ALS Ice Bucket Challenge Has Gone Global & Retro Cinematic
Friday, August 22, 2014 at 10:40AM 
Tom Hiddleston after his challengeI know it's for a good cause but we're definitely reaching saturation point for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Soon, like maybe in 5 minutes, it will be over. But ALS is enjoying huge fundraising numbers so good on them for dreaming it up. I hope all these celebrates dousing themselves with freezing water are donating a dollar for every viewing of their videos and vines.
I've avoided sharing any because how would you choose? I mean other than skipping my beloved childhood idol Olivia Newton-John who kind of misses the point, filling her thimble "bucket" of ice with undoubtedly warm pool water before trickling it over her gorgeous blonde head. Let's just say Her Chills Weren't Multiplying. She Was Not Losing Control.
So why am I posting this? To note that this ice bucket madness which was mostly music stars at first has gone global. Here's Chinese superstar Zhang Ziyi doing it below and challenging French actress Sophie Marceau. Her House of Flying Daggers co-star Takeshi Kaneshiro also did one but his is oddly subdued / silent.
(Other Asian stars getting in on the action include Xiamoing Huang and Li Bingbing who he challenged. He also challenged Fan Bingbing so if "Blink" gets in on the action, I want her to do it in costume. Plz and thx.)
The ice bucket challenge has also gone retro cinematic. Steven Spielberg did it a few days back. But the best one -- or at least the highest budgeted-- is surely The Foo Fighters doing it 1970s Sissy Spacek/Carrie style. I'm just disappointed that they didn't challenge Sissy Spacek, Betty Buckley, and Piper Laurie in the process, you know? though at least Stephen King was name-checked.
If you'd like to donate to ALS to thank them for giving us all this ginormous celebrity wet t-shirt contest you can do so here.
Reader Comments (18)
Men should be objectified in wet white t-shirts more often. I mean men with good bodies. And handsome faces.
Tom Hiddleston's picture needs to be bigger. Oh, my!
Chris Evans challenged Tilda Swinton yesterday. So I'm eagerly hoping she does it. Maybe dressed as her Snowpiercer character.
Hiddleston nominated Helena Bonham Carter. So did Dominic West. ::checking interwebs:: Nope, nothing yet...
Nat, I give you Miss Nicole Kidman: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=509175812553002
Paul -- the crazy thing about Helena is that if she does it will finally see what her hair looks like when it's not huge and ratty!
Are celebrities only friends with other celebrities? That's been my biggest takeaway from Hollywood's bucket of cold water.
Aarrgh, why isn't Takeshi wearing a flimsy white shirt?!
Nat, I don't think even a bucket of ice water would be able to tame that hair!
Dave -- life is unfair sometimes.
SanFran -- it appears so, yes.
Paul -- but it would be nice to see photographic evidence of its resilience against all elements.
Dave--funny; in my mind, he is LOL
I feel like such a curmudgeon for still feeling that these celeb videos are mostly self-serving, even with total awareness that they've helped to raise so much money for a worthy cause.
Kate - That's the genius of the campaign though. It taps into our selfie culture.
You should go find the one with HK actress Carina Lau (aka Tony Leung 's wife). Maintaining such elegance and beauty even in doing ice bucket challenge. But of course it's not fair that she gets a little help from William Chang the longtime art director of Wong Kar-Wai. Among the names she nominated were Brigitte Lin and Cherie Chung, two of the goddess from 80s - 90s.
The thing is, How many celebrities really understand the true meaning of doing so? Or might they be doing it because it's the cool thing right now?
This is the best one, not that I am biased in any way, but it gives you the information as well as being funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOa7ZjxRuKM
I just wanted to add that Benedict Cumberbatch has been an Ambassador for the UK Motor Neuron Disease charity for about 10 years, ever since he played the role of Hawking in a movie about him.
So yes he does know all about the cause.
Buzzfeed had an article dedicated to the unknown shirtless male hotties doing the challenge.
Its a must read ;)
Margaret - yeah Benedict did a great job on his