Bob Barker

Barker recently donated $1 million to Drury University to establish the Dorothy Jo Barker Professorship in Animal Rights. The program, which is named after his late wife, will offer intense course study on animal issues like cruelty and philosophy.

Barker told OzarksFirst.com:

“What we’re doing here today is something they’re going to be talking about all across the country. At the very least, the young people who take this course will have more respect for animals.”

Bob goes on to explain that animal rights is a “real passion,” of his and started over 40 years ago.

Here at the Razz, we think Bob is one heck of a guy and give him our full support. To learn more about this generous donation visit OzarksFirst.com.

The legendary actor, who passed away in September 2008, bequeathed over $20 million to a variety of charities focused on education, the environment, health, human services, and more. Not surprisingly, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt came in second with gifts of $13.5 million, followed by Mel Gibson ($6 million), Richard Childress ($5 million), Oscar de la Hoya ($9.5 million), and Oprah Winfrey ($2.4 million).

To be sure, the Giving Back Fund prides itself on the accuracy of their reports. To collect the date, the group “culled media reports of charitable giving by sports and entertainment professionals; reviewed PF-990 tax-forms; contacted more than 250 publicists, attorneys, agents, agencies, and managers for information about their clients; polled more than 150 charities known for their celebrity associations; and contacted all of the major sports leagues.”

To see the complete list, jump here.

In the pool of celebrity runners for the 2009 NYC Marathon yesterday, Edward Norton finished on top. The 40-year-old actor completed the grueling 26.2 mile race in three hours, 48 minutes and one second. “You know you are going to hit tough spots,” he said post-marathon, “in a weird way mine came early in the race, but then I got my second wind around mile 18 and felt great the rest of the way.”

Norton was running the race to help raise funds for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust; with the normally shy web-user lighting up the social networking scene with fundraising on Twitter. Taking a look at rough totals this morning, I added up that the entire Maasai team running the marathon raised around $763,000. Norton himself raised an impressive $301,000. He wrote on Twitter after the race, “Many supporters in the crowd yelling encouragement. Totally inspiring. Highlight was hearing roar of city crowd from 59th St Bridge. Chills.”

While I’m sure the final fundraising numbers will be a bit higher, it’s wonderful to know that the Maasai will have some much-needed cash to help preserve their ecosystem and way of life. “If it seems like a project in a far off place that doesn’t connect to your world or your life, consider the fact that the ecosystem these people are trying to preserve is one of the last refuges of the lions and giraffes and rhinos and elephants that are the wildlife of our primitive imaginations and memories,” Norton wrote in his running bio. “There is a genuine threat to the future of that wildness if we don’t collectively value it and engage with the people who live alongside it.”

Mission accomplished. Now how about doing this again next year?

The actress was on stage during a fundraising auction for the OnexOne charity offering up a trip to South Africa for next year’s World Cup finals and a meeting with Nelson Mandela. When bids stalled, she upped the ante with that famous 20-second kiss everyone was talking about later.

Unfortunately, that whole “meeting with Mandela” part of the package was never actually approved — something the Nelson Mandela Foundation is apparently quite pissed about.

“A very strict process needs to followed to get a meeting with Mandela,” the foundation’s chief executive, Achmat Dangor, told Beeld, an Afrikaans-language newspaper. “Not even the charity foundations Mandela himself established are allowed to auction off time with him.”

It makes sense that Mandela wouldn’t want to be attached to every single charity fundraiser, but it’s odd that such a high-profile event would mess up a detail like “asking permission”. Theron’s camp couldn’t be reached for comment — so we assume someone is running around trying to make amends here. Stay tuned.

Matt Damon, a constant force in support of the OneXOne charity foundation, was unable to attend the 2nd Annual Gala Fundraiser for the organization last night in San Francisco due to a family emergency. A rep for the event, which Damon had been scheduled to host, told E! News that “He wouldn’t have missed this otherwise.”

Nevertheless, the event did go forward as planned – with celebrities like Charlize Theron, Jeremy Piven, David Arquette, Josh Groban, and Mia Hamm in attendance.

The evening featured a keynote address by Vicki Escarra, CEO of Feeding America, performances by Josh Groban, Carlos Santana, and the announcement of a new partnership with Charlize Theron’s African Outreach Project. Check out some pictures from the event below.

Olivia Wilde

“Beyond reducing our carbon footprints, I learned that using the power of solar technology is the best path toward a cleaner and more responsible future,” she writes. “After years of supporting environmental and humanitarian aid groups, I was elated to discover one grass-roots organization tackling both issues at once.”

“I learned about Power Up Gambia two years ago when I presented an award to its founder, Kathryn Cunningham Hall. The concept was brilliant: outfitting hospitals and clinics in Gambia with solar panels to generate the electricity needed to provide medical care.”

Wilde then goes on to describe how doctors benefiting from the solar charity can now perform operations by light rather than candlelight. “My hope is that all Gambians will be able to benefit from this sensible, innovative concept of providing sustainable access to medical care without worsening the toll of modernization.”

To learn more about Power Up Gambia, hit the official site here.

According to ContactMusic, Pitt’s fondness for head gear has turned into a massive collection — with fans and friends alike giving him new hats constantly as gifts. “It’s fair to say Brad has quite a collection of hats now. It’s become something of a joke between him and Angelina as just about every day he’s sent one as a gift,” a source said.

To whittle down his inventory, Pitt plans on selecting those hats that no longer have his love and donating them to charity. We’ve no doubt that they’ll raise a bit of cash for some organizations out there. In the meantime, if you’re eager to get something Pitt-inspired now and help make a difference, might we suggest this Make It Right military cap?

Pamela Anderson’s

Called A*Muse, the new organic clothing line consists of bathing suits, hoodies, zip ups, a full range of casual dresses, and beachwear. It debuted to mostly mixed reviews during New Zealand fashion week — with critics calling it everything from “fun and playful” to “Borat-inspired“. Anderson and her partner designer Richie Rich are now embarking on a world-wide promotional tour to debut the range in major cities in North America, Europe and Asia.

Toronto and Miami are on the agenda for A*Muse premieres in the coming weeks — and both cities will feature charity dinners before the fashion show to benefit PETA. At the Toronto event, called Feed Your Soul, those who cough up the $100 ticket price will enjoy an all-vegan menu prepared by Chef Chris Zielinski. PETA chairman Dan Matthews will join Pam in hosting a similar dinner following the Miami A*Muse fashion show.

Earlier this week we reported on comedian Drew Carey offering $25,000 for a Twitter name, @Drew, being auctioned off to raise money for the Livestrong cancer charity. The owner of the account, Drew Olanoff, is a cancer-fighter and blogger — most famous for his “Blame Drew’s Cancer” campaign that has exploded online.

Anyways, Carey raised his initial offer by saying he would donate $100,000 if he received 100,000 followers to his Twitter account by November 1st. He’s currently at just above 68,000 — which means he’s on track to easily pass that goal. Even better, however, was his surprise statement yesterday to a CBS reporter that he would up the ante from $100,000 to a cool $1 million if he gets the same amount of followers by midnight on December 31. If he doesn’t reach a million followers, the donation will be prorated: If there are 500,000 followers when the clock strikes midnight, then $500,000 will be given to LiveStrong.

Once again, we have an incredible charity fundraiser taking place on Twitter — and all you have to do is follow Drew Carey. I would hope that if  millions of people can follow Ashton Kutcher or Oprah, that they would easily earn a dollar for charity by taking part in this. Let’s hope the celebrity twitter machine rallies around this effort as the year draws to an end to put Carey over the top.

The Twitter celebrity charity machine is once again banging out the big bucks. This time, television funny man Drew Carey is bidding $100K to buy the @Drew twitter account from Drew Olanoff — a Twitter user who encourages a positive approach to living with cancer.

Olanoff recently tweeted that he would be auctioning off the account to help raise money for cancer charties; and, as there aren’t many four letter Twitter names left, the offer has sparked an attractive amount of attention. Drew Carey tweeted that he would be willing to offer $25K initially for the name. If his account reaches over 100,000 followers by November 9th — that offer would rise to $100K. (Obviously, if his account doesn’t reach that many, Carey will look like an ass — so expect that charity donation to probably stick.) As of this posting, Carey’s followers were just above 33,000.

According to UK Telegraph, Olanoff has become an internet celebrity since his diagnosis with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in May. “Through the Blame Drew’s Cancer website he has urged other Twitter users to blame their life’s problems on his cancer, with a view to finding a sponsor to donate money to the Lance Armstrong foundation Livestrong for every tweet.”