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For your convenience–a handy guide to this week’s giant Idol Gives Back Special.

• Newsflash:   According to Usa Today’s Idol Chatter blog, Bono will be appearing  on the Idol Gives Back special Wednesday.   Here’s the scoop, Bono will  ”meet with the six American Idol  finalists to talk about the work of ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History (www.one.org) and how the Idol audience can help. The IDOL contestants also will perform American Prayer, a song written by Bono and Dave Stewart about the AIDS emergency in Africa.”
• Ellen DeGeneres  will be co-hosting the LIVE  2-hour Idol Gives Back special on Wednesday.   She’ll be introducing the acts at the Walt Disney Theater in Anaheim, while Ryan takes his usual place at the CBS studios for the eliminations.
• Tuesday night’s performance show is 1 hour.   The show will be taped, rather than performed live.   Rumor has it, the taping is today.
• The remaining six contestants will be singing  ”‘life anthem’–songs of compassion and hope, in keeping with the Idol Gives  Back theme.”  Ãƒâ€š  
• Afterward, viewer votes will, “trigger a donation to charities by the corporate sponsors of Idol — Ford, Coca-Cola, AT&T and News Corp.”
• Wednesday’s  Idol Gives Back special  will feature: Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, Gwen Stefani, Earth, Wind & Fire, Il Divo, Keira Knightley, Hugh Grant, Josh Groban with the African Children’s Choir, Jack Black, Helen Mirren, Rascal Flatts, Quincy Jones, Carrie Underwood, Annie Lennox and Sacha Cohen as “Borat”.
• There is a rumor that the “special duet” between  Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“two of the biggest stars in musical historyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  that Ryan mentioned on Wednesday’s results  show  will be  Celine Dion duetting with Elvis Presley.   An Elvis impersonator  will play  the on-stage part of Elvis. Eep.  And the Idols will sing back up.   The performance,  has apparently  already been taped.
• Ford  has produced a music  video that will air on the Idol Gives Back special, Wednesday. The video, as well as other musical performances  from the night, will be available for download after the show.  All proceeds will be   contributed to Idol Gives Back.
• Viewers will be invited to donate, through phone calls or the internet to: Save the Children, UNICEF, Malaria No More, The Global Fund and Nothing But Nets.   These programs aid “youth relief programs in Africa and poverty-hit areas of the United States including hurricane ravaged Louisiana.”
• Ken Warwick did an interview with Entertainment Tonight.   He says,  ”…these kinds of shows can be a little bit depressing if you’re not careful. So throughout the show, there is a certain amount of humor and a certain amount of shock value, shall we say, that is going to entertain people, and that’s what we’re after. But it’s going to move people to put their hands in their pockets and make them want to watch to the very last.”
• You can donate through the Idol Gives Back  My Space  page.

For those of you a little confused about where your money will go, and how it will be distributed, here is some info from the Fox press release:

• Idol Gives Back will raise awareness and funds for Charity Projects Entertainment Fund (CPEF) an organization that provides relief programs to help children and young people in extreme poverty in America and Africa. Corporate sponsors of Idol Gives Back are led by News Corporation, Ford, Coca-Cola and AT&T. Allstate and ExxonMobil will make matching contributions to Save the Children and Malaria No More, respectively, via CPEF.
• CPEF is a new charitable organization established to raise money and awareness to help combat extreme poverty in the U.S. and throughout the world, particularly in Africa. CPEF’s mission is to use the power of entertainment to drive positive change to achieve its vision of creating a just world free from poverty. CPEF is inspired and supported by the UK charity that invented Red Nose Day.
• In the United States, CPEF has selected America’s Second Harvest The Nation’s Food Bank Network, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Children’s Health Fund as beneficiaries, in addition to the previously announced Save the Children. These organizations deliver support to poor children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country, providing them with medical care, food and grocery products, health and life skills, literacy programs and obesity prevention, among other important initiatives.
• In Africa, funds will be dedicated to The Global Fund, Malaria No More, Nothing But Nets, Save the Children and The U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Each organization will receive funds to support efforts to battle poverty through various health and education programs, including delivering medical supplies and providing clean water. These organizations also aim to control and prevent malaria through practical resources and programs, including providing life-saving bed nets and other activities tied to Africa Malaria Day on April 25.