The City of Brotherly Love has a thing for Bono.

U2’s do-gooding frontman was feted Thursday in Philadelphia, where he collected the city’s Liberty Medal for his humanitarian work and activism on behalf of Africa’s poor.

“When you are trapped by the poverty, you are not free. When trade laws prevent you from selling the food you grew, you are not free,” the “One” singer told a crowd of VIPs after receiving the accolade from former President George H.W. Bush.

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U2 frontman Bono put in a surprise appearance on the red carpet at the UK premiere of musical flick, Across The Universe.

The rocker makes his first acting debut in the movie, which features hit songs from the Beatles.

The musician spoke of his opportunity to make the cameo and his admiration for the film’s director Julie Taymor.

“I wanted to learn from her. The fact she let me go and play with her actors shows she’s not 100 per cent sound, but we got away with it,” he said.

The movie is set in the 60s and tells the story of two star-crossed lovers who get caught up in the anti-war movement, set to the soundtrack of Hey Jude, I Am The Walrus, and All You Need is Love.

Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess star in the film, written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

Director Taymor revealed she held a private screening of the film for Sir Paul McCartney, which went down well with the Beatle.

She said: “He was very generous and complimentary.”

© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.

When Bono was but a boy, the rock-star-to-be heard John Lennon whispering inspirational words in his ear. “That changed the way the world looked outside my bedroom window when I was 12 years old,” says Bono, lead singer of U2 and cofounder of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), a Washington-based advocacy group.

Tonight, Bono and DATA will be honored with the Liberty Medal at the National Constitution Center, whose president, Joseph M. Torsella, cited Bono for proving through his activism “that the office of ‘citizen’ is the most important in the world.”

The award puts the 47-year-old Nobel Peace Prize nominee in rarefied company – over 18 years the award has gone to statesmen and justices, world leaders and scientists, to Nelson Mandela and Vaclav Havel, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, now chairman of the Constitution Center.

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LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20 /PRNewswire/ — U2 will release a DVD version of POPMART LIVE FROM MEXICO CITY on September 18, 2007 through Island Records/Interscope/UMe.

Filmed at the Foro Sol Autodromo in Mexico City on 3rd December 1997, POPMART LIVE FROM MEXICO CITY was directed by David Mallet and first released on video the following year; this is the first time it has been released on DVD.Described as a sci-fi disco supermarket, the POPMART Tour opened in its “spiritual home”, Las Vegas on 25th April 1997. All trash and kitsch, POPMART introduced a giant mirrorball lemon, a 100ft cocktail stick — complete with olive, and the works of Lichtenstein, Warhol and Haring, to a live rock audience: a production experience never quite seen before.

Originally filmed on analogue video, the film has been transferred to a digital format with re-graded and cleaned pictures. Great care has been taken to maintain the original look by simply enhancing it, with an added degree of sharpness and contrast unavailable when originally filmed. The audio has also been re-mastered and mixed in 5.1 Surround Sound.

POPMART LIVE FROM MEXICO CITY will be available in two formats: a Standard 1-disc format containing the concert, and a Special Limited Edition 2-disc format, the 2nd bonus disc containing previously unreleased live audio and video material, including documentaries, a POPMART tour visuals montage, and DVD-ROM extras.

The full DVD track listing is as follows:

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Across the Universe Interview Video with Bono at Hollywood.com
U2’s Bono talks about the making of Across the Universe.

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The National Constitution Center, in partnership with the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation and WPVI-TV, will webcast the 2007 Liberty Medal ceremony live on http://www.libertymedal.org, making the event available to a worldwide audience for the first time. The 2007 Liberty Medal will be awarded jointly to Bono, U2 lead singer and activist, and DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), the advocacy organization he co-founded to combat poverty and disease in Africa, on Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. at the National Constitution Center in Historic Philadelphia.

“We are thrilled to provide global access to the 2007 Liberty Medal ceremony,” says National Constitution Center President and CEO Joseph M. Torsella. “This year’s recipients serve as inspirational examples of the power of citizens to elevate important issues to the world stage. The global reach of this webcast allows us to generate greater awareness of Bono’s and DATA’s exceptional contributions, and to support those that strive to ensure ‘the blessings of liberty’ throughout the world.”

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