Charities

Don't wait for your $300 tax rebate to come in the mail this month. Donate it now. In response to President Bush's $1.35-trillion tax cut, several Web sites are encouraging taxpayers to share their windfall and give their checks to charity. "Fund the fight against Bush and his agenda," urges the site at http://www.taxrebatepledge.org.

Even underwear needs an occasional publicity stunt. Last month, Fruit of the Loom sent a team of boxer-clad bowlers to Studio City in an effort to gain exposure for its BVD undergarment line. The result was a smoke-filled bowling alley teeming with pantless men throwing strikes for charity (the event raised money for the Starlight Children's Foundation, which works with seriously ill youngsters). Fruit of the Loom billed the event as "an evening of bowling, bonding and hanging with your buds."

The second "American Idol" charity event is set for April 9, with a lineup that includes Bono, Brad Pitt, Miley Cyrus, Fergie, Chris Daughtry and Carrie Underwood. Last year's "Idol Gives Back" show raised $76 million to benefit underprivileged children. It also earned the producers a special Emmy Award. The Fox network announced the celebrity roster Monday. Football stars Peyton and Eli Manning are also scheduled, along with John Legend, Mariah Carey, Annie Lennox, Reese Witherspoon and Snoop Dogg.

Ethan Wayne, the son of legendary actor John Wayne, flung himself 50 feet from a helicopter Saturday into cold waters to rescue an armless mannequin dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and polyester pants. But it was for a good cause. Wayne is a member of the Orange County Rotorheads, a group of 14 helicopter pilots who perform voluntary and community work throughout the county, including an occasional jump into the ocean to save mannequins.

Visiting Kings had been entertained by the White House on many occasions before, but this one was in town for the day from Los Angeles, not Sweden or someplace. Actually, Bob Bourne was supposed to be elsewhere a week ago Monday, playing the New Jersey Devils, instead of playing the Washington capital. He was supposed to be shooting pucks, not schmoozing with the President at the oval office. At one point he even decided not to go to D.C.

The former president of the Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation, who defrauded the organization of $1.8 million, was sentenced in Brooklyn, N.Y., to nearly five years in prison and ordered to repay the nonprofit charity for its losses. Indicted on 22 counts, Jerry Lee King pleaded guilty in March to one count of wire fraud and one count of making false statements on a tax return.

Grandma Moses once said, "A primitive artist is an amateur whose work sells." The crowd outside the Triangle Gallery on Saturday night indicated that something big in the art world was about to occur. Another Robert Longo show? An exhibit of the major works of David Hockney? Not quite. It was an "invitational only, opening night gala" for an exhibit by jazz legend Miles Davis and rock star John Cougar Mellencamp, who had just begun painting last year and was presenting his "inaugural exhibit."

A drug dealer, a killer, a Watergate burglar and vicious alien will be bowling in Westchester on Sunday--and they hope you will pay $25 to join them. Actually, it's not such a rough group: These characters were all portrayed by some of the actors and actresses who are taking part in a bowling tournament to raise money for the nonprofit Educational Center for the Deaf/Independent Living Center in Southwest Los Angeles. The tournament runs from 1 to 5 p.m. at El Dorado Center, 8731 Lincoln Ave.

An investigation of charities nationwide has found that some use funds earmarked for charity to fund travel and lavish perks for foundation trustees, the Boston Globe reported. While such extravagance has infuriated shareholders of public companies in recent years, similar practices among charities have gone largely unchecked, the newspaper said.

A Superior Court judge has upheld a 45-year-old Glendale law requiring that solicitors for charities from outside the city be fingerprinted. In a written opinion issued Monday, Judge William Huss ruled against a claim by the environmental group Greenpeace that Glendale's fingerprinting law violates constitutional rights of privacy, equal protection and freedom of speech.