This year’s Oscars were full of surprises and controversy but the parties, as always were the talk of the town. Starting with the party to end all parties, Sir Elton John’s, the AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party. For the last 20 years, John and husband David Furnish have been raising money for a good cause and chatted with reporters on Oscar Sunday about the AIDS Foundation.
Question: How much have you raised for the Elton John Foundation?
Elton John: I don’t know.
David Furnish: Well we’re $67 million today, and I think we’re already at $4 million so I think we’ve already reached $70 million. And we’re hoping to go even higher.
Question: Congratulations. And still lots to do.
Elton John: Still lots to do. We’ve come an awful long way obviously I mean 27 years ago we never thought we’d be here. We never thought this… we’d come so far in treating this disease, but we still have a long way to go. We have to get the medicine to the people who need it, we have to get the price of the medicines down, and more importantly, as I say every year to you guys, we have to get rid of the stigma. But you know we’re slowly battling away and I’m still confident in a few years’ time, we’ll see the end of this.
David Furnish: It’s the alarming rise of new infections amongst the young that shouldn’t be happening because with the tools available today if you’re positive and you’re properly medicated, you don’t pass the virus onto someone else and if you’re at high risk, you can take (inaudible). But the trouble is, the stigma that Elton’s discussed, the lack of access to healthcare, lack of access to testing and treatment, you’re seeing a huge bump in new infections in young people…
Elton John: Especially in the rural south of America, in the Afro-American community. Young, gay black men are really a problem area here. And if it carries on at least one in two gay African Americans will be infected with this disease and we do not want to see that.
Next, John will release his biopic-fantasy movie, “Rocketman,” starring Taron Egerton, later this summer.
