Broadway Stars and Performers Participate in LIFEbeat eBAY Auction

Bid 2 Beat AIDS, a special eBAY auction featuring rare and autographed items from stars in music, film, Broadway, sports, politics, and television, will begin December 1. Proceeds will benefit LIFEbeat, the Music Industry Fights AIDS to support its ongoing AIDS/HIV programs nationwide.

The online benefit fundraiser include signed cast recording CDs from Wicked, Legally Blonde, Spring Awakening, and Avenue Q; Playbills signed by Angela Lansbury, Marsha Mason, Josh Strickland, Michael Cerveris, Ashley Brown, Christine Ebersole and Marian Seldes, among many others; signed theater posters from Gypsy with Patti Lupone, Grey Gardens, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and more; an original cast recording LP of Oklahoma! signed by Florence Henderson and Phyllis Newman; a signed script from Weeds signed by Broadway favorite Mary Louise Parker; Hairspray items signed by John Waters; a Life Cafe menu signed by the cast of Rent; signed photos from a bevy of showbiz veterans including Joan Collins, Shirley Jones, Celeste Holm, Carol Channing, Julie Harris and Julie Newmarr; and a set piece from the film Dreamgirls.

The centerpiece of the auction is a one-of-a-kind celebrity autographed "Lend-A-Hand to LIFEbeat" card series. Stars traced their hands on special paper, adding an artistic touch and signature. Cynthia Nixon (illustrating her hand as a bunny), David Hyde Pierce (with illustrated "jazz hands"), Fantasia (who dipped her hand in purple paint backstage at Broadway’s The Color Purple), Orfeh, Sutton Foster (with an impressively drawn Frankenstein finger puppet), Kevin Chamberlain, Project Runway’s Tim Gunn, John O’Hurley, Megan Mullally, The B-52’s, Joanne Worley, Charles Busch (with elegantly drawn nails), Ugly Betty‘s Christopher Gorham, Deborah Gibson, Jerry Mathers, Sinead O’Connor (donating the most controversial tracing) and over 100 others have participated in this unique project.

For more information, including a complete list of participating artists and images of many of the items, visit www.Bid2BeatAIDS.com.