Article by Natalie Stone for The Hollywood Reporter
Hugh Bonneville has also been added to a previously announced list of celebrities including Julia Roberts, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Coldplay, which will premiere a musical the band wrote that features ‘Game of Thrones’ castmembers.
Red Nose Day is coming to the United States for the first time ever on May 21 and is welcoming Robert Pattinson, Matt LeBlanc and Hugh Bonneville to a previously announced lineup of A-listers that will participate in the charity event.
Airing on NBC, the charity event, which brings together celebrities for the purpose of raising money for children living in poverty, was created in 1985 by Richard Curtis and is the United Kingdom’s top televised fundraising event. In the last 30 years, the event has raised more than $1 billion for charity.
Previously announced celebrities, including Julia Roberts, Will Ferrell, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Julianne Moore, Jodie Foster, Neil Patrick Harris, Christina Aguilera, Pharrell, Adam Levine, Paul Rudd, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne, Anna Kendrick, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Michelle Rodriguez, Gwyneth Paltrow, John Legend and Simon Cowell, are a part of the roster of 70-plus Hollywood stars attending the New York event.
Coldplay is set to perform a special musical written by the band featuring Game of Thrones castmembers Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage, Iwan Rheon, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Emilia Clarke, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Mark Addy, John Bradley, Rose Leslie, Alfie Allen, Charlotte Hope and Dame Diana Rigg.
The evening will feature comedic videos produced by Funny or Die, musical performances and short appeals films that bring awareness to those in need and showcase celebrities contributing aid: Jack Black traveled to Uganda to visit children living on its streets and witnessed the effects of preventable diseases, and Blake Shelton made a visit to a Los Angeles mobile health clinic that provides free care to underprivileged youth.
Funds raised during the event will help national and international charity organizations lift youth out of poverty. Red Nose Day’s 12 charity partners are Boys & Girls Clubs of America; charity: water; Children’s Health Fund; Feeding America; Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance; the Global Fund; LIFT; National Council of La Raza; National Urban League; Oxfam America; Save the Children and United Way.
Executive producers of the telecast include Curtis, Henrietta Conrad, Lily Sobhani, Funny or Die’s Mike Farah, Anna Wenger and Joe Farrell, and Done + Dusted Productions’ Ian Stewart and Hamish Hamilton, who will also direct.
The children’s charity special will air May 21 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.