I've had a relatively charmed life. I loved to be out in the city. New York was my town. I've had people come up to me and say, 'You're a great New Yorker. You've given your time and money to so many New York charities. You're a great supporter of the arts. I like some of your movies - and some of your movies suck, actually.'
When I first started working with World Vision, I would sit down and talk with them about issues that concern any part of the world. MSF told me about what was going on in North Korea. I also support AIDS and breast cancer charities.
My grandfather worked with charities his whole entire life, and we grew up living with him. He always told me about the other side of the world and everything that's going on.
Rosie Perez is the coolest. She's kind of everything you want her to be. She's involved in so many cool things, political charities and stuff.
It's one of these baffling things about the world we live in that there is still homelessness, and it's good that there are charities like Social Bite that go all out to help and make a difference.
I've set up businesses. I've set up charities. I have actually done the work myself.
But, of course, she didn't mean that she was going to retire from public life and only when the Queen removed her HRH some years later did she actually drop a hundred charities and just kept five.
Unfortunately, my dad had a brain tumor, and my father-in-law passed away from leukemia, so I spend a lot of time on those two causes. I also tend to support military charities like Warrior Gateway, which helps guys transition from combat back into civilian life.
I don't think I've got the expertise with which to nit-pick, and I freely admit that my motivation to support charities has been emotional, rather than as a result of being particularly well informed as to how the money is used.
In my 40s - when I was giving to the Red Cross, United Jewish Appeal and other charities - I said to myself, this is all well and good, but these are really amorphous things, and maybe there are some causes out there that I really give a damn about.
