andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

It’s a good thing the Hulk and Ironman are in pretty good shape.

Edward Norton, 40, is planning to run this year’s New York City Marathon to fundraise for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust in east Africa.

Joining the actor will be three Maasai warriors themselves, two of which will be making their first trip to the big city!

According to perezhilton.com, Norton’s been involved with the MWCT for 10 years and is now serving as president of the Board. The money raised will go towards the conservation, education and health care in the east African region.

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Coming this fall, the Simanimal series will take place in Africa, announced for the Nintendo Wii and DS.

Featuring tons of animals from the continent, players will be tasked to care and look out for them as well as have the ability to play as them in game. I hope they let me play as a vulture…

The DS version has a cool quirk I want to exploit. As it turns out, you can speak to parrots via the built in microphone and have them repeat what you say, sure it’s an old trick but imagine blaming the parrot for everything you say while on the go!

Scheduled for a fall ‘09 release.

Kelly Rowland has officially been appointed 2008 Ambassador for the MTV Staying Alive Foundation.

The foundation empowers young people who are working to eliminate HIV and AIDS in their communities.

“I am honoured to work with The Staying Alive Foundation in its mission to transform attitudes to HIV and AIDS around the world,” the Destiny’s Child alum commented in a press release. “The Foundation continues to recognize and reward young people whose relentless mission is to encourage, educate and empower their peers in the fight against HIV and AIDS. I am excited to be a part of this remarkable initiative and look forward to supporting Staying Alive in all its efforts to change the prevailing culture of ignorance which fosters and perpetuates this disease.”

Rowland will kick off her first solo tour and new role simultaneously, when she visits Africa in June. There she will visit tour some of the grassroots projects supported by the Foundation.

Her new album, ‘Ms Kelly Deluxe’, will be released May 12.

He?s a rock star and a voice for the world?s poor. Bono can now add something new to his resume ? journalist.

Bono was a guest editor of the U.K. newspaper The Guardian on Tuesday. He used the space as a way to bring more attention to Africa.

The front page of the paper yesterday had block letters saying ?NO NEWS TODAY,? and then underneath it, “Just 6,500 Africans died today as a result of a preventable, treatable disease.”

The front page was on a red background, which was to support Bono?s red campaign, which launched in January and urges corporations to sell their products with a red label with one per cent of profits going to aid in Africa.

Bono also wrote an editorial for the paper addressing issues in Africa.

While some Africans were unaware a concert for their benefit was even occuring, record sales for the artists who performed at the free concerts were soaring.
HMV reports sales for Pink Floyd’s Echoes, which features three of the numbers they performed on Saturday, were up by over 1,300 percent on Sunday.

“Even allowing for the relative nature of this exercise … this snapshot still shows that the Live 8 concert is having a marked effect on sales of featured artist recordings,” said Gennaro Castaldo, spokesman for the HMV chain.

Pink Floyd has since announced they will donate the profits to the Aid for Africa fund and are encouraging other artists to do the same. The London performance of the Beatles classic “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” was already released over the Internet with all proceeds going to the campaign.

Meanwhile, in Africa, where most of the poor don’t even own a TV, only a fraction saw the event billed as the world’s biggest concert.

“I don’t know who Bob Geldof is,” said Edward Romoki in downtown Johannesburg, the site of the tacked-on African Live 8 venue.

Despite skepticism, many Africans are hopeful the impending meeting of the G8’s richest countries will yield results.

“I hope the G8 will find a solution to our problems,” said unemployed Isa Mlambo in Johannesburg. “They always promise, but I am hoping this time they will take action.”
And Paris Hilton, not to be overshadowed even by the biggest concert event in her lifetime to date, is defending her appearance at the London branch of the event.

Scissor Sister Ana Matronic slammed Hilton for attending the concert without understanding the reasons behind it. Hilton insists she will make up for her ignorance by reading about it while she’s preparing to marry Greek shipping heir Paris Latsis.

She says, “It’s such a great cause. It makes you realise how fortunate we are. I want to get more involved in this cause, so I’m going to read all the newspapers while I’m in Athens planning my wedding.”