Bill Murray is using his fame to help raise money for Puerto Rico relief, and he’s not abiding by cheapskates.
A TMZ video shows the movie star signing autographs in exchange for $20 donations in Washington, but he wasn’t about to bargain for negotiate the price.
“Three dollars? OK, go get a job and come back,” Murray says at one point after flipping through three singles.
Some of the fans nearby were apparently pretty excited that Murray was using his fame for good, telling the star that Puerto Rico was going to be alright. Murray, true to his general low-key approach when meeting fans, didn’t comment on the significance of his attempts at fundraising.
Much of Puerto Rico remains in dire conditions more than a month after Hurricane Maria made landfall on the US territory. Immediately after landfall, Puerto Rico was left without power or potable running water. Many of those conditions remained weeks after the storm hit, with reports indicating that as much as 80 per cent of the island remained without power late last month.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency says that it has focused 16,500 federal employees on the issue, and has corresponded with 74 voluntary agencies to help deliver meals and water, while working toward reestablishing necessary infrastructure there.
But, the length of time that the island has gone without access to those necessities has been devastating. Hospitals and communities that are cut off from the areas of focus have faced potentially dire consequences as they work to help patients with critical conditions that rely on regular access to electricity, or to medicines that are increasingly difficult to access.
The official death toll has reached at least 48 following the disaster, but there are still dozens missing on the island, and it is possible that the count isn’t truly reflective of the number of deaths that actually occurred on the island.
