To this end, Shriver asked his uncle Ted Kennedy to find someone in Washington who could inculcate Bono in the ways of Capitol Hill. Kennedy recommended Washington lobbyist and social work degree holder Tom Sheridan of The Sheridan Group. In 2000, Sheridan started showing the Irish singer the ropes in Washington.

"Bono came to us eight years ago to say, 'look, I don't know a lot about Capitol Hill, legislation and politics, but if we don't leverage the American political system, the American Congress and the executive branch, we can't get this Africa, poverty, AIDS question answered sufficiently," Sheridan told us via the phone. Importantly, the first stage process took place without any press fanfare, so that Bono could get up to speed before speaking out on these issues in public. "For years, we walked Bono around Capitol Hill completely undercover, just learning and talking, and developing a relationship and a dialogue with folks. If (celebrities) are willing to do those tactical things -- and they're not always glamorous at all -- that usually will produce a very effective relationship between celebrity and issue."

According to Sheridan, the reason we are so ready to dismiss celebrity advocates as being full of hot air is that sometimes, they are. "If an issue group seems to have been used by a celebrity to distract from a celebrity's other problems -- say, a drug rehab problem or a marriage problem, or a sex scandal -- it will diminish the respect that other people have for that issue and for that group. It becomes somewhat of a caricature of bad photo opp celebrity activism. That can have a backlash."

For that very reason, Sheridan turned down several celebrities who expressed interest in working on hot-button issues like human trafficking and modern slavery. "There was no end of requests for people to do that work (on the trafficking issue) -- all the entertainment folks, all the music folks, they all wanted to do the interview, they all wanted to do the photo, and we simply said, 'look, that isn't going to be good for the issue' ... they'll show up for a dinner, they'll walk on your red carpet, they may do a concert for you, but it's not a level of depth that gets to advocacy."

However, Sheridan agreed to take Ricky Martin under his wing on the human trafficking and modern slavery issues, after Martin tracked him down through Bono (pictured to the right with Al Gore at the 2008 World Economic Forum). Sheridan says he agreed to help Martin because he's shown the sort of deep commitment to the cause Sheridan says is necessary if celebrities want to get involved without looking foolish or even hurting the cause they're trying to support.

For instance, Martin already had a foundation that spreads warnings in human trafficking hot spots that it's not wise to trust people who make promises regarding employment abroad that too often result in enslavement. "He was involved at that level and certainly was committed to it, but he's never given testimony and never sat before Congress. He was really smart to spend two weeks really being a good student. We wrote a very good piece of testimony, and he knew it, he studied it, he understood why he was saying what he was saying."

If a celebrity is committed to the cause, working with an organization and advocating only effective programs, Sheridan says, their influence actually can have a significant impact on the decisions of the policymakers on Capitol Hill and their constituents. "(Celebrity advocacy campaigns) can have an enormous effect if they're credible, thoughtful and sincere, and if they have a long-standing commitment behind them -- and they're proven. You can see them in a lot of different places, in Bono's work on AIDS and poverty in Africa, and with Elizabeth Taylor way back in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, her commitment and her ability to step forward and talk about the issue publicly. Or you could look at Michael J. Fox -- his ability to confront not only Parkinson's Disease but stem cell research and science as an issue. I think they've been enormously effective across the board."

Why does Bono care about Africa? Why must he insist on being such a meddlesome do-gooder? Why is he not content to languish in his money silo? According to Sheridan, his motives are based on a humanitarian instinct and a willingness to use his position to help where he sees fit.

"This totally comes from his soul," Sheridan insisted. "This is about him feeling like being a participant in this planet and in this world, and that he had this responsibility to give something back. And he's got an opportunity to do it, because of this enormous celebrity that he's been able to achieve. It really comes from a place of deep spirituality and a personal commitment to humanity."

Somehow, after years of study, Bono has apparently proved to politicians on Capitol Hill and elsewhere that he knows what he's talking about. According to Sheridan, the singer's depth of commitment is "obvious to everybody -- even people who don't agree with us, who say 'Africa is a pit, it's a hole in the ground, you just sink more money into it, you can't solve these problems, it'll never work there, there's corruption.'

"We hear a lot of grousing about that stuff. Some people just don't agree with us. But even if they don't agree, I cannot think of a single member of Congress or the executive branch that we sat down to talk to that didn't walk away, if not agreeing with us, absolutely respecting him and the way he does his business. They may not give him what he wants, they may not vote the way we want them to vote every time, but no one has said to us that he doesn't engage in an extraordinarily effective and respectful manner."

We're willing to grant that celebrities like Bono, Michael J. Fox and Elizabeth Taylor have had a positive effect for the issues they champion. But as someone closely involved with celebrity advocacy -- not just with Bono and Ricky Martin but also with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Julia Ormond -- Sheridan sees one area to which celebrities advocates in general appear to be blind: the domestic front.

"We work with a group of folks that call themselves social entrepreneurs -- young folks that are doing very avant-garde, progressive work in domestic communities, on domestic challenges, and nobody's helping them," said Sheridan. "The celebrity community seems to be almost wholesale absent when it comes to education reform issues, youth employment, juvenile justice and national service, and these are issues that could desperately use a big lift from artists and celebrities. There seems to be something that's not bringing that forward... I do worry that there's a slight imbalance there."

However, after the celebrity world learns the difference between the appearance of advocacy and advocacy itself, perhaps some of them will get more involved on the domestic stage, especially on issues that celebrities themselves have experienced. "What is it about these domestic issues that's not connecting to Hollywood celebrity artists?" asked Sheridan. "Why do the artists who might feel some of this stuff, or experience some of this stuff -- why is there a resistance to involve themselves in these domestic crises? I represent the National Cancer Association," he said. "There's nobody in America that hasn't been touched by cancer, and doesn't believe it's a horrible disease and something we should be doing much more to cure. But can you name the national celebrity spokesperson on cancer?"

We couldn't. Come on, celebrities, Bono can't do it all on his own. If you're willing to put in the time and effort, it appears that there is, in fact, a way for you to save the world without making an ass of yourself.

See Also:

• U2 Tracks Apparently Leaked from Bono's Holiday Home
• Bono and Hirst Team Up for (RED) Auction
• U2 3D Brings Hyperreal Arena Rock to the Multiplex
• U2 Goes DRM-Free on Rhapsody MP3 Store

Top photo courtesy of Oxfam America; bottom photo courtesy of the World Economic Forum