MIAMI, Jana 16, (Agencies): Haiti’s devastating earthquake has moved Hollywood and pop music stars to lead a rally for disaster relief donations and open their own wallets, led by Haitian hip-hop artist Wyclef Jean.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were the first to reach out to Haiti by donating $1 million from their foundation to Doctors Without Borders, which has been tending to victims of the quake that demolished buildings in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, Tuesday. Tens of thousands are feared dead.
Doctors Without Borders said Friday that actress Sandra Bullock had also donated $1 million.
Madonna donated $250,000 through Partners in Health and said in a statement she was praying for the Haitian people.
“I can’t imagine the terrible pain and suffering they are experiencing,’’ she said. “I urge all my friends and fans around the world to join me collectively to match my contribution or give in any way you can.’’

Campaign
Jean launched a texting campaign, calling on fans to donate $5 each to his Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund charged to their cell phone bills by texting “Yele’’ to 501501.
He raised more than $1.9 million by Friday for the disaster relief effort and is in Haiti “giving aid and assessing the situation,’’ according to his website, www.yele.org.
Actor George Clooney will host a commercial-free telethon called “Hope for Haiti’’ presented by MTV next week to raise funds for victims of Tuesday’s earthquake, the music network said.
The event will be in Los Angeles and New York and be broadcast on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, HBO and all MTV Network channels next Friday. Clooney will be joined by Jean and other pop music and movie stars.
Latina pop singer Shakira asked her fans for donations to help rebuild Haiti to be channeled through UNICEF and Jean’s foundation.
Actress Alyssa Milano, a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, used her blog on The Huffington Post Thursday to challenge US corporations to match her donation. She said the funds would go to buy medical supplies, tarpaulins, food and water kits for Haiti.
“I cried and then I did the only thing I could do ... I wrote a check to the US Fund for UNICEF for $50,000,’’ she wrote.
Donations
Coldplay musician Chris Martin called for donations through Oxfam, whose global ambassador, actress Scarlett Johansson, also appealed for contributions for Haiti.
Oprah Winfrey got involved Wednesday by asking viewers of her popular show to donate to the Red Cross.
Actor Ben Stiller, who has been raising money for a school in Ceverine in Haiti through Save the Children, also made an appeal on CNN’s “Larry King Live’’ for $10 donations charged to phone bills by texting “Haiti’’ to 90999.
First lady Michelle Obama made a public appeal for the texting campaign, which had raised $5.9 million for the red Cross by late Thursday.
Cycling legend Lance Armstrong’s LiveStrong Foundation pledged $250,000 to help Haiti’s recovery, according to its website. Actor and director Tyler Perry gave $250,000 and set up the Tyler Perry foundation for donations at www.tylerperry.-com/HaitiRelief.

Emergency
Sandra Bullock said Friday she donated $1 million toward Haitian earthquake relief, and Madonna announced she gave $250,000 toward the effort as celebrity aid continued to pour into the devastated country.
Bullock’s contribution went to Doctors Without Borders’ emergency operations in Port-Au-Prince, where three of the organization’s existing facilities were damaged by the magnitude 7.0 quake.
“I wanted to ensure that my donation would be used immediately to meet the needs of the Haitian people affected by this catastrophic event,” said Bullock in a statement.
Earlier Friday, Not On Our Watch, an advocacy and grantmaking group founded by George Clooney, Brad Pitt and others, donated $1 million to Partners in Health.
The international Red Cross estimates 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in the earthquake, which devastated the Caribbean nation on Tuesday.

Doubts
Groups that screen charities are raising doubts about the organization backed by Haitian-born rapper Wyclef Jean, questioning its accounting practices and ability to function in earthquake-hit Haiti.
Even as more than $2 million poured into The Wyclef Jean Foundation Inc. via text message after just two days, experts questioned how much of the money would help those in need.
“It’s questionable. There’s no way to get around that,” said Art Taylor, president and chief executive of the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, based in Arlington, Virginia.
Taylor reviewed Internal Revenue Service tax returns for the organization also known as Yele Haiti Foundation from 2005 through 2007. He said the first red flag of poor accounting practices was that three years of returns were filed on the same day — Aug 10 of last year.
In 2007, the foundation’s spending exceeded its revenues by $411,000. It brought in just $79,000 that year.
“Here’s the bottom line: for an earthquake of catastrophic proportions, do people really believe that this organization is in a position to do anything right now?” he said.
Jean, a 37-year-old Grammy-winning artist, has been imploring followers to text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to his foundation in support of Haitian earthquake victims.
The foundation, founded in January 2005, intends to airlift supplies using a FedEx plane into Haiti early next week carrying medical supplies, water and Clif Bars, according to foundation president Hugh Locke.
An Associated Press review of tax returns and independent audits provided by Jean’s foundation showed that it was closely intertwined with Jean’s businesses.

Three of the five foundation board members — Jean, Jerry Duplessis and Seth Kanegis — are involved in his personal music and business endeavors.
According to an IRS tax return from 2006 reviewed earlier by the website The Smoking Gun, the foundation paid $250,000 to buy airtime from Telemax S.A., a for-profit TV station in Haiti that is majority owned by Jean and Duplessis.
Part of that money went to pay for a concert in Haiti put on by Jean himself, Locke said.
Another $160,000 that year was spent on a concert in Monte Carlo that Jean participated in, of which $75,000 paid for backup singers and $25,000 went to Jean through a company he owns with Duplessis, Platinum Sound Recording Studios Inc., Locke said.
“I’m not saying he didn’t benefit from it,” said Locke, who says his own salary is $8,100 a month after taxes. “We were paying that to Platinum Sound because that covered the cost of him participating in the event.”