17 Sep 2001

madonna calls for peace at LA concert

The singer has led a prayer for peace urging President Bush to show restraint in retaliating for Tuesday's attacks and pledged the proceeds from her shows to help victims' families.

Gay icon Madonna who cancelled her concert on Tuesday, the day when New York and Washington DC was attacked, returned to the concert stage Thursday night. She announced that the proceeds from her remaining three shows at the Staples Center in Los Angeles will be donated to help victims' families, reports news agency Associated Press.

On Friday, she led a prayer for peace urging US President George Bush to show restraint in retaliating for Tuesday's attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

The concert that was cancelled Tuesday night will now take place Saturday night in LA and will be the final show in her "Drowned World" tour.

Also in LA, the 53rd annual Emmy Awards, television's highest honours, have been rescheduled for Oct. 7, two weeks later than the original date.

According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, sources say that producers of the Emmy telecast were already preparing to massively overhaul the show to reflect the country's somber mood. Host Ellen DeGeneres' long opening segment as well as a skit featuring members of the Saturday Night Live troupe poking fun at President George W. Bush and former Vice President Al Gore will probably be scrapped entirely.

There will likely be a moment of silence, as well as a special tribute to David Angell, the Emmy-winning producer of Frasier and Cheers who was on one of the doomed jetliners.

In related entertainment news, three of Amercia's biggest networks: NBC, CBS, and ABC have postponed the roll out of the debut of the fall television season at least a week due to continuous all-day news coverage. Various reports have also indicated that television networks will review upcoming programmes and edit or pull those that featured crashes, destruction or terrorism in light of Tuesday's attacks.

United States