Edwards' ER Check Funds African Hospital

Residents must relocate, but singer did compensate them

(NEWSER) - Madonna wants to help Malawi with her $15 million girls’ school so much that she’s ejecting villagers to make it happen. Residents didn’t want to leave the school site just outside the capital, but the government handed the land over to Madonna and told 200 Malawians they must move to another government site. Madonna did, at least, pay the villagers about $115,000 for their houses, the future principal of her school tells the AP . More»

Activist celebs are annoying, but effective and necessary: Firth

(NEWSER) - Actor Colin Firth doesn’t like it when his fellow actors get on the soapbox for humanitarian causes. He’s also tired of doing it himself, and sick of the endless tedium of fundraisers, speeches, and photo ops. But that’s too bad, because the only way anything is going to change for the better is for those capable of capturing media attention to start talking a lot more—and louder, he writes in the Guardian. More»

Critics, fans, brace for last episode tonight

(NEWSER) - After 15 seasons, viewers will make their final trip to County General Hospital tonight in the series finale of ER. Critics and fans are reflecting on the groundbreaking show:

• Mixing “medical triumph” with “personal angst,” ER “may have begun as a show about salvation, but it became a show about the near impossibility of salvation—a show less about healing than about damage,” writes Neal Gabler in the Los Angeles Times.

(NEWSER) - Set your TiVo to stunned: George Clooney will make a return appearance on ER tonight, Entertainment Tonight reports. Clooney, who left the show in 1999, will star with his onetime on-screen love interest, Julianna Margulies. “I want their story to be very fulfilling in the end,” the episode’s writer said. Also appearing: Noah Wyle, who will run into Eriq La Salle while awaiting his kidney transplant. Oh, ER… More»

'Anti-Bono' author rips help for sapping continent's strength

(NEWSER) - Dependence on celebrities as spokesmen and Western aid are bad for Africa, argues Deborah Solomon's latest interview subject, Dambisa Moyo. The Ivy-educated former investment banker argues in her new book that the culture of aid for Africa discourages entrepreneurship. "You also disenfranchise African citizens, because the government is beholden to foreign donors and not accountable to its people," Moyo tells Solomon in the New York Times. More»