ANGELINA JOLIE
TO VISIT REFUGEE CAMP
Copyright 2002 Associated Press
[ November 20th 2002 ]
Actor
Danny Glover began a three-day visit to Trinidad
on Wednesday to film a television program on HIV/AIDS
and children, a U.N. spokeswoman said. The 55-year-old
American, who starred in the "Lethal Weapon" movies
and the film "The Color Purple," arrived early
Wednesday at the Caribbean country's Piarco International
Airport, U.N. spokeswoman Vashty Maharaj said.
Glover
will host the first of 10 episodes of a series
called Hot Spots, scheduled to begin airing in
January on the American cable network Showtime,
Maharaj said. The program is part of a series
about the various struggles children face around
the world. Actress Angelina Jolie will visit a
refugee camp in Zambia and actor Jeff Bridges
will host an episode looking at hunger in the
United States. The Trinidad episode will focus
on children and HIV/AIDS, with Glover talking
about the virus with Trinidadian youths.
Some
17,000 people out Trinidad and Tobago's population
of 1.3 million have been infected with HIV, including
300 children, officials say. Some 3,600 children
under age 15 were living without a mother or father
or both because they had died of AIDS, according
to 2001 U.N. estimates. The Caribbean has the
world's second highest infection rate after sub-Saharan
Africa. An estimated 2 percent of people, or 500,000,
- excluding Cuba where infections rates are low
- are HIV-positive, according to the Caribbean
Task Force on HIV/AIDS. The producers of the series,
RCN Entertainment, also produce PBS's "Reading
Rainbow." The U.N. helped develop the idea for
the series.
Glover
is also one of several celebrities who serve as
goodwill ambassadors for the U.N. Development
Program to draw attention to poverty. After his
visit to Trinidad, Glover plans to travel to Jamaica
on Friday, Maharaj said. A Jamaican film festival
plans to present Glover with a lifetime achievement
award on Saturday, organizers said. The fourth
annual Jamerican Film and Music Festival, taking
place from Wednesday through Sunday in the northwestern
resort town of Montego Bay, will give Glover its
third Marcus Garvey Lifetime Achievement Award.
Last year, the award went to British actor Roger
Moore, the star of various James Bond films. The
first was presented in 2000 to entertainer Harry
Belafonte.
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