Well, Befuddled Musings has officially challenged Mr. Richard Armitage to play the cello during the Rise Up Christchurch Telethon this Saturday, May 22nd. If he accepts this challenge, I have pledged to give $400 CDN to this worthy cause.

Part of me is thrilled that I’m doing this for a couple of reasons: 1) I think it’s a wonderful cause, a creative fundraising concept and worthy of my support; 2) I really would love to see and listen to Mr. Armitage play cello. Wouldn’t we all. Let me remind you what he might look like playing the cello. And knowing how talented he is in everything he does, I’m sure he’d be fantastic.

However, the other part of me is thinking this is not such a cool idea. Am I putting him on the spot to do something he might not really want to do? But then again, he may not even hear of this challenge, since I can’t officially register it on the RiseUp website or facebook page (you have to be ‘friends’ with someone on facebook to be able to officially challenge them).

As I couldn’t send him the challenge directly, I issued it to him via Sir Peter Jackson’s and Sir Ian McKellen’s facebook pages. That’s right. I think I’ve officially fallen off my rocker. The things I find myself doing in a desperate attempt to get a bit of news from Mr. Armitage during this drought! I figure if he does hear about this challenge by some miracle, he may already be doing some other activity to support this fundraising event and therefore can dismiss my half-crazed idea if he doesn’t want to do it. There was afterall a reference in a newspaper article on the weekend that The Hobbit stars would be participating in this Saturday’s telethon: “Other big names who have stepped up to be involved include Neil Finn and Sir Ian McKellen and stars of The Hobbit” (read the article here).

What is Rise Up Christchurch you might ask? You can get some information about this 12-hour telethon, featuring entertainers and celebrities from around the world, at this website or via this facebook page. The telethon will be broadcast live on Maori Television and streamed globally on the Internet on Sunday, May 22nd (NZ time) from 9am to 9pm on the 3-month anniversary of the earthquake.

The key concept is that a person promises to make a donation if a friend/celebrity performs a particular act (e.g. 20 press-ups, kiss someone, shave off their hair, etc.).

Therefore my friends, if you support this challenge, and have a facebook account, could I ask that you indicate ‘like’ to my challenge request on Sir Ian and Sir Peter’s facebook pages? Perhaps if there are enough of us who support this request, they might actually pass it on to Richard… My pledge stands and if he really does do it, I’ll be more than happy to support this worthy cause.

Let the games begin!

Oh, and Mr. Armitage, if you read this, I hope you consider taking me up on my challenge (but only if you are comfortable with playing cello live on television of course). I have a feeling some of your other fans will also support this great cause if you do. But if you are not comfortable doing this, that’s ok too. I’ll still make a donation. Merci beaucoup!