breaking news

was announced today that in a monumental move, ABC, CBS, and NBC will collaborate to air a telethon on September 5 featuring a collection of celebrities. The hour-long special is a fundraiser for cancer research and has been termed "Stand Up to Cancer."

The telethon will include musical performances and appearances from actors, athletes, and journalists. Viewers will be invited to donate by calling the celebrity-staffed phone bank or by texting. This sort of collaborative event is rare but not unprecedented. In recent years, similar fundraisers have been hosted for victims of Hurricane Katrina and September 11th.

Stand Up to Cancer will feature such celebrities as Meryl Streep, Lance Armstrong, Forest Whitaker, Charlize Theron, Hilary Swank, America Ferrera, Danica Patrick, Salma Hayek, Kirsten Dunst, Josh Brolin, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Masi Oka and news anchors Charles Gibson, Brian Williams and Katie Couric. The list is expected to grow as the event nears.

FOX was invited to join the telethon, but declined so as to focus on their own global outreach project, "Idol Gives Back," centered around American Idol stars. FOX will promote Stand Up to Cancer by airing public service announcements for the event.

According to the Associated Press, "The telethon is part of a broader initiative aimed at raising money to quicken the pace of research leading to development of new treatments. The effort is to be administered by the American Association for Cancer Research under the direction of a committee led by Phillip A. Sharp of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT."