Celebrity noses go red for a good cause on NBC special

A charitable event that has become something of a national holiday in England comes across the pond this week to make its American debut. And its creators hope it can replicate at least some of the success of the original.

“Red Nose Day,” a three-hour special airing live from London at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 21, on NBC, is actually a variety show of sorts, featuring actors, comedians, musicians and TV personalities performing in skits, songs and appeals to raise money for charities benefiting children and young people living in poverty. As of this writing, those slated to perform or appear included Will Ferrell, Matt Lauer, Jennifer Hudson, Laura Linney, John Legend, Christina Aguilera, Gwyneth Paltrow, Blake Shelton, Martin Short, Emily Blunt, John Krasinski and Jeff Goldblum. And that's just a partial list.

It's the brainchild of filmmaker Richard Curtis (“Bridget Jones's Diary,” “Love Actually”), who brought the U.K. edition of Red Nose Day to fruition almost 30 years ago and has raised more than $1 billion with it since.

“I've actually been thinking about it for a long time, coming to the States,” Curtis explains. “And I don't know if you remember ‘Idol Gives Back,' but that was a little experiment in the idea. ... we just reached a billion pounds raised here in the U.K., so I happened to speak to NBC about it and Paul Telegdy (president of alternative and late-night programming) knows a lot about it at NBC, and so it's finally happened.

“It's certainly a very well-known day and a very public day (in England),” he said. “I think 65 percent of schools now do something on the day with whatever they do — little plays or fashion shows or just allowing people to wear red noses or dye their hair. And then a lot of offices do things. And then, yeah, we've got this seven-hour TV show at the end of the day.”

Linney, who worked with Curtis on “Love Actually,” became involved with the project by happenstance after running into the director on a flight from New York to Los Angeles.

“He said what he was doing,” the actress recalls, “and I said, ‘If there's any way I can help you, please let me know.' And he called and said, ‘There's something you can do,' and I said, ‘Great.' And I roped Jeanne Tripplehorn into coming with me and we went and shot a sweet little sketch based on ‘12 Angry Men.'

“You know, it's wonderful when you get to work with someone like Richard Curtis,” Linney continues, “who you admire and who you have such a great time working with. And then when you really learn what he has actually achieved with this charity, it blows your mind. It's just a remarkable thing what this one man has done. Granted, with a lot of help from other people, but it's just amazing and it's incredibly humbling. ... He's an incredibly kind, unassuming, positive, wonderful guy, and you would never think that any one person could accomplish this amount. It's amazing.”