As previously reported, virtually every big star in the music world will show up on the "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" telethon, which will air on a kajillion different channels and websites this Friday night. But one star will be conspicuous in his absence: Kanye West.

Popeater reports (via Prefix) that the telethon's producers have made the decision not to invite West. West does, after all, have quite a history of making outbursts on live TV, including [the famous "George Bush doesn't care about black people" moment](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO1j77mo6Vc "the famous "George Bush doesn&squot;t care about black people" moment" ) at a 2005 Hurricane Katrina telethon.

Popeater quotes a producer of the Haiti telethon as saying, "After what he said on the Katrina telethon and the way he behaved at the MTV Video Music Awards, everyone agrees it's just best that he does not participate. Kayne has to make everything about himself. He will do anything to steal the spotlight and, well, this night it's just not about him."

But come on. What's Kanye going to say? "Barack Obama doesn't care about Haitian people"?

Kanye's "big brother" Jay-Z will be on the telethon. He'll perform with Bono, the Edge, and Rihanna-- basically, the ["Run This Town"](http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/11416-run-this-town-ft-rihanna-and-kanye-west/ ""Run This Town"" ) lineup, except with half of U2 replacing Kanye. Maybe Bono and the Edge will tag-team Kanye's verse?