Chris Rock, Billy Joel Join Robin Hood’s $100 Million TV Night

(Bloomberg) -- Wall Street types will miss out on the power mingling, but attendance and donations at the Robin Hood Foundation’s gala will still be possible as part of a television audience watching from home next Monday night.

Titans of industry and taxi drivers, quants and furloughed restaurant workers can all tune in at 7 p.m. in New York for Robin Hood’s “Rise Up New York!” benefit. The hour-long “virtual telethon” aims to raise $100 million to address the toll of Covid-19 on the poorest New Yorkers.

Tina Fey will host, Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon will make a joke or two, and Jon Bon Jovi, Sting, Billy Joel and Mariah Carey will sing. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio are expected along with Barbra Streisand, Ben Platt, Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin, Eli Manning, Justin Tuck and chef David Chang, among others.

In other words, it’s the same eclectic mix of rock stars, comedians, politicians, athletes and actors Robin Hood benefit guests usually pay $3,000 a ticket to see in person. Except this time it’s face-to-screen, on Fox 5, PIX11 and other local channels, iHeartRadio stations and CNBC.

Fundraising has already begun on Robin Hood’s GoFundMe web pages, where donors listed include Kristin Lemkau, chief executive officer of U.S. wealth management at JPMorgan Chase & Co.; employees of Tudor Investment Corp., whose namesake, Paul Tudor Jones, founded Robin Hood; Graham Capital’s Ken Tropin and the Catsimatidis family.

Money collected will go to more than 200 nonprofits aiding New Yorkers most affected by the pandemic.

“We have children and families and communities, that it will take years for them to recover from the damage that was just done over the past few months,” Robin Hood CEO Wes Moore said in a video posted on one of the foundation’s GoFundMe web pages.

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