Kevin Bacon Turns Cult Phenomenon Into Charity

Jan. 28, 2007 — -- The "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" game made this prolific actor an underground hero on college campuses. Now, Bacon's found a way to turn cult of celebrity into a force for charity: He calls it sixdegrees.org.

Kevin Bacon: The idea was that I could be connected to any actor in the universe in six steps. I was kind of horrified at the idea. I sort of thought it was a joke, at my expense. I thought it was definitely going to go the way of 8-track cassettes and pet rocks.

But it's a concept that has sort of hung around in the zeitgeist. It comes up and again and again. I just started talking to people and saying, "You know, if we had an organization that was called sixdegrees.org, you know, what could it be? What could I do with it?" A lot of people are really, really strongly connected to what celebrities are doing. So why not have a place where you could also find out what charities they care about, what causes are important to them, and be able to donate right there.

Another option is to actually post your own badge on there and become sort of a celebrity for your own cause and put a link for people to donate to your charity. It's very easy. It's do good, feel good. That's all it is.