10 Celebrities Who Do Awesome Things

This post is intended to restore a little faith in the image of celebrities. I am as critical as anyone when it comes to these millionaires. Bottom line, I suppose that I am jealous of their capabilities. What they could do with that money, while instead we see them being selfish, indulgent, and indifferent. However, as is often the case, we lump all celebrities in one group, classifying them as selfish bitches because of the bad apples out there who are pretty obnoxious and terrible. But today, I wanted to take the focus off of these “douche canoe” celebrities, and look at some of the good they do behind the scenes. 

1. Johnny Depp

Johnny Depp always travels with his Captain Jack Sparrow costume to make impromptu visits to sick kids in hospitals, or children at schools abroad who have written him fan mail. Depp also often goes to Disneyland dressed up as Captain Jack, without giving notice beforehand, and takes over for signature time with the kids.                     

2. Tupac

Regardless of the singer’s less than stellar history, Tupac was never too busy for his fans. At the height of his fame Tupac received a letter from the parents of a terminally ill boy named Joshua, saying it was Joshua’s dying wish to meet Tupac. Tupac then flew out to Maryland to meet the boy. When Joshua passed away, Tupac changed the name of his publishing company to “Joshua’s Dream.”

3. Dave Grohl

The famous writer, singer and musician in Nirvana and Foo Fighters  Dave Grohl is said to be one of the coolest guys you could ever meet. This image of him can be verified by two Australian miners who found themselves in a terrible situation, with an awesome result. Two trapped Australian miners asked only for an iPod with Foo Fighters to be sent down to them. When Dave heard about this, he personally included a note saying “I want you to know that when you come home, there’s two tickets to any Foo’s show, anywhere, and two cold beers there waiting for you. Deal?” Apparently they took him up on that offer.

4. Emma Watson

The brilliant and successful Watson appears to be quite the charitable humanitarian as well. A 5 year old boy was out in NYC treak-or-treating on Halloween dressed as Harry Potter- the outfit, wand, glasses, the whole 9 yards. It was towards the end of his candy hunt when he was approached by a young woman. She came up to him and said “excuse me, are you Harry Potter?” After he mumbled out a, yes, she said “that’s great, because I’m Hermione Granger and we’re best of friends.” and she gave him a big hug. Of course the boy didn’t really understand that this was indeed the real Hermione Granger.                 

5. J.K. Rowling

Before the official release of the 4th Harry Potter book in the series, J.K. Rowling wrote the books ending a year in advance for Natalie McDonald, a little girl diagnosed with leukemia. Natalie died before she received Rowling’s email, so J.K. named a character after Natalie. That character was sorted into Gryffindor in order to commemorate such a brave little girl. 

6. John Cena

Generally I am not a fan of the WWF… wait is it called the WWE now? I don’t know, fake wrestling, lets just call it that. But this story was just too sweet to pass up. John Cena reaches a major milestone with the Make-A-Wish Foundation… 400 wishes granted!

7. George Takei

George Takei once showed up two hours early for a scheduled press conference just so that he could sign the doll of a young fan who was too sick to stick around for the scheduled time of the meet and greet.

8. Russell Brand

Brand has been seen multiple times on the streets of LA hanging out with the homeless, taking them to breakfast, giving them new clothes, and even a ride to AA meetings that Brand himself attends.

9. Tom Cruise

Though I am not a fan of Cruise these days he was pretty heroic after he witnessed a hit-and-run accident. Cruise called the paramedics, stayed with the victim and followed them to the emergency room. During this process he found out that the victim was un-insured and he paid the 7,000 hospital bill himself.

10. Zach Galifianakis

When Galifianakis was a struggling actor in Los Angeles 20 years ago, he made an unlikely friend at a laundromat. Now 87 year old Elizabeth “Mimi” Haist volunteered and lived at Fox laundry in Santa Monica living off tips from customers for 18 years. One of the customers was Zach, who after his career launching success of The Hangover, stopped going to the laundramat but continued checking on his friend Mimi. When Zach learned that Mimi had become homeless, he found her an apartment in Santa Monica and paid for her rent and utilities. Zach’s friend Renee Zelleweger helped him decorate the apartment and often brings her groceries to make sure Mimi is always fully stocked with food. Zach has taken Mimi to The Hangover 2 & 3 movie premiers, as well as the premier for his film with Will Ferrell, “The Campaign.”