Big stars on tap for Harvey telethon

NEW YORK — Beyonce, Blake Shelton, Barbra Streisand and Oprah Winfrey will headline a one-hour telethon to benefit Hurricane Harvey victims that will be simulcast next week on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CMT.

The event will be telecast live at 8 p.m. Eastern on Sept. 12, and on tape delay at 8 p.m. on the West Coast, and streamed live on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Houston rap artist Bun B and Scooter Braun, a Hollywood talent manager and founder of SB Projects, are the organizers.

Bun B, a Houston native and lecturer at Rice University, said he was trying to organize a local event through his contacts and recognized that Harvey was a broader tragedy.

“One morning it just hit me — this is a national disaster,” he said. “It’s personal for me because it’s home to me, it’s in my city, but it’s a national disaster.”

He enlisted the help of Braun, who has worked with Usher, Ariana Grande, Kanye West, Justin Bieber and others, to tap into his Hollywood contacts. Within 48 hours of trying, they reached agreements with the television networks to carry the event.

Braun said he hoped the telethon could be a unifying event for a country that has seen so much division. The organizers said they were inspired by television reports of volunteers who formed a human chain to help rescue one Houston victim from the flood.

“People want a sense of unity,” Braun said.

George Clooney, Drake, Matthew McConaughey, Dennis Quaid, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Ryan Seacrest, Michael Strahan, Kelly Rowland, George Strait, Reese Witherspoon and others will also participate with taped or live messages or staffing phone banks. Journalists Matt Lauer and Norah O’Donnell will also participate. More celebrities are expected.

Several organizations will benefit, including United Way of Greater Houston, Habitat for Humanity, Save the Children, Direct Relief, Feeding Texas and The Mayor’s Fund for Hurricane Harvey Relief.

While the telethon will be helping Harvey’s victims, “by Tuesday we might be helping more than them,” Braun said, a reference to powerful Hurricane Irma in the Atlantic Ocean, which may threaten Florida and the southern U.S.