Along with newly announced musical performances from Madonna and Haitian artist Emeline Michel, a number of stars of the screen will be participating in the “Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief” telethon, airing Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on MTV and many other networks.

Brad Pitt, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jon Stewart, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks and Will Smith are among the many participants joining George Clooney, Wyclef Jean and CNN’s Anderson Cooper for the event.Additionally, a number of the music industry’s biggest stars are lined up to perform at the show. Beyoncé (performing in London), Madonna (in New York) and Michel (in Los Angeles) are performers who have been added in the past 24 hours. They join the list of other musicians set to play including Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira and Sting in New York City. In Los Angeles performers include Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift and a collaboration by Keith Urban, Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow. In London, Coldplay will perform, and there will be a group performance by Jay-Z, Rihanna and U2′s Bono and The Edge.
Music performances from “Hope for Haiti Now” will be available for purchase and download on the iTunes Store. Beginning on Friday, iTunes customers will be able to exclusively pre-order both the “Hope for Haiti Now” full performance album ($7.99) and the full two-hour video telecast ($1.99). Pre-orders will be delivered in the days following the telethon. Individual audio performances will also be available for purchase and download for 99 cents each in the days following the telethon. Apple, the record labels and the artists will donate their share of the proceeds to Haiti relief funds managed by “Hope for Haiti Now” charities.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper will report from Haiti. Clooney helped organize the telethon with MTV and it will air commercial-free across MTV, VH1, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, the CW, HBO, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment Network, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, Centric, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, Epix, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health and Planet Green. Canada’s CTV, CBC Television, Global Television and MuchMusic also will air “Hope for Haiti,” as will BET International, CNN International, National Geographic and MTV Networks International, making the event available in 640 million homes worldwide.

Facebook and Twitter are the official social-media partners for the telethon. All donations will benefit Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF and Wyclef’s Yele Haiti foundation. The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and United Nations World Food Programme will also benefit from the telethon’s efforts, as aid will be split evenly among each organization’s relief programs for the earthquake-ravaged island.

Source: MTV