Hollywood Stars Align For Stand Up To Cancer Canada Friday, September 5th

Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Pierce Brosnan, Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Jon Hamm, Kiefer Sutherland, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Mark Harmon, Rob Lowe, Eric Stonestreet, Danny McBride, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and More Among Stars To Be Featured in One-Hour Broadcast, with Special Performances by
The Who, Jennifer Hudson, Lupe Fiasco & Common, Ariana Grande, and Dave Matthews 

Stars Will Reach Out to Supporters from On-Stage Digital Lounge Hosted by Katie Couric --
"We're Calling You"; Facebook is SU2C's Primary Social Media Partner

Event Airing Simultaneously on CBC, City, CTV, Global and Other Canadian Services
8:00 PM ET AND PT / 7:00 PM CT

http://www.standup2cancer.ca | http://facebook.com/su2c.ca | Instagram: @SU2C_CA | Twitter: @SU2C_CA

TORONTO, Aug. 20, 2014 /CNW/ - The Hollywood community is uniting to support Stand Up To Cancer Canada (SU2C Canada), a program of EIF Canada, a Canadian registered charity, by volunteering to participate in the Stand Up To Cancer "roadblock" fundraising telecast Friday, September 5 (8:00 – 9:00 PM ET/PT).  Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Pierce Brosnan, Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Jon Hamm, Kiefer Sutherland, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Mark Harmon, Rob Lowe, Danny McBride, Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Tony Hale, Marg Helgenberger, Dane Cook, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Matt Passmore, Rob Riggle, Italia Ricci and Bree Turner will appear in the broadcast, with special performances by The Who, Jennifer Hudson, Common & Lupe Fiasco, Ariana Grande, and Dave Matthews. Additional stars and performers will be announced in the coming weeks.

Paltrow and Joel Gallen of Tenth Planet Productions will executive produce the September 5 broadcast, live from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. For the first time, there will be a Canada-inclusive co-broadcast of the Stand Up To Cancer special, which will air simultaneously on all four major English-language Canadian networks: CBC, City, CTV and Global, along with Canadian services AMI, CHCH, CHEK, Fight Network, and Hollywood Suite.

Instead of the traditional phone bank staffed by celebrities, the September 5 telecast will feature a "digital lounge" on the set, hosted by Yahoo News Global Anchor Katie Couric. Stars in the digital lounge will reach out to viewers via phone, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms through an exciting new campaign called "We're Calling You" that SU2C's supporters can sign up for, as of today, at werecallingyou.org*.

"Since we started Stand Up To Cancer in 2008, social media has exploded, creating a whole new way to connect," said Couric, a Co-Founder of the U.S-based Stand Up To Cancer initiative. "So in an unprecedented way, we'll have plenty of stars reaching out to donors via social media, thanking them through Facebook messages, digital shout outs, Instagrams and tweets. In other words, this year, we are so 2014!"  

There have been three previous Stand Up To Cancer roadblock fundraising specials, which aired on dozens of U.S. broadcast and cable networks. Facebook has collaborated with the U.S.-based Stand Up To Cancer program since the first telecast in 2008 and is now SU2C's primary social media partner. With the "We're Calling You" activation, Facebook and Instagram will enable supporters and fans in Canada as well as the U.S. to engage directly with their favorite stars. See more at werecallingyou.org.

In the on-stage digital lounge, Katie Couric will tap into the Facebook Mentions Box, which allows supporters to share their connection to cancer and receive real-time responses from celebrities. Other celebrities in the digital lounge will participate in Facebook Q&As, using their own pages to respond live to fan questions.  Facebook and Instagram will also have a presence on the star-studded red carpet on Sept. 5 with a photo experience that will capture the stars as they make their way into the Dolby Theatre, sharing those images and videos with fans. All of this, and much more, can be followed on Stand Up To Cancer Canada's social media feeds (Facebook: Stand Up To Cancer Canada | Instagram: @SU2C_CA | Twitter: @SU2C_CA).

In addition to Facebook, an array of digital and social media platforms and influencers -- ranging from reddit, Nerdist, Tumblr, Yahoo, AOL, and Huffington Post are supporting the SU2C telecast this year.  

 "Cancer affects us all," said Paltrow, who lost her father, Bruce Paltrow, to oral cancer in 2002, "and each and every person can help the scientists who are working 24/7 to save more lives.  We want to get that message out in as many ways as possible, so we're excited to use social media to reach supporters from all over who are helping to grow the Stand Up To Cancer movement, and hopefully, get even more people to stand up with us."   

This star-studded appeal will help build public support for SU2C Canada, which will bring together scientists from different disciplines and across institutions to collaborate on finding new treatments for a wide range of cancer types.  All funds received from the Canadian general public during the broadcast will be directed towards the creation of collaborative research teams, as well as education and awareness programs conducted in Canada.

"It is such an honor to be part of this extraordinary event and movement. Everyone is joining together: the artists are volunteering their talents, the broadcast and cable networks are giving us the time, and the great online community is helping us reach millions of people. It is a powerful and hopeful moment to see so many stand united to turn every cancer patient into a survivor," said Gallen.

Organizations collaborating with the SU2C Canada initiative include the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, with funding from CIBC; the Canadian Cancer Society; the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium, with funding from Genome Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research; the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, and The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). MasterCard and AstraZeneca are the first Canadian corporate supporters of SU2C Canada.

The first three SU2C telecasts took place in 2008, 2010 and 2012 under the aegis of the U.S.-based SU2C program, part of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a U.S. 501(c)(3) charitable organization, which utilizes the industry's resources to engage the public in supporting a new, collaborative model of cancer research, and to increase awareness about progress being made in the fight against the disease.  To date, more than $260 million has been pledged to the U.S.-based SU2C program.

In the U.S., ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, along with ABC Family, American Forces Network, Bravo, Cooking Channel, Discovery Fit & Health, E!, Encore, Encore Espanol, EPIX, ESPNEWS, FOX Sports 2, FXM, HBO, HBO Latino, ION Television, LMN, Logo TV, MLB Network, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, Palladia, Pivot, SHOWTIME, Smithsonian Channel, Starz, TNT and VH1 are donating one hour of simultaneous commercial-free primetime for the nationally televised fundraising special on Friday, September 5.

About EIF Canada / Stand Up To Cancer Canada

EIF Canada, a Canadian registered charity (Reg. # 80550 6730 RR0001), founded by the U.S.-based Entertainment Industry Foundation, was established to conduct charitable programs in Canada addressing health and other issues. Stand Up To Cancer Canada (SU2C Canada) is a program of EIF Canada that raises funds to support collaborative research teams, as well as education and awareness programs conducted in Canada.

About the U.S.-Based Stand Up To Cancer Initiative

Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) raises funds to accelerate the pace of research to get new therapies to patients quickly and save lives now. The U.S.-based SU2C program, part of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, was established in 2008 by film and media leaders who utilize the industry's resources to engage the public in supporting a new, collaborative model of cancer research, and to increase awareness about progress being made in the fight against the disease.

About the Entertainment Industry Foundation

Stand Up To Cancer is a program of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that serves as the collective philanthropy for the television and film businesses. EIF has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to support programs addressing critical health, education and social issues. For more information, visit www.eifoundation.org.

Image with caption: "Stand Up To Cancer Canada (CNW Group/CTV)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20140820_C3168_PHOTO_EN_4973.jpg

SOURCE: CTV

Media Contact: Pennant Media Group, Amira de Vera, 416-596-2978, [email protected]