By Matt Trocchio
There has been no shortage of celebrities using Twitter since its popularity skyrocketed over the last few years. Some use it to promote upcoming projects, some to stroke their egos and others use it to keep a hold of tenuous fans. In fact, as you may have noticed, now when news stories break reporters will often cite celebrity twitter handles for commentary. (I’m still surprised that when Corey Haim passed that Ralph Macchio was only quoted through Twitter. I mean what’s he up to these days?)
However, a wide array of celebs recently decided to put ego aside and use Twitter for the basis of a charity event. (Yes, those in the social media community do this frequently, but do they get the same attention as the Hollywood elite? Unfortunately, no.) A-Listers including Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, and Rainn Wilson among others, got together earlier this month to read their favorite tweets in order to raise money for schools devastated by the earthquakes in Haiti.
The event known as “The Night of 140 Tweets” was hosted by the Upright Citizens Brigade and the Artists for Peace and Justice. True to social media and comedy, there were no punches pulled because of the good nature of the event – Actor Justin Long: “Christian Bale lost 80 pounds to play ‘The Machinist. Big deal. Gabourey Sidibe lost 300 to play Precious.”
DVDs of the event are now being sold on Amazon and iTunes with 100% of all proceeds going the Haitian School Initiative. I’ll be curious to see what the final tally is. If you have any insights or updates, please share them with us in the comment field!
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6262488dd5/a-night-of-140-tweets-will-ferrell-s-tweet
Slice 
I hadn’t heard about this – what a great idea!