The New Nation - Internet Edition

Singers Sheryl Crow, left, and James Taylor pose
together before the Stand Up to Cancer benefit at the Kodak
Theater in Los Angeles on Friday.

AP, Los Angeles

Three TV networks, cancer research advocates and more than 60 celebrities from music, sports, TV and film made history Friday night with a live telethon that aired simultaneously on NBC, ABC and CBS.

Jack Black, Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry and Keanu Reeves - along with presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama - were among the stars participating in 'Stand Up to Cancer,' an hour-long, commercial-free fundraising show spearheaded by entertainment-industry heavyweights whose lives have been touched by the disease.

"This is an absolutely historic night, thanks to the unbelievable generosity of the three networks," producer and cancer survivor Laura Ziskin told the audience at the Kodak Theatre before the show began.

"We hope we're going to make you laugh, and I know we're going to make you cry, so I have some party favours," she said as she tossed packets of Kleenex into the crowd.

Cancer survivors Lance Armstrong and Elizabeth Edwards kicked off the program with statistics: Cancer kills 550,000 Americans and six million people worldwide each year.