'N Sync Takes Manhattan By Storm
(7/27/00,
6 p.m. ET) 'N Sync has been in the
New York City area all week long, creating a fan frenzy wherever they show up.
Tonight (July 27), the group's concert performance from Madison Square Garden
was broadcast live on HBO. Tomorrow (July 28) 'N Sync will start the day early
with an interview and free concert live outside the Today
show studios in Rockefeller Plaza - for which fans started lining up more than
48 hours in advance, despite pouring rain.
Later Friday (July 28) afternoon, the pop superstars will take part in a
press conference at Planet Hollywood alongside celebrity friends, including Pink,
Kelly Price, Fat Joe, Donell Jones, Usher, Jordan Knight Rockmond Dunbar, Shannon
Elizabeth, Darren Henson, Antawn
Jamison, Josh Keaton, Stephon
Marbury,
Dennis Scott, Eric
Strickland, Isaiah Thomas, and Youngbloodz.
All of the above- mentioned stars are among the participants in 'N Sync's
Challenge For The Children II charity basketball game on Saturday (July 29) at
St. John's University in Queens (tip-off time 7:30 p.m. ET). This second annual
event will be followed by a post-game bash later that same evening at an
undisclosed location. 'N Sync
member Chris Kirkpatrick explained
to LAUNCH this week why the basketball game is important to the group. "'N
Sync has a charity called Challenge For Children that we're doing an event for
on Saturday," he said. "Everything that we get involved with has to do
with children because that's our main audience and that's who we can reach out
to. We're also doing some things--which I really can't talk about right now--but
we're doing some commercials coming up to make children aware on other important
issues." Kirkpatrick added
that Challenge For The Children was founded by 'N Sync in 1999 to offer
financial support to a variety of children's programs and charities across the
nation. "It's not one charity where we give to children's cancer or to
children's leukemia," he pointed out. "It's a very general children's
organization where we divide it up among a lot of children's organizations.
Because, you know, there's so many times that if we just focused on one disease
or one thing it would be so easy to pigeonhole all the money just into that one
charity, but since it's such a broad thing we can help out--not a lot--but a
little in a lot of places." Some
of the organizations benefiting from this year's game include Arnold
Palmer's Hospital For Children & Women, The Justin
Timberlake Foundation, and the Nordoff-Robbins Foundation.
'N Sync will also make a brief appearance singing the national anthem at
the annual Jayson Williams Celebrity
Softball Challenge at Riverfront Stadium in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday
(July 29). -- Jason Gelman, New
York