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“Pitt interview cheered by anti-poverty activists

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor Brad Pitt’s plea in a television interview this week for increased aid to poor countries and footage of him with children in Ethiopia are being credited with raising interest in a global anti-poverty campaign.

Viewers may have tuned in to Tuesday’s interview on ABC with Pitt hoping for some juicy tidbits about Angelina Jolie, co-star of his new movie “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” but his humanitarian pitch apparently made a bigger impression.

Since the “Primetime Live” broadcast, more than 120,000 people have gone online to sign a petition urging President George W. Bush to pledge an additional 1 percent of the U.S. budget to humanitarian assistance and to prod fellow world leaders to follow suit, according to organizers of the One Campaign.

“It was a huge surge from weeks prior,” One Campaign spokeswoman Jenny Volanakis told Reuters on Friday. “The increase (in petitioners) was so dramatic that they are able to directly attribute it to” Pitt’s TV appearance.

She said the anti-poverty effort has collected more than 900,000 e-mail registrations since the campaign was launched in April.

Pitt, along with such celebrities as U2 lead singer Bono and rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, is a leading spokesman for the One Campaign, which is timed to coincide with next month’s meeting of leaders from eight industrialized countries in Scotland.

The campaign is closely linked with a series of all-star “Live 8” benefit concerts organized by veteran charity rocker Bob Geldof in Philadelphia and several European capitals — London, Rome and Berlin.

The Pitt interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer came amid promotions for his new movie and a media frenzy about the recent breakup of his marriage to actress Jennifer Aniston and the nature of his relationship with co-star Jolie.

Questions about his personal life were touted in advance by ABC as highlights of his interview. But the broadcast focused on Pitt’s involvement in anti-poverty causes and his recent tour of Africa.

During the program, Pitt expressed exasperation that Americans seemed more interested in “my relationship mishaps” than Africa’s humanitarian crisis.

The hour-long interview drew 11.2 million viewers, making it one of the week’s most watched U.S. broadcasts.”

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