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.
A new mobile app has launched just in time for Valentine's Day. Our.Love bills itself as an A.I.-powered, gamified, relationship wellness app for couples. The app is set in what the company calls the Coupleverse, a virtual world where each couple can build a virtual relationship home as they also build their real-world relationship. Founder and CEO Tal Zlotnitsky joined Cheddar to discuss how the app works. "The concept behind Our.Love is to give people the opportunity to understand where they stand in their relationship through very simple metrics that we provide within the app that will help them in real-time, see where they stand, see where their partner is, and be able to get closer together," he said.
The Super Bowl is just 48 hours away and things are definitely heating up in the social media space, especially on Twitter. Fans across the country are quickly engaging in color commentary as they call it, and actively sharing their views on who's expected to take the big win, which players they are looking forward to seeing. Senior Sports Partner Manager at Twitter, David Herman, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Director and producer Ivan Reitman passed away over the weekend at the age of 75. The filmmaker was the mastermind behind some of America's favorite films such as "Ghostbusters". Reitman’s family released a statement explaining how they are comforted by the lives he has touched through his films.
The 21st Annual Food Network and Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBEWFF), is returning to Miami on February 24 with proceeds to benefit the future leaders of the hospitality industry. Lee Schrager, the founder and director of the festival, and Food Network star Jeff Mauro joined Cheddar News to discuss what ticket holders can expect, how the festival benefits students, and how Mauro will be paying tribute to fellow food celebrity, Guy Fieri, by hosting a charity auction dinner. "I mean there's nobody bigger, nobody more magnetic right now in the food space than Guy," Maura said. "I mean the guy had a Super Bowl commercial on last night. That's a dream of mine, so I'm one step closer there just by doing a tight 20 minutes at his tribute dinner."
Jeff Softley, direct to consumer president at Experian, joins Cheddar News to discuss what it means to be credit invisible, how big of an issue this is in the U.S., and what resources are out there to bridge this gap.
