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Kevin Bacon Makes Charity Connection

Thu., Jan. 18, 2007 12:11 PM PST by Sarah Hall

Kevin Bacon is making up new rules for the "Six Degrees" game based on his career.

The actor launched the Website sixdegrees.org on Thursday, a new online venture where visitors can learn about and donate to celebrities' favorite charities.

"When I first heard of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, I was really kind of horrified," Bacon says in a video message on the site. "I thought it was a joke at my expense. I was hoping that it would go the way of pet rocks and 8-track cassette tapes, but it seems to be hanging on."

The game, which became popular in the mid- to late-'90s, is based on the existential premise of six degrees of separation, the idea that all human beings can be connected to one another through a chain of relationships with at most six people.

In Bacon's case, the six degrees refers to the idea that any actor in film history can be connected to him through movie roles. The goal of the game is to connect a given actor to Bacon using the fewest number of links, which is then deemed his or her Bacon number.

After reaching a grudging acceptance of the fact that his name was inextricably connected to the trivia game, Bacon was inspired to try and use the Six Degrees concept to benefit others.

"If you take me out of the equation, it's really sort of a beautiful notion that we are all connected in some kind of way," he said.

Bacon launched the venture in partnership with the nonprofit organization Network for Good, AOL and Entertainment Weekly.

Stars including Bacon's better half, Kyra Sedgwick, Nicole Kidman, Tyra Banks, Jessica Simpson, Seth Green, Kanye West and Rosie O'Donnell have all signed on to highlight their favorite charities through sixdegrees.org. Visitors to the site can get a celebrity badge that they can then post to their own Website or blog, thereby spreading the word about a given star's pet cause.

The site also allows noncelebrity Web surfers to make their own badges outlining their favorites charities, giving others a portal through which to make online donations, should they choose. As an added initiative, Bacon vowed to match the charitable dollars raised by the six top nonfamous fundraisers by March 31 up to $10,000.

Bacon will officially kick off the site's launch this weekend at a Sundance Film Festival bash sponsored by Entertainment Weekly. Celebrity attendees will be encouraged to donate their accumulated swag to Six Degrees, which will in turn auction off the items on eBay with the proceeds going to charity.

"It is my hope that Six Degrees will soon be something more than a game or a gimmick," Bacon said. "It will also be a force for good, by bringing a social conscience to social networking."

As of Thursday afternoon, sixdegrees.org had already received over $50,000 in donations, according to a tracker on the site.