Artists are stepping up to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, and for wealthy superstars, $1 million increasingly seems to be the bar to hit. Elton John has launched a million-dollar COVID-19 Emergency Fund through his AIDS foundation, and Madonna is donating $1 million to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support research towards a coronavirus cure.

"I must admit, it took me time to accept and process and modify my own lifestyle so I can protect the lives of my family, myself and the rest of the human race," said Madonna, who took some heat for an earlier video calling coronavirus "the great equalizer" while immersed in a bathtub sprinkled with rose petals.

Pink has also pledged to donate $1 million after recovering from the virus along with her three-year-old son. In a statement, the pop singer said, "It is an absolute travesty and failure of our government to not make testing more widely accessible. This illness is serious and real." (Rolling Stone)

John Taylor recovers, Marianne Faithfull and Christopher Cross are ill

Duran Duran bassist John Taylor has also recovered from COVID-19, he said in a statement. "I am speaking out in answer to the enormous amount of fear being generated by the pandemic, some of it entirely justified, and my heart goes out to everyone who has had to deal with real loss and pain. But I want to let you know that it isn't always a killer, and we can and will beat this thing." (Slicing Up Eyeballs)

Other artists who have been diagnosed include Marianne Faithfull, who has been hospitalized with the virus but is in stable condition. Singer-songwriter Christopher Cross calls COVID-19 "possibly the worst illness that I have ever had." Cross was just in the news when Billie Eilish matched a feat that Cross was the last artist to achieve, with his 1979 debut album: sweeping all four top categories at the Grammys.

Actor Daryl Hannah has also fallen ill and recovered, though it's not clear whether her sickness involved coronavirus infection. It delayed the latest "Fireside Session" from her husband, Neil Young. In a statement, Young explained that Hannah "films, records and edits them all on her iPad and of course includes the obligatory commercial from our sponsor. Then our dear friend comes by, (in requisite mask and gloves) picks up the iPad outside the door, transports it to town many miles away in order to use the internet and sends it on to our home base, Lost Planet, all while shopping for food. Just sending the file takes an entire day."

Young and Hannah are sheltering at their rural property near Telluride, Colorado. (Spin)

Original Hamilton cast reunite via Zoom

If you find yourself reconnecting with old friends via Zoom these days, you're in good company: with Lin-Manuel Miranda and much of the original cast of Hamilton. The reunion came about for actor John Krasinski's online talk show, to surprise a nine-year-old Hamilton fan who couldn't go see the show on Broadway. Krasinski's wife Emily Blunt, known to young Aubrey as Mary Poppins, also joined the call, in which Miranda and several actors performed the show's opening number. (Rolling Stone)