Advertisement 1

'EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL': John Krasinski turned to celeb pals, raised $500,000 for charity

Article content

John Krasinski “blackmailed” his celebrity friends into donating more than $500,000 to charity, in honour of the star’s 40th birthday.

The Jack Ryan star reached the milestone on Sunday and took to his social media accounts to share a video to mark the occasion.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

In the clip, he asked anybody who wanted to send him a gift to instead make a donation in his name to Family Reach — a national non-profit that provides assistance to families with a child or parent suffering from cancer.

Article content

John and his wife Emily Blunt have been working with the organization for many years.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

“So, open up your hearts, open up your cyber wallets and make my birthday dreams come true!” he concluded the video.

During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Friday, the star shared his success in the venture, before joking he “attacked” his famous pals on Twitter to reach the impressive total.

Recommended from Editorial
  1. The Office - Steve Carrell stars in The Office
    'The Office' to leave Netflix in 2021
  2. John Krasinski premiere of
    Amazon's 'Jack Ryan' TV series lambasted for promoting Venezuela 'invasion'

“I woke up and I thought, ‘I know what I’m going to do.’ I wanted to do something good with my 40th birthday because as I was going over the hill, I thought I’d do something nice,” he said. “So I actually just begged people for money. I thought, ‘If you’re a fan of mine, you deserve to give me money.”

Explaining how he got stars including Hugh Jackman on board to send donations, the Lip Sync Battle co-creator added: “In order to get money, I had to do some emotional blackmail.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.
Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    This Week in Flyers