Around the arts

Model Bundchen donates money to fight hunger\nSAO PAULO, Brazil -- Model Gisele Bundchen is donating $150,000 to help fight hunger in her native Brazil.\nBundchen will hand over the money -- her fee for one show in Sao Paulo Fashion Week -- to Brazilian first lady Marisa Silva, O Globo newspaper reported Sunday.\nThe fashion week starts Monday and Bundchen's appearance will be in a show by designer Ricardo Almeida, who also dresses President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.\nSilva is initiating a "zero hunger" program that is expected to cost at least $700 million annually.\n"The campaign is very important for the country," Bundchen told O Globo.\nChef searches for perfect meal across 4 countries\nSINGAPORE -- Chef Anthony Bourdain is back for another marathon feast.\nHe's eating his way across Asia on a five-week, four-country tour, shooting the second season of his Food Network cable TV show "A Cook's Tour."\nBourdain's series is a gourmet travelogue about his search for the perfect meal. There's no script, lots of locations and many meals, he said, and that suits him just fine.\n"I don't think I've had anything I didn't like," he said Friday of the many exotic meals he's had on-camera and off. "Some of it looks pretty alarming -- but it's all good."\nAs much as the shows are about food, the 45-year-old New York-based chef aims to keep them fun rather than authoritative.\n"I am not an expert," he said. "I am not an authority. I am just an enthusiastic knucklehead with 28 years' experience in the kitchen."\nBourdain's visit to Singapore marks the midway point of his tour that started in Australia and will end next month in Vietnam.\nActor Peter O'Toole gets honorary Academy Award\nLOS ANGELES -- Peter O'Toole, nominated seven times for an Oscar for films as diverse as the epic "Lawrence of Arabia" and the nostalgic comedy "My Favorite Year," will receive an honorary Academy Award this year.\n"O'Toole's performances have ignited the screen for more than four decades," Frank Pierson, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said Friday in announcing the award.\nIt will be presented during the 75th annual Oscars ceremony March 23 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Its citation will read: "Peter O'Toole -- whose remarkable talents have provided cinema history with some of its most memorable characters."\nO'Toole, 70, made his stage debut at 17 before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his film debut 10 years later with a bit part in the 1959 film "The Savage Innocents."\nThe Irish-born actor shot to international fame three years later, portraying legendary British adventurer T.E. Lawrence in David Lean's landmark film "Lawrence of Arabia." The performance brought him the first of his seven best actor Oscar nominations.\nThe others were for "Becket" (1964), "The Lion in Winter" (1968), "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1969), "The Ruling Class" (1972), "The Stunt Man" (1980) and "My Favorite Year" (1982).\n"He's seven times been nominated as best actor, which puts him in extremely rarified air for a performer," Pierson said. "The Board of Governors felt it was time for him to hold his own Oscar in his hands"