17, and I hired a piano player from Chicago named Dario Giraldo who played Redhead Piano Bar," Weitz said. "I wanted to organize some fun on Zoom for Demi and her friends.”
His daughter was actually the one who encouraged him to turn the concept into a fundraiser to help support those on the frontlines and others in need.
“From there we knew we had a platform and my dad kept doing it and it got a little more traction and he invited more friends," Demi Wietz told Cheddar. " I was like dad we need to raise money for the people in need right now, for charities, for organizations, for hospitals like we have this platform and we should do something with it, so we turned it into a charity benefit concert,”
The concert series, which streams over the videoconferencing platform, selects a different organization to support each week and has already raised almost $1 million to help aid workers on the frontlines
Last week, the Weitzes teamed up with Jake Wood, CEO and co-founder of Team Rubicon, a nonprofit that helps reintegrate veterans back into civilian life and already raised more than $500,000.
Woods said that the investment bank Goldman Sachs had been eager to support Team Rubicon’s efforts and during the Quarantunes event it donated almost $150,000 to the fundraiser.
“A couple weeks ago, a partner in the private wealth division at Goldman Sachs reached out to me and said, “Hey we’ve learned about this private concert series that’s going on and being hosted by this father-daughter duo in Los Angeles and we’d love to bring some of our clients into it and have the proceeds benefit Team Rubicon,’” he explained.
Team Rubicon has deployed more than 4,000 volunteers to the frontlines of the pandemic, staffing underfunded hospitals and running mobile testing clinics in major cities across the country.
Catching you up on the entertainment headlines of the day with Justin Timberlake selling his entire musical catalog to IP management firm Hipgnosis, Ellen DeGeneres airing the final episode of her show, Alanis Morissette making a guest appearance on Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’ tour, and more.
Cheddar recently teamed up with Amazon Bestseller Jamie Hopkins to explore the term 'Rewirement' while highlighting those who didn't let retirement be the end of their journey... Instead, they used it as a new beginning.
Today, Jamie is speaking with Linda Lombri, a former home economist and marketing executive, and Virginia Cornue, a former cultural anthropologist. For them, retirement didn't mean stopping work--it meant re-inventing themselves and living out their dreams of becoming mystery authors, even though neither had written fiction before. Together, Linda and Virginia began an e-book series, the Sandra Troux Mysteries.
Brightseed Co-Founder Sofia Elizondo breaks down what plant bioactives are, and how they're using the latest technology to study human's biological connections with plants.
On this episode of Cheddar Innovates: Brightseed Co-Founder breaks down what plant bioactives are, and how they're using the latest technology to study human's biological connections with plants; Esper Bionics CEO breaks down how they re creating a mind-controlled bionic hand that guest smarter the more you use it; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Capturing A Black Hole In Our Milky Way.'
The number of births in the U.S. increased last year for the first time in seven years. According to a new federal report, about 3.6 million babies were born in 2021, only about a 1% increase from 2020. Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst for creditcards.com, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss why the pandemic baby boom was more like a baby bust, and how to raise kids while on a tight budget.
Following the mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, the debate over gun control has been reignited. While studies have shows most Americans agree on some additional regulations, there hasn't been much legislative traction even as gun violence worsens in the country. Brian Lemek, the executive director of Defend The Vote and the former executive director at Brady PAC for gun control, joined Cheddar to discuss reform efforts. "The lawmakers that we have aren't passing these at the federal level," he said. "That's the problem. We have the wrong people in charge."
The crypto industry is still reeling from Terra's recent crash. The company's blockchain was temporarily halted earlier this month after the collapse of its cryptocurrency Luna (LUNA) and its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST), which led to almost $45 billion being wiped from the tokens' market caps within a week. Now, many are left wondering what Terra's struggles mean for the broader crypto market. Reeve Collins, CEO of the NFT platform BLOCKv, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell from Davos 2022 to discuss.
