According to a recent press release, Bill Clinton, former President of the United States, will be one of the honorees at Elton John’s annual AIDS benefit show called “An Enduring Vision.”

The benefit will be held on November 16 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Donna Sumer will be the featured special musical guest. John said in a statement, the spirit, energy and voice of Donna Summer will electrify our guests. I can’t wait until I am sharing the stage with Donna. She’s been a great supporter for many years of my AIDS foundation. I am very excited Donna has agreed to perform at “An Enduring Vision.”

The 8th annual event for the Elton John AIDS Foundation will include the presentation of Enduring Vision awards. Four honorees will be recognized who have supported the foundation’s mission of funding innovation programs for HIV prevention, providing support services and direct care for individuals who live with HIV/AIDS, as well as their efforts to eliminate discrimination and stigmas associated with having HIV/AIDS.

Other honorees besides President Clinton include Sharon Stone, AIDS activist and actress, and philanthropists Lily Safra and Leonard and Evelyn Lauder.

Anderson Cooper, CNN journalist and Emmy Award winner, will be hosting the gala dinner. American Airlines will sponsor the event.

Billy Joel and Elton John have another arena run of dates lined up as part of “Face 2 Face,” their ongoing set of co-headlining shows.

On November 4 the pair will be in returning to the stage in Seattle. Dates have been scheduled through to December 7, where an Albany, NY make-up concert will take place. According to an issued press release, the date was scheduled originally for July but had to be postponed after Joel became ill with symptoms that were flu-like. Another July date will be made good with a Buffalo, NY concert on December 4. The performers will also be visiting several cities on the West Coast in addition to the make-up dates. They will be in Portland, OR on November 10 and in San Jose, CA on November 17.

According to a recent press release John and Joel, like the previous concerts they have done together, will be starting their evenings off by playing several duets where they trade vocals from their twin pianos. Then the stars will perform separately before the come together once again for a grand finale. The shows will consist of greatest hits from the two as well as a selection of classic rock-and-roll tunes.

The first time Joel and John did a tour together was in 1994. Their most recent outing of “Face 2 Face” before the affair this year was a 24 date, sold-out 2003 trek. According to a recent press release, the two performers are the longest running and most successful concert pairing in the history of pop music.

Elton John, in addition to touring duties for “Face 2 Face” and overseas performances periodically of his production “The Red Piano” (his long running residency in Las Vegas closed in April), the performer found time recently to guest on Alice in Chain’s title track for their new set “Black Gives Way to Blue.”

In a recent press release Jerry Cantrell, Alice in Chains vocalist and guitarist said, we had thought about adding piano onto the track. Then a friend of ours suggested that we call Elton. I remember that I laughed and said, yeah sure I’ll do that. Then I decided it was worth a try. I sent an email to Elton explaining the song’s meaning to us. I told him is was a raw, real openhearted song for Layne (late Alice in Chains singer). We sent Elton the track. A short while later we got a call from his saying that he wanted to play on the song and that it was beautiful. That blew us away.