Do-Gooder Celebs Can Aid —and Irritate

Taylor Swift donates $4M to Country Music Hall of Fame

(NEWSER) - Taylor Swift is donating a sizable $4 million to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, the largest gift ever donated to the museum by an artist. It will fund the Taylor Swift Education Center, a new classroom and exhibit space opening in 2014, the AP reports. Swift proves that not all celebrities spend their dough on things like $12,000 Chanel bicycles and $18,500 olive trees , and Celebuzz rounds up 14 more who give freely of their money and/or their time. And while some are obvious (hello, George Clooney) many might surprise:

• Sandra Bullock: Has donated $1 million to relief organizations that give aid to those affected by 9/11, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, and the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.
• Ellen DeGeneres: Her pet cause is, ahem, animal rights and rescue organizations, and her pet food line benefits charity.

Turning away from stardom 'common sense,' says actor

(NEWSER) - Bad boy Sean Penn is at it again. The eternally angry actor is blasting celebrity as an "obscene disease." "I don't think it's an overstatement to say that it's an obscene disease of celebrity that's taken over far too much of the life we live. I think it's a disease that's diminished the quality of life," Penn told the Huffington Post in an interview plugging his latest movie. "It's clearly something that I've been compromised by. But for the culture at large, there is this kind of herd commitment. I think it's just become cheap." More»

Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson, Rachel Weisz not going under the knife

(NEWSER) - Get ready for wrinkles. That's the word from 35-year-old actress Kate Winslet, who, along with pals Emma Thompson and Rachel Weisz, is taking a vow against plastic surgery and Botox. They've even launched the British Anti-Cosmetic Surgery League. "It goes against my morals, the way my parents brought me up, and what I consider to be natural beauty," Winslet tells the Telegraph . As for Botox, she explains: "I'm an actress. I don't want to freeze the expression of my face." "We're in this awful youth-driven thing now where everybody needs to look 30 at 60," chimes in Thompson, 52. "I'm not fiddling about with myself." (Gwyneth Paltrow is also anti-Botox ... but pro-boob jobs? Click to read .) More»

They're victims of an inescapable fate—but they seem happy anyway

(NEWSER) - Even to those of us with no plans to sit through the royal wedding, Prince William and Kate Middleton are intriguing. “My friend is not a royal watcher or a tabloid reader. Neither am I,” writes Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post . Yet both were familiar with Kate’s sister Pippa and Prince William’s academic background. Why are we fascinated? It comes down to fate. Wills “is one of the few remaining people on Earth to have been born into real political authority,” and now he and Kate are stuck with it. More»

Plus, actor grouses about costly divorce

(NEWSER) - How long will Sean Penn’s work in Haiti go on? Forever, he tells the Hollywood Reporter . “There’s no end point,” he says. “This is where I’ll be when I’m not working, for the rest of my life.” Penn was there on Christmas Eve, kissing young students on the cheek at a newly built school despite fears of cholera, nearly a year after he first arrived. The extensive article reveals the constant struggle Penn endures to keep his camp—which costs $450,000 a month—running. More»