Oxfam International is an international confederation, comprised of 12 independent non-government organizations dedicated to fighting poverty and related injustice around the world. Mission is a just world without poverty and their goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives.

Colin Firth has urged more celebrities to use their fame to highlight good causes.

The actor has been involved with making the documentary "In Prison All My Life" to highlight the plight of prisoners on death row in the United States. And he thinks more famous people should use their profiles to do some good.

He says, "Fame hasn't got much use to anybody really except for getting upgraded for tables in restaurants and things. I just think you can have a profile and you can also use it as a tool. "One is increasingly aware that there are too many people trying to get heard in the world, and there are all too many people who are heard too easily who have got absolutely nothing to say. And if you can try to be a vessel for them, then I don't see what's wrong with that really."

Berlusconi must be 'hero' at G8

Oxfam ambassador Colin Firth asks Italy to keep promises

Rome, 5 March 2009 - Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi has a chance to prove himself a ''hero'' at the Group of Eight summit in Italy this year by keeping a promise to help combat world poverty, Oxfam ambassador and film star Colin Firth told ANSA Thursday.

Berlusconi is the only prime minister at this year's summit who was also present at the G8 in the United Kingdom in 2005, when world leaders pledged to increase development aid by 50 billion dollars a year until 2010.

But according to development charity Oxfam, Italy - which holds this year's G8 presidency - is among countries that have so far failed to follow up on the promise, instead ''dramatically reducing'' the quantity of aid for developing countries.

''Berlusconi personally signed that document in front of the world. If I could speak to him face to face, I'd tell him this is his opportunity to make a 'bella figura', to set an example to other leaders and to do something heroic by pledging to maintain that promise,'' said Firth, who is married to Italian filmmaker Livia Giuggioli.

''I'd also tell him I'm completely in love with Italy, my wife is Italian and I want to be proud of the country - and it should keep its promises,'' he added.

The only Oxfam ambassador to speak fluent Italian, Firth was in Rome Thursday to galvanise fellow artists into joining a campaign based on Make Poverty History, a high-profile campaign founded by screenwriter Richard Curtis in the UK ahead of the 2005 G8 summit.

''He created a movement of monumental proportions,'' Firth said of Curtis, who wrote the screenplay for Bridget Jones' Diary, the film that propelled Firth to international stardom.

''Actors, musicians and comedians wore white arm bands bearing the campaign message and came together to put pressure on G8 ministers via public opinion''.

Firth claims the G8 promises to scrap debt in 24 countries (''the biggest victory'') and to raise development aid was a direct result of that campaign.

''(Then UK Prime Minister Tony) Blair couldn't come out of that summit without a reply to the campaign,'' he said.

''It's all about making the ministers understand that they are being watched''.

ITALIAN ARTISTS TO PUT MINISTERS UNDER PRESSURE.

Firth and Oxfam plan to promote a similar campaign in Italy and on Thursday evening will meet to discuss strategy at a working dinner at Rome's Villa Medici with some of the most important names in Italian cinema.

Firth stressed that the global financial crisis should not be used as an ''excuse'' for scrapping aid contributions.

''The sums needed to make poverty history are actually far smaller than people imagine. It's enough to think that three days' worth of spending on the Iraq war would have been sufficient to fund essential medicines for the whole of Africa,'' he said. ''I have seen the difference made between something or nothing,'' he added.

'NOBODY LIKES BEING FILMED'.

Talking about his personal relationship with Oxfam, Firth said he ''couldn't live without'' his work for humanitarian organisations any more than he could live without acting.

''I'm the person who has benefited the most from campaigning. As an actor the diet of self can consume you completely and you need something more important to take up your time''.

The actor said he ''hated'' watching himself in films or reading about himself.

''I find it difficult to look at my face. Nobody likes being filmed. It's horrible. We all believe that we're better looking and more elegant than we are in reality. ''In reality, I'm 20, I'm in perfect shape and I hate to see this 50 year old who's imitating me on the screen.

Firth's mother works with asylum seekers and refugees and his grandfather was a missionary in India ''helping with schools and hospitals - he didn't convert a single person to Christianity''.

''I don't know if I'd say this kind of work was in my blood. I had no interest in it for many years. But of course if I'd had different relatives, I would be different too,'' he said.

Although he is based in the UK, Firth said he spends ''long holidays'' in Italy with his wife and two young sons, Matteo and Luca.

''I get fed up with London. I'm quite restless anyway, but Italy is the only place I always want to be.

''I love the obvious things about Italy - the architecture, the sculpture, the fashion, the cooking, the climate - culturally it's the centre of the world''.

But Firth admitted that he missed British television when he spent time in Italy.

''For a country that has a reputation for being cultured, sophisticated and intelligent, the TV is a lethal shock. You think maybe it's just this channel, but you flick through them and it's all the same,'' he said.

(ANSA)

Times Online, 21 January 2009

A PORTRAIT of Colin Firth as Jane Austen's Mr Darcy was auctioned for £12,000 at Bonhams on 21 January 2009, double its estimated price.

Even before the sale began, the painting was subject to a number of advance bids, a spokesman for the London auction house said.

The oil painting, which shows the actor gazing soulfully through the canvas in full period costume, featured in the fourth episode of the BBC drama Pride and Prejudice, in which Elizabeth visits Darcy's ravishing country estate, Pemberley.

It was accompanied at auction by a signed letter from Firth, who caused women nationwide to swoon collectively when he emerged from a lake tousled and dripping in a wet shirt during the same episode.

The actor wrote: ''The painting was basically a bit part player in episode four of the BBC's 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice.

''Looking at him now I would say he has weathered better than most of us. In fact, he is the only character you can meet in person who looks precisely as he did the day he was filmed.

''Whatever you think of him today, you can consider yourselves fortunate to have been spared his earliest incarnation. Mr Darcy mark one came across as a shabby, insubstantial, derelict looking actor.''

The so called ''wet shirt scene'', which comes just after Elizabeth is shown gazing dreamily at the portrait hanging in Pemberley's Great Hall, is credited with being one of the most unforgettable moments in British TV history.

Julian Roup, a spokesman for Bonhams, said: ''This painting sold for double its estimated value for the simple reason that the series so captured the heart of the viewing public, particularly the fairer sex.''

Between 10 and 11 million people watched the original six-episode broadcast of Pride and Prejudice on BBC One on Sunday evenings in 1995.

When the series was released on VHS, all 12,000 copies of the double-video set sold out within two hours.

The proceeds from the sale of the coveted Darcy portrait, painted by an unknown artist, will be shared between Oxfam and the Southampton and Winchester Visitors Group.

It was sold as part of the annual Gentleman's Library auction at Bonhams.