BRAD PITT - PITT PLEDGES $5 MILLION TO BUILD MORE NEW ORLEANS HOMES

PITT PLEDGES $5 MILLION TO BUILD MORE NEW ORLEANS HOMES

BRAD PITT has teamed up with LIZ HURLEY's ex, philanthropist STEVE BING, to pledge $5 million (GBP2.5 million) for a new New Orleans, Louisiana green housing project. The pair's cash will help build 150 new homes in the city's Lower Ninth Ward - the area worst hit by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Pitt and Bing each pledged to match $5 million in contributions to the project. Pitt, whose Make It Right campaign has already funded the first low-cost housing campaign in New Orleans, pledged the extra cash as part of a Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York on Wednesday (26Sep07), where he met with former U.S. President Bill Clinton. Pitt, who now owns a home in New Orleans, took a moment to recall the elderly man who inspired him to help fix the city - and come up with a name for his charity drive. He remembered, "The words of one elderly man who is determined to return to New Orleans led to the name of our organization: He asked us, directly simply and profoundly, to help make it right. So that's what we're doing."