Unless you are a victim of Hurricane Katrina and your television was last seen floating down Bourbon Street, it would be an insult to your already radiated minds to regurgitate more Katrina coverage. But here it goes. As with any major disaster, the major news channels – CNN, prime time CBS and Fox – have successfully beaten the topic to death with up-to-the-minute coverage, daily coverage recaps and just about every suit with an opinion discussing what happened.

Well, a storm happened. A storm so large, the levees wouldn’t have helped even if the federal government hadn’t denied it full-funding. Yet, it’s those sort of decisions floating to the surface that has Bush up to his neck in flotsam.

On Sept. 2, Kanye West went live on-air with “Shrekkie” Mike Myers during a celeb-packed telethon, proclaiming, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.” He was referring to the criticisms of Bush’s response to Katrina, with differing opinions on how long it actually took to get Bush off his ass and down to “ground zero.”

There is public outcry for Bush’s absence at the disaster, comparing it to Sept. 11 coverage and saying he dragged his feet since it wasn’t a diversity Mecca with a dry Ritz Carlton to hold up in. Well, never fear, the A-List Team is here!

Many Hollywood-ites, including Matthew McConaughey, Sean Penn and New Orleans-native Harry Connick Jr., picked up some of the slack. Besides Oprah and John Goodman being all over the news, the A-List trio were on-site to get their hands dirty.

McConaughey could be seen all over television-news coverage last week, trekking around with animal rights organizations and other volunteers, trying to locate and save abandoned house pets. Surely to be Emmy award-winning shots showed him scooping up water-logged puppies and tunneling through roofs to find some very unhappy cats.

Penn took his own boat down to the murky waters to save some of the stranded. Too bad he didn’t have a gum wad big enough to stop up the hole in the bottom of his boat. Soon, he became one of the stranded.

Then, to top them all off, ex-“Copycat” killer and jazz artisan Connick Jr. was seen carrying a dying old man, commando-style (no shirt, looking all tough) through the foul river.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, celebrities have been forming coalitions not unlike the … ehemm … Film Actor’s Guild and making pilgrimages to disaster areas to help ease the suffering with their perfectly parted hair.

On one end, this can be seen as a redeeming effort – dissolving the stigma of multi-millionaire thespians sipping umbrella drinks in their high towers, to help the common, off-camera man.

On the other, disasters like these put the common man in the spotlight, giving the skeptic reason to believe that the only reason celebrities are getting their socks wet is to look heroic – one man’s tragedy is another actor’s publicity stunt.

But I try not to be a cynic in these times of some much needed humanity. It is perfectly plausible that televised sacrifices are only a byproduct of their status. And whether they care who’s around while trying to salvage their fathers’ homes and save the city they love, that spotlight will always be there.

The telethons do raise a lot of money and sometimes a celebrity in-the-grit will attract more attention to a needing area. Despite whatever preconceived notions you may have about their interests, they are actually helping – except for Penn.

Either way, for the sake of good will toward men, let’s hope their acts of altruism will be plentiful on – and off- the camera.