holiday spirit! You know what they say — charity begins at home, which if you work on the Internet is basically your office because the Internet is INESCAPABLE. Which means charity begins at the office — as it should, because building social responsibility into the workplace is an awesome and important thing.

So — with that in mind — our gang at Mediaite led a charge to collect donations for a company-wide drive to support one worthy organization, which our boss and founder Dan Abrams said he would match. Our charity of choice was Robin Hood's "Food For Good" campaign (a favorite here, and for which I was one of the co-chairs) and together a group of Mediaite staffers and contributors, as well as Abrams Research staffers with whom we share an office, chocolate and a happy camaraderie, stepped up and donated to make this holiday season a little bit better for hungry New Yorkers in need.

Our little office raised $500 — which Dan has matched. So! Robin Hood! You are now $1000 closer to your goal of feeding 120,000 people this holiday season.. (more...)

Do-Gooding! Yesterday we brought you Vogue Italia's "MeiselPic," or what we called "What Your Facebook Friends Might Look Like If They Were Super-Hot Models." Today we bring you equally compelling images: That of Ford models Chrissy Haldis and Gelila Bekekle delivering holiday meals to families in need this holiday season for Robin Hood's "Food For Good" campaign. (more...)

Doris Buffett is my new favorite person (next to Diane Savino, of course). Like her brother Warren, she is loaded. And she loves giving away her money to help people. (more...)

Remember that Robin Hood Food For Good campaign? Using social media to help raise money and awarness via the handy iFed page? Of course you do, and I bet you're pleased at this timely reminder to donate. Well anyway, part of any self-respecting social media campaign is a viral video guaranteed to be passed along between friends like an awkward cold sore — and that's exactly what we have! Not an awkward cold sore, a viral video: Comedy group The Tenderloins made a video to show how $50 really isn't that much to donate — especially to feed a family of 8! — because let's face it, we've all blown $50 in idiotic, regrettable ways. That's the hook for the next iFed Robin Hood Food For Good (aka “The Charitable Campaign Name With The Most “OO”s Ever”) Twitter campaign: How did you last blow #50bucks? (more...)

Helping! Thanksgiving is a relatively new tradition for me. Being a Canadian, ours comes a month earlier — with the 10 cm sheet of ice that blankets the country from October to May — and we never had much of a tradition other than sawing ice blocks off for the igloo or wrestling bears to the ground for sport. But here in your country, Thanksgiving is HUGE — the first big family holiday of the chillier months and the gateway drug to a holiday season of massive, gut-busting eating. I have availed myself happily at many a friend's table, worn Pilgrim hats, taken goofy photos with paper turkeys, and, last year after Sarah Palin ruined the whole turkey thing for me, enjoyed a delicious vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner that was served to me between naps. I really, really like your holiday. But not everyone is so lucky. This Thanksgiving, the economy sucks (not to put too fine a point on it. But how else do you describe 10.2% unemployment nationwide?). In New York, where Mediaite is based and where Mayor Bloomberg rules the city with a shaky mandate, there will be a lot of people going hungry on Thanksgiving. Here is the part where you help! (more...)

Greg Grunberg has had a pretty great career. Actually, he's in the process of having a whole bunch of pretty great careers. You may know him best as psychic cop Matt Parker from NBC's Heroes, or as the pilot from Lost, or Agent Weiss from Alias, or - as I do, and always will - as the exceptionally lovable madcap inventor, Docuventarian and one-half of Shmegan, Sean Blumberg from Felicity (those of you who get these reference, you are going to like this). (more...)

video Today we launch a new column: Do-Gooder, which will highlight all sorts of do-gooding initiatives by the kind of people who oughta be inscribed in The Book of Life on this Yom Kippur. I love this under-the-radar video from the Emmy red carpet, where director Jason Pollock asked Emmy-goers to step up and pledge their participation to public service in the name of iParticipate, a public-service initiative from the Entertainment Industry Foundation meant to encourage and promote service and volunteerism (that's Michelle Obama kicking it off). The collection of people proclaiming “I participate” here is pretty awesome, and sets a terrific example — fan faves no doubt include Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but there's also John Oliver and Rob Riggle, Tony Shalhoub, Sally Field, Padma Lakshmi,that Olivia Wilde that everyone’s so gaga for, Billy Bush, Ed Helms, Kate Walsh, Larry Wilmor, a towering and beefy Jimmy Smits, Dianne Wiest, Kevin Kline, Adrien Grenier, Phyllis and Angela from The Office, and Judah Friedlander as the French say, en chapeau. (more...)