America Online and IN STYLE Team Up With Celebrities to Lend a Hand for the Holidays.

Entertainment Editors

DULLES, Va. & LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Nov. 3, 2000

You've Got Help ... with AOL's "Helping Hands (SM)" Holiday

Initiative, Featuring Celebrity Artwork From Clint

Eastwood, George Clooney, Christina Ricci,

Woody Allen and Jewel, Among Others

AOL Live Chat and Performance by Jewel to Celebrate the Launch

Of New "Helping Hands" Catalog on Shop@AOL and the Start of

AOL's 2000 Holiday Shopping and Giving Season

America Online, Inc., the world's leading interactive services company and IN STYLE, a celebrity lifestyle magazine, have joined together to assemble a constellation of Hollywood legends, sports stars, and celebrities for a unique online auction-style event and philanthropic campaign called the "Helping Hands."

More than 50 celebrities, including Woody Allen, Lisa Kudrow, Gillian Anderson, Ben Stiller, Magic Johnson and Kevin Spacey, are lending a hand to this important charity initiative, which will launch on November 9th with a star-studded event in Los Angeles co-hosted by IN STYLE magazine and America Online.

The "Helping Hands" initiative marks the official start of AOL's holiday shopping and giving season this year.

In support of this online philanthropic campaign, celebrities have created artistic interpretations of the "Helping Hands" theme, which range from paintings and drawings to sculptures and signed memorabilia.

Starting November 9, these "handiworks" will be featured in a special holiday catalog on Shop@AOL, the company's popular online shopping destination, and offered auction-style through links to eBay, the world's leading online trading community.

New hands will debut in the catalog each week throughout the holiday season, allowing fans to bid on and buy artwork from their favorite celebrities while supporting a worthy cause.

The Helping Hands catalog, which will be available on Shop@AOL at AOL Keyword: Helping Hands and at www.aol.com/shopping, will also link fans to the philanthropy portal Helping.org where they can donate money and/or volunteer time to contributing celebrities' designated charities.

Through Helping.org, one hundred percent of the auction proceeds and all donations will go directly to the celebrities' favorite causes, including amfAR, First Book and Higher Ground for Humanity, making online giving through the Helping Hands catalog easy, safe and fun.

Steve Case, Chairman and CEO of America Online, said: "We are thrilled to work with IN STYLE, eBay and so many celebrities to bring a focus to online giving during the holidays. We hope the Helping Hands campaign will both raise important funds for the celebrities' favorite charities, and demonstrate how easy it is to use the power of the online medium to make a difference."

"We are happy to be joining forces with AOL in support of this campaign," said Martha Nelson, Managing Editor of IN STYLE. "It's shopping with a purpose, and a smart way to give back during this holiday season."

Online philanthropy services such as Helping.org provide an important resource for the more than two-thirds of American households that already make charitable contributions (totaling $135 billion in 1998), as well as for those who are new to philanthropy.

So far, according to Independent Sector, a national coalition of leading charities and foundations, less than one percent of charitable givers do so over the Web. However, the recently released 2000 AOL/Roper-Starch Cyberstudy shows that 25% of online users are interested in using the Internet to make charitable donations and 50% are interested in signing up for volunteering opportunities.

Jewel to Perform at Star-Studded Launch Event and Chat with AOL

Members on November 9

AOL and IN STYLE magazine will also host a celebrity event in Los Angeles on November 9 to celebrate the launch of the campaign and the Helping Hands catalog on Shop@AOL. In addition to contributing artwork to the catalog, Atlantic recording artist Jewel will lend her soulful voice and humanitarian hand to the evening with a special live performance.

The celebrity artwork, which will be featured in AOL's Helping Hands catalog over the holiday season, will also be unveiled at the party. Some collection highlights include:

-- An original, hand-painted, one-of-a-kind cel (No. 1 of 1, created especially
for this project) of Bugs Bunny lending a helping hand

-- A red-fingernailed hand of dragon lady Cruella De Vil from actress Glenn
Close

-- A good morning sunshine hand by smiling AM weatherman Al Roker

-- A freckled hand drawing by late night comedian Conan O'Brien

-- A photo of Jewel delivering guitar-strumming harmony to her fans

Prior to the start of the event, AOL Live will host an online chat with Jewel, beginning at 10 PM/ET (accessible at AOL Keyword: Jewel).

A special content area commemorating the event and Jewel's live chat will include a gallery of photographs from the party, as well as links to the Helping Hands catalog on Shop@AOL; Jewel's charity (Higher Ground for Humanity); Jewel's official Web site; IN STYLE's recently launched Web site; and Barnes & Noble's Web site (bn.com), where fans can purchase a copy of Jewel's newest book, Chasing Down the Dawn (HarperCollins).

Other celebrity guests expected to attend the Helping Hands event include Pierce Brosnan, Casper Van Dien, Rachael Leigh Cook, Rachel Hunter, Rosanna Arquette, Tiffani Thiessen and Tyra Banks. All guests will receive VIP gift bags commemorating the evening.

A complimentary AOL membership, Warner Book's new Wired in a Week paperback by AOL's Online Advisor Regina Lewis, movie rental certificates from Blockbuster, silver bracelets from online jeweler Blue Nile and chocolates from Godiva Chocolatier are among the featured gift bag items contributed by Shop@AOL's premier merchant partners.

Helping Hands Catalog Kicks Off Holiday Shopping on Shop@AOL

With the launch of the Helping Hands catalog, Shop@AOL will officially open its doors for Holiday 2000. This year, Shop@AOL will offer a variety of next-generation shopping features, innovative holiday catalogs and new customer service features to make shopping through the Internet's best selection of brand-name products from premier merchant partners easier and more convenient than ever before.

Designed for both first-time and experienced online shoppers, Shop@AOL is available to AOL members at Shop@AOL (Keyword: Shopping), CompuServe members at Shop@CompuServe, and to visitors through the Web at [e-mail], Shop@Netscape, Shop@Spinner and Shop@Winamp.

Holiday 2000 is expected to be another banner year for e-commerce, with analysts predicting that consumers will spend between $10 and $12 billion online. According to the 2000 AOL/Roper-Starch Cyberstudy, online commerce has become an everyday activity for millions of Internet users.

This year, over half of the survey's respondents (56%) say that they currently shop online, nearly double those who did in 1998 (31%). Similarly, the percentage of users who intend to shop online during the holiday season has doubled from 14% in 1998 to 28% today.

About the AOL/Roper-Starch Cyberstudy

America Online commissioned Roper Starch Worldwide to produce a random survey of 1,004 adults (ages 18+) who subscribe to an Internet or online service at home. Interviews were conducted via telephone in August 2000. This is the third Cyberstudy commissioned by AOL. The results have a +/- 4% margin of error.

About Helping.org

Changing the world, one person at a time, is what drives Helping.org, the most comprehensive philanthropy portal in cyberspace. As the one-stop philanthropy portal in cyberspace, Helping.org is proud to connect online users to more than 650,000 charitable organizations.

Because it is supported by funding from AOL's charitable foundation, Helping.org takes nothing out of donations that are made through it. Helping.org is available to Internet users at www.helping.org and at AOL Keyword: Helping.

With two comprehensive databases -- one for donations and one for volunteering -- the site enables individuals to get information on, and donate to any of the registered charities. Helping.org also provides individuals with the tools to research and sign up for volunteer opportunities in their own communities or around the world.

About IN STYLE

IN STYLE, a celebrity lifestyle magazine, was launched in June 1994 by Time Inc. and in six years has emerged as one of the most successful magazines on newsstands today. An insider's guide to the lives and lifestyles of the world's most fascinating people, IN STYLE offers a wealth of inspiration and ideas about beauty, fashion, decor, entertaining and charities.

Highly recognized by industry insiders, IN STYLE has received the Council of Fashion Designers of America special award in 1999 "for putting the spotlight on fashion and Hollywood," the Acres of Diamonds award for "best fashion magazine," the Accessories Council Award for "best coverage of accessories by a consumer fashion magazine," and the Fashion Group International Star Gazer Corporate Award.

Additionally, in l998 IN STYLE was named number one on Adweek's Hot List of the Top 10 Magazines and in 1999 was named No. 3.

About America Online, Inc.

Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services.

Editor's Note: For more information, screenshots and/or images of the celebrity Helping Hands, please contact Suzy Berkowitz ([e-mail]) at 212-484-7228 or Jeff Corbett ([e-mail]) at 703-265-1746.