LEONARDO DICAPRIO - DICAPRIO DEBUTS VOTING PSA

DICAPRIO DEBUTS VOTING PSA

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO made a surprise appearance on comedienne ELLEN DeGENERES' talk show on Thursday (02Oct08) when he showed off his new public service announcement (PSA) aimed at young U.S. voters.
DeGeneres agreed to be one of the talking heads urging America's youth to hit the polls in November (08) and vote for a new president, and DiCaprio, the force behind the new campaign, turned up to hand deliver the PSA to her on her TV show.
The Titanic star invited a host of celebrity pals to his Hollywood home, where the PSA was shot, to speak their mind about the importance of voting.
He told DeGeneres, "Forest Whitaker, Tobey Maguire, will.i.am and myself were talking about how soon the voter registration deadline is and it's only days away and, with 35 states in our country, the deadline is October 6th - that's this Monday... so we really wanted to do a PSA to really encourage people to get out there.
"This is one of the most important elections of our lifetime and we really need to tell everyone we know to get out and register.
"We have this campaign that's, 'Tell five of your friends,' so if you go online, at least send it to five friends and it's gonna spread like wildfire."
In the PSA, DiCaprio, Whitaker, DeGeneres, Maguire and stars like Dustin Hoffman, Demi Moore and Usher poke fun at those who have not registered to vote, saying, "Don't vote."
Other celebrities join the ad, with Courteney Cox asking, "Who cares about your children's education." And Jamie Foxx and DiCaprio ask, "Who cares about global warming and the fact that our polar ice caps are melting," as Jennifer Aniston chimes in, "I hear polar bears can swim!"
The ad has already achieved it's initial goal - DiCaprio explains, "In the first hour (of posting it online) we got 10,000 more people registered to vote."