Free Women's Blog

The stars of hit TV show Glee have shown off their generous side by recording a special version of Do They Know It’s Christmas? in aid of charity.

Actors Cory Monteith, Lea Michele and others have recorded their own version of Band Aid’s 1984 hit single and will be donating all the the money raised to The Band Aid Trust.

In 1985 the charity was set up and supports projects in third world countries, and Bob Geldof, who co-wrote the track and co-founded Band Aid, is happy about the new version.

He says, “The reverberations of this little song continue down the long 26 years since Midge Ure and I wrote it. It could not be more timely now that Glee with its vast global audience of young people re-introduce it to a whole new constituency who are probably unaware of the great tragedy unfolding amongst the hungry, poor and dying of Somalia as a result of drought and a bitter and pointless civil war. This song was made specifically with that intent.

“Band Aid would like to thank from the bottom of its heart all the producers and actors of Glee who have gone beyond their normal brief of entertainment and entered into the spirit and understanding of that recording and its artists 26 years ago and its many subsequent iterations, by opening their website to the topic of poverty and the poor and linking it through to the Band Aid and the One Campaign sites.”

“This is entertainment with purpose.”

Sir Roger Moore and Brigitte Bardot are the latest celebrities to suport the campaign against cosmetics tested on animals.

The celebrities join 89,000 people – including Dame Judi Dench, Ricky Gervais, Melanie C, and Leona Lewis – in signing Cruelty Free 2013 petition to urge European Union politicians to keep their promise on banning the sale of new cosmetics tested on animals.

The European Union (EU) in 2009 banned animal testing in labs but it is still legal to sell products imported from other countries, and while they are due to be banned in March 2013, there has been speculation this could be delayed.

Moore said: “It seems absurd to me that Europe still allows animal-tested cosmetics to be sold in its shops when such animal testing is itself quite rightly banned in its laboratories. If something is unethical, it is unethical full-stop regardless of where in the world it takes place. So I say to EU politicians, stop supporting cosmetics animal testing in other countries by selling these products. You promised to ban them, and a gentleman’s word is his bond.”

Brigitte added: “We do not have the right to poison then kill animals, sensitive beings, for some beauty creams. It is urgent to equip the European Union with reliable, modern and non-cruel research, by definitively abolishing animal testing which is a cruelty without name.”