The entertainment industry is banding together to combat cancer. The Stand up to Cancer campaign launched last week, with a celebrity-filled event at the Paley Center in Beverly Hills.
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The organization will air a one-hour special simultaneously on three of the four of the country’s top TV networks on Sept. 5. The special will combine celebrity performances with reporting by news anchors Charles Gibson, Brian Williams and Katie Couric on ABC, NBC and CBS.
Couric, one of the leaders of Stand up to Cancer, lost her husband to the disease in 1998. Other heads of the organization include former Paramount Pictures chair Sherry Lansing, and Spider-Man producer Laura Ziskin.
Stand Up to Cancer plans to serve as an umbrella organization to bring together other cancer nonprofits to raise funds for cancer research. The American Association for Cancer Research, the Entertainment Industry Foundation and the Noreen Fraser Foundation are among the leading organizations working with Stand Up to Cancer. Others include the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
Major League Baseball, Revlon, AOL, and the AARP are corporate sponsors.
In addition to the TV special, the organization will also produce TV, radio and print public service announcements, the first of which is featured on its website. Celebrities such as Larry David, Morgan Freeman, Tony Hawk, Tobey Maguire, Jodie Foster and Lance Armstrong have appeared in the organization’s first videos.