allstarcharity.com Forms All Star Advisory Board; NewOnline Venture Scheduled To Launch Spring...

Entertainment Editors

LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2000

allstarcharity.com, a new online venture created and operated under Sony Music Entertainment's new technology area and scheduled to launch in Spring 2000, today announced the formation of its advisory board, comprised of eight leaders from the entertainment, business and Internet communities.

Music industry veteran Bobby Colomby will serve as Chairman of the Advisory Board. Joining him are producer/director

Martha Coolidge, Westfield America President Richard Green, actor Michael Keaton, Warner Bros. President of Worldwide Music Gary LeMel, Ogilvy &Mather Chairman and CEO Gerald McGee, New York Times film critic Elvis Mitchell, and Credit Suisse First Boston Digital Media head Rob Wiesenthal.

&uot;The Internet is leveling the playing field, opening new doors and enabling a whole new way to be charitable. allstarcharity.com brings the power of the Internet together with the many, many wonderful charitable organizations and the individuals who desire to support them. Speaking on behalf of the advisory board, we are pleased to lend our support to such a breakthrough effort,&uot; said Chairman of the Advisory Board Bobby Colomby.

The new allstarcharity.com site promises to raise the bar on online charity participation and will use the ubiquity of the Internet to raise awareness and money for a wide variety of charitable organizations. The venture will leverage the collective involvement of celebrities, combined with the increasing opportunity of Internet-enabled charitable donations. One hundred percent of the donations raised will go to participating celebrities' &uot;charity of choice.&uot; The venture intends to register as a private foundation under section 5.01(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

The advisory board will meet regularly to collaborate on the new site's vision, development and creative direction.

&uot;The collective talent, creativity and business savvy of this stellar advisory board will be a crucial asset to the success of this new online venture and the many charitable organizations it will benefit,&uot; said Xandra LeCarner, director of allstarcharity.com. &uot;We look forward to actively working with the board to gain their creative input and direction that will make this venture a success.&uot;

About the allstarcharity.com Advisory Board

Bobby Colomby began his career as a founding member, leader and producer of the legendary band, Blood, Sweat &Tears. Since then, Colomby's career has been deeply rooted in the music industry with stints both in-front of the camera and behind the scenes at the major label companies. During his tenure at Capitol Records, Epic Records and Sony Music Entertainment, Colomby has been responsible for signing, developing and launching new talent, ranging from the Jacksons and America to Richard Marx, Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis. Additionally, Colomby's television stints include serving as the on-air music reporter for &uot;Entertainment Tonight,&uot; host of &uot;In Person From The Palace,&uot; as well as co-host and music commentator for the &uot;CBS Morning Program.&uot; Currently, Colomby is the Chairman of Signal 21 Records, a music company distributed by Navarre Entertainment, and is a senior creative development consultant with Sony Music Entertainment's new technology area.

Martha Coolidge is widely recognized as a director with a passion for directing good stories and a gift for working with and discovering talented actors. Recently, she directed &uot;Introducing Dorothy Dandridge&uot; for HBO, which garnered Golden Globe nominations for two of its stars Halle Berry and Klaus-Mari Brandauer, as well as for the film itself. Her latest directing project, also for HBO, was one of the three segments of &uot;If These Walls Could Talk, Part II.&uot; Her feature films include &uot;Rambling Rose,&uot; &uot;Valley Girl,&uot; and &uot;Out To Sea.&uot; On the producing front, Coolidge is exec-producing &uot;Rip Girls&uot; for the Disney Channel. Coolidge, who was the recent recipient of the DGA's top Robert B. Aldrich award, currently co-chairs the DGA's Creative Rights Committee and serves as the First Vice President of the DGA.

Richard Green is President of Westfield America Inc. (NYSE:WEA), the nation's fourth largest publicly traded regional mall real estate investment trust. Green joined the Westfield Group in 1980 and shares leadership of Westfield America with Peter Lowy. Together they oversee all aspects of management, redevelopment, leasing, marketing and the operations of Westfield America portfolio of 38 U.S. regional and super-regional shopping centers. Green also is a Trustee of the International Council of Shopping Centers and serves on the Board of Directors of UCLA and the Armand Hammer Museum and Cultural Center.

Michael Keaton gained national recognition as the manic morgue attendant in Ron Howard's 1982 film &uot;Night Shift.&uot; He followed with starring roles in the comedy &uot;Mr. Mom,&uot; the cult gangster spoof &uot;Johnny Dangerously,&uot; a recovering mental patient in the comedy &uot;Dream Team&uot; and the classic &uot;Much Ado About Nothing.&uot; In 1988, he starred concurrently as a young man battling drugs and alcohol addiction in the acclaimed drama &uot;Clean and Sober&uot; and as the comic yet horrifying title character in Tim Burton's wildly inventive &uot;Beetlejuice.&uot; For both performances, he earned a Best Actor Award from the National Society of Film Critics. Keaton also has starred in &uot;Batman,&uot; &uot;Desperate Measures,&uot; &uot;My Life,&uot; &uot;One Good Copy,&uot; &uot;The Paper;&uot; had cameo appearances in &uot;Jackie Brown&uot; and &uot;Out of Sight,&uot; and recently produced &uot;Body Shots.&uot; Keaton serves on the board of American Rivers, an environmental non-profit organization.

Gary LeMel joined Warner Bros. in 1987 and now serves as President of Worldwide Music for Warner Bros. Film and production executive on the studio's music-related pictures. Since coming to Warner Bros., LeMel has put his stamp on such popular and acclaimed soundtrack collections as &uot;The Big Chill,&uot; &uot;The Bodyguard,&uot; &uot;City of Angels,&uot; &uot;Practical Magic,&uot; &uot;Natural Born Killers,&uot; &uot;You've Got Mail&uot; and many others. LeMel began his career as a classically trained pianist, later making a name as a talented bass player. LeMel stepped behind the microphone at 17, touring with legendary jazz singer Anita O'Day, and later signing as a solo artist to Vee Jay Records.

Gerald McGee joined Ogilvy &Mather in New York in 1968 where he worked in multiple capacities as a Producer, Writer, Copy Supervisor, and Copy Group Head. He was promoted to Associate Creative Director in 1979 and then to Creative Director the following year. In February 1984, McGee was appointed Managing Director of the Los Angeles Office, and in December 1999 was named Chairman and CEO. He was elected to the U.S. Board of Directors in 1985, and was named a member of the North American Operating Committee, which oversees all of Ogilvy &Mather operations throughout the United States and Canada. In 1998, the Ogilvy &Mather Worldwide Board of Directors elected Jerry a member.

Elvis Mitchell was recently appointed to the prestigious position of film critic for the New York Times. Mitchell previously reviewed films for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and the Detroit Free Press. For the last 15 years, he also has been an entertainment critic for &uot;Weekend Edition with Scott Simon&uot; on National Public Radio. He was also host of the film-related interview program &uot;The Treatment&uot; for KCRW, Santa Monica-Calif.'s public radio station, and the host of the Independent Film Channel's &uot;Independent Focus&uot; program. In addition, Mitchell has written on movies for Rolling Stone, GQ, and Interview magazines.

Rob Wiesenthal is Managing Director and head of the Digital Media investment banking effort for Credit Suisse First Boston. Rob started his career as a member of First Boston's burgeoning M& group in 1986, later joining the firm's Media Group in 1992. Since then Wiesenthal has advised on numerous financing and M& transactions for a broad range of media and entertainment clients including companies such as Seagram, Time Warner, Sony, MacAndrews &Forbes, Cox Communications and the New York Times. Most notably, he advised Seagrams on its $5.7 billion acquisitions of MCA Inc. and TCI on its merger with Liberty Media.

About Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment (SME), a leading global producer, manufacturer, and marketer of recorded music and video, has a presence in 60 countries. In the past year alone, SME has aggressively expanded its online presence with key investments in such leading online companies as ARTISTdirect, AudioBase, Digital On-Demand, Exactis, i3 Mobile, Intertainer, Lastminute.com, LAUNCH Media, Listen.com, OnRadio, Platform.net, Quintus, Spinner.com, TalkCity and Yupi.com. The company has also acquired leading email publishers InfoBeat and EMAZING.com.