By Amy & Nancy Harrington, Pop Culture Passionistas
In recent celeb news a former Eurythmic got a UN appointment, some Hollywood stars lent a hand in the Gulf, and an ex-Idol asked fans to give back. Here are this week’s most inspirational pop culture moments.
Annie Lennox Becomes a UN Ambassador
Scottish singer Annie Lennox is not a new voice in the resounding celebrity chorus that speaks out about HIV/AIDS issues. Back in 2007, she even founded her own campaign called “Sing,” in support of women and children affected by the South African AIDS pandemic.
But, this week, Lennox was asked to speak out officially on HIV/AIDS issues for the United Nations as the International Goodwill Ambassador for the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. In her position for UNAIDS, Lennox wants to “address the rights of women and girls and challenge their second class citizen status, which puts them at greater risk of HIV.”
The UNAIDS Executive Director, Michael Sidibe, said of the pop stars involvement, “I am sure with her incredible passion and presence, she will raise awareness of the terrible toll HIV has taken on women and girls.”
Sweet dreams, indeed.
Hollywood Steps Up For the Gulf
On TV she was part of the Ewing oil family through most of the 80s, so it somehow seems fitting that Victoria Principal is coming to the aid of the gulf coast region in the wake of the oil spill.
The “Dallas” star has donated $200,000 to the clean-up efforts. According to AP she made the donation to both Oceana and the Natural Resources Defense Council in an attempt to get the two nonprofits to band together to clean up the spill and fight for renewable energy sources.

And she’s not the only 80s star stepping up to address the damage from the BP disaster. Ted Danson from the sitcom “Cheers” and current board member of Oceana went on Larry King to express his disgust over the tragedy, pleading “No more ocean drilling.”
And James Cameron director of “Avatar” and, more importantly to the circumstances “Titanic,” met with top officials to share his knowledge about underwater filming and even offered to loan them his subaquatic manned vessels. So far no takers on the fancy ocean toys.
Adam Lambert…In Lieu of Gifts, Donate
It’s a part of being a pop “Idol” that most of us don’t think about, but apparently when you’re famous, fans send you gifts. All kinds of gifts — cards, teddy bears, pictures, and collages. And when you’re on the road (like Adam Lambert is as he starts his Glam Nation Tour today) you run out of room pretty quickly for all the trinkets.
So Adam went on to his Twitter account this week and tweeted to all his followers, “Instead of giving me gifts, why not donate 2 donorschoose.org or other charity in my name? U can print a reciept [sic] 4 me and personalize it:) What are your thoughts?”
Fans were pleased with the idea and tweeted him back to let him know.
But it’s not the first time the pop star has encouraged charitable giving. Last year Glambert fans donated $229,000 to donorschoose.org to help fund a wide variety of classroom projects posted by teachers.
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