Extreme Celebrity Giving

Come the holiday season, we all put a few extra bucks in the collection plate or drop some change in the Salvation Army bucket. If you're a celebrity, you can just drop your pants.

That's right. When Hollywood's hottest help a cause they've got wealth and fame in their favor. And that opens doors to some very creative giving.

This year, Victoria Beckham will strip for charity. London's Daily Mirror reports Beckham, 33, will appear in the buff on T-shirts for designer Marc Jacobs, the proceeds going to a skin cancer charity. Stars such as Julianne Moore, Dita Von Teese, and Naomi Campbell all got naked for his shirts in 2006, raising 30,000 pounds.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have been wise to this for years with their long-running "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" campaign, featuring spots by Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, and Pamela Anderson.

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Supermodel Naomi Campbell knows the value of fame and glamour too. She enlisted celebrities on both sides of the Atlantic for her "Fashion For Relief" shows in New York and London to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina and this year's U.K. floods, respectively. Beyonc, Wyclef Jean, Faye Dunaway and British soccer star Rio Ferdinand were among the models.

If you're fabulously rich, chances are you can afford to part with some of the stuff in your closet. Earlier this year, U2 guitarist Edge donated one of his guitars for an auction benefiting Hurricane Katrina victims. The Price Is Right host Bob Barker donated one of his microphones for an eBay auction to benefit an animal rights group.

Another option not readily available to the rest of us: moviemaking. Former Vice President Al Gore raised awareness about global warming with "An Inconvenient Truth." Bonus: Well-executed movies with a cause often do well during award season. "An Inconvenient Truth," the Tom Hanks 1994 AIDS drama "Philadelphia" and the 2000 Julia Roberts legal drama "Erin Brockovich" all won Oscars.

Getting busted by the cops is another attention-grabber. Nothing serious, mind you, just get arrested for disorderly conduct or trespassing to generate news coverage for a cause. Just ask Danny Glover, who was arrested in 2004 during a protest against the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, or "Heroes" star Hayden Panettiere, who was reportedly issued an arrest warrant last month by Japanese police after she paddled out on a surfboard in southwestern Japan with other activists to prevent a dolphin hunt.

Paulette Maehara, president and chief executive of the Association of Fundraising Professionals in Arlington, Va., has long worked with celebrities on charitable causes.

She cautions there are risks. They might do something foolish or irresponsible that could reflect badly on an organization. Or they could simply flake out and not show up for an appearance at a widely publicized charity event.

But the potential benefits are hard to ignore, such as a celebrity's name recognition and his or her connections to other entertainers and affluent would-be donors.

"There's greater awareness for the charity,'' Maehara says. "There's a lot of exposure."