HOPE FOR HAITI NOW

“Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief” will be the most widely distributed telethon in history. It is a two-hour special, which will be broadcast from New York, London, Los Angeles and Haiti … and will air commercial-free across ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, the CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT on tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Hosted by Wyclef Jean, a native of Haiti, George Clooney and CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

Several one-of-a-kind collaborations will highlight the event, including a hookup between U2’s Bono and The Edge with Jay-Z and Rihanna in London and a jam featuring Kid Rock, Keith Urban and Sheryl Crow in Los Angeles; like all the night’s performances, the collabos will be available for download on iTunes for 99 cents the next day.

Also appearing in New York with Wyclef and Springsteen will be Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira and Sting, while the Los Angeles show will feature performances from Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Timberlake, Stevie Wonder and Taylor Swift.

Additionally, it will also air on PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment Network, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, Centric, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, Epix, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health and Planet Green, as well as Canada’s CTV, CBC Television, Global Television and MuchMusic. And internationally on BET International, CNN International, National Geographic and MTV Networks International, available in 640 million homes worldwide.

All donations will directly benefit Oxfam America, Partners in Health, Red Cross, UNICEF and Wyclef’s Yele Haiti Foundation. Facebook and MySpace have signed on as official social-media partners to help steer viewers to the telethon and drive donations.