If you didn’t laugh much at Ben Stiller or Robin Williams on last night’s “Idol Gives Back” special, you should still applaud them for giving their time and (possibly too much) effort toward the larger-than-life telethon.

The moving footage of families of all kinds in Africa and the United States made for gripping, emotional montages. I teared up with Annie Lennox when she said goodbye to four orphaned African children who would return to raising each other. And when Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus headed to the poor sectors of Appalachia, my sight became cloudy again.

It’s become cliché to say, but millions of people need help. And say what you will about the behemoth that is “American Idol.” For better or worse, the honchos recognize the national and international influence they wield, and in this case, they’ve decided to dedicate that energy toward charity these last two seasons.

This isn’t to say the special and its premise don’t have their flaws. The series is neither angelic nor transcendent when exploiting emotionally unstable contestants in the opening rounds of auditions. Some of the corporate sponsors and one Los Angeles Laker to appear on the special need the good P.R. The special teetered on absurdly tactless when the logo of a dilapidated Chevrolet truck in Appalachia was pixelated into a blur just because Ford was one of the show’s, and charity’s, biggest sponsors. And, let’s face it, the nearly three-hour special was just too damn long.

But even I’ll defend that last point because I realize that a longer special means greater exposure to a larger audience that’s already tops in the country, meaning there’s that much more of a chance for more money to be donated to some amazing causes.

Bonus points go to the celebrities who traveled to learn more about and promote the “Idol Gives Back” causes in video montages, including Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell, Bono, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, Annie Lennox, Celine Dion, Forest Whitaker, Keisha Whitaker, Reese Witherspoon, Alicia Keys, Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus, Brad Pitt, Chris Daughtry and his band. (Also: Fantasia Barrino and Elliott Yamin, whose “Idol Gives Back” African trip was highlighted in an earlier episode.)

“Idol” gave back. And for that, we should all take notice and give something of ourselves to the needy and deserving.

Sometimes a few solid Jimmy Kimmel jokes at the expense of a good-natured Simon Cowell can help us take a tiny step toward a better world. Or at least a buttoned-up shirt.

A semi-chronological breakdown of last night’s show is after the break. Read more of this entry »

11:23 EST: Jeet catches a shallow pop-up hit by Big Papi to end the game, Yanks win 4-3. Phew. Tony Bennett won an Emmy for that too. Thanks for reading and commenting, everybody!

11:12 EST: The Emmy broadcast is over, and the Red Sox have closed to within 4-3 against the Yankees in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs. I’m telling you, these Yankees-Sox games are marathons.

11:10 EST: David Chase, in classy fashion, thanks Gandolfini, Falco, Imperioli and Aida Turturro. In an homage to Field’s censored speech—whatever she said—Chase says, “If the world was run by gangsters… maybe it is!”

11:07 EST: Helen Mirren presents the award to outstanding drama series to… “The Sopranos.” Well, despite Gandolfini, Falco and Imperioli being “forgottenabouttit,” at least the series itself goes out on a high note.

One of my greatest pleasures is having coffee at a local bookstore on the weekend and thumbing through the tabloid magazines. I feel no guilt in reading oodles of magazines I don’t plan to buy, because I have logged enough hours and dollars in one chain in particular to be on the board of directors.

As my fellow tabloid-thumpers can attest, it was impossible this past weekend to escape images of Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, or as they’re known collectively, Zanessa.

Then on the way to PBS’ “Mystery!” last night, my aunt and I paused at Fox’s “Teen Choice Awards.” There they were, holding court in the front row like Brangelina at the Oscars.

For the uninitiated, Efron and Hudgens are the stars of the Disney Channel’s “High School Musical 2,” which is not to be confused with the popular “High School Musical” or the soon-to-be feature-film blockbuster “High School Musical 3.”

“High School Musical 2” is the highest-rated basic-cable program EVER! (This kind of news tends to inspire capital letters and exclamation points in the tabloids.) Plus, Zanessa, sweeties in the film, are said to be a case of life imitating art. She, I had never heard of — although upon reading that she has lots of shoes, I must say I’m already a fan. He, I had seen in the short-lived summer-replacement series “Summerland” — another guilty pleasure — in which he played the most adorable boy in high school,who could have any girl and yet chose the brainy one who wanted to be a writer. This seems to be his part, and for one so luscious-looking — think Bobby Sherman in the ‘60s or Jared Leto in “My So-Called Life” — he does it convincingly, no mean task. For it is a conceit of Hollywood that the cool guy wants the bluestocking. I mean, in real life, Hugh Hefner didn’t marry Gloria Steinem, did he?

Anyway, “High School Musical 2” is a Teen Choice Award-winning, ratings hit; and Efron, who also made a splash in “Hairspray,” its breakout star. The anointing of a new teen idol or leading man represents a seismic cultural shift, as when a “Titanic” Leonardo DiCaprio ushered in a brief era of Apollonian beauty in the late ‘90s, which was succeeded by the Herculean delights of Russell “Gladiator” Crowe at the turn of the millennium.

So the question is: Why Zac and why now? The answer lies, as always, in ourselves. Summer is the season of promise but also promise that can turn rank. This has been the summer of our discontent. I’m not just talking about Lindsay, Paris, Britney and Nicole. They’re just the superficial disenchantment signaling a deeply wounded psyche. The Michael Vick dog killings; the gang-style murder of those students in Newark, who never had a chance to bloom; the presumed death of the Utah miners; the other miners who died trying to rescue them; the firefighters killed at the festering Deutsche Bank building; the continuing war in Iraq — need I go on? We are heart-sore. The idea of Zanessa, and of Efron in particular, is that they are the balm of a more innocent time, which may exist only in the mind anyway.

Can they hold on to the innocence? Only Peter Pan is young forever.

More important for Hollywood, can Efron transcend teen-idolatry? The jury is still out. But that doesn’t mean that he and his costars can’t build successful careers in the arts by looking to their elders for what they should — and shouldn’t — do.

A few words of advice: Try to get a college education while working in the movies. Natalie Portman and Jodie Foster did it.

Also, build a home life that allows for plenty of down time in which to think, dream, share with family and friends and recharge.

After 25 years in the arts, I can say that a boring private life is key to an exciting artistic one.