Silence for a Cause: Lady Gaga, Fellow Stars Quit Facebook and Twitter for Charity

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REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Fear not, fans of Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Usher, Ryan Seacrest and Kim Kardashian (among many others). Their silence in support of Alicia Keys’ Keep a Child Alive charity is temporary. (via BBC)

Here’s the deal: The Digital Life Sacrifice campaign is raising money this Wednesday – which happens to be World Aids Day – for Keep a Child Alive, which supports families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. The celebs have filmed their “last tweet and testament” videos and will be back online when the charity raises $1 million.

(See pictures of AIDS in Africa.)

“It’s so important to shock you to the point of waking up,” Keys said, who has also joined the campaign. “It’s not that people don’t care or it’s not that people don’t want to do something, it’s that they never thought of it quite like that.”

Leigh Blake, the president and co-founder of Keep a Child Alive said: “We’re trying to sort of make the remark: ‘Why do we care so much about the death of one celebrity as opposed to millions and millions of people dying in the place that we’re all from?’” He’s pretty sure Lady Gaga could raise the money “all by herself” and, considering that she has the best part of 24 million fans on Facebook and over seven million on Twitter, he’s probably right.

(See pictures of Lady Gaga.)

And the worthy cause is surely worth supporting, if only to enjoy the next couple of days of calm, quiet bliss. Some may be hoping that the silence lasts forever: It brings to mind the Marx Brothers gag from Animal Crackers after they’re asked to stop playing music (they’re in a band). Could we get Gaga et al to stop Tweeting for good? We couldn’t afford it.

What do you fellas get an hour?
For playing, we get-a ten dollars an hour.
I see. What do you get for not playing?
Twelve dollars an hour.
Well, clip me off a piece of that.
Now for rehearsing, we make special rate. That’s-a fifteen dollars an hour…That’s-a for rehearsing.
And what do you get for not rehearsing?
You couldn’t afford it.