Restore Stephen Baldwin (just click here to donate)

By Liz Kelly

Stephen Baldwin is, as Baldwins go, a nobody. Although the beefy younger brother of comedy god/"SNL" host extraordinaire Alec Baldwin manages to find a steady stream of work in TV, straight-to-DVD titles and (to be fair) some mainstream hits, he's best known for being Alec's brother and, to a lesser extent, for his 2002 conversion to evangelical Christianity and (as yet unfulfilled) promise to move to Canada if Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election.

But according to the site RestoreStephenBaldwin.org, it isn't Stephen's fault that he's bankrupt and can't land a legit acting gig. No, according to the site, Baldwin is a modern-day Job -- losing lucrative gigs that would doubtless have catapulted him into stratospheric fame were it not for his religious convictions:

I know, like me, you're full of questions. But thanks to a handy site Q&A (they thought of everything!), some of our posers have been anticipated and answered:

Q- Why doesn't his family help him?

A- His family does not perceive Stephen’s predicament as a matter of spiritual warfare. They see Stephen’s outspoken Christianity as poor choices therefore they will not help.

But, golly, will our money really help? Apparently so:

Q- Why does Stephen need personal wealth?

A- Stephen’s influence is in Hollywood. Hollywood worships money and without it you are seen as a loser and cannot be an effective influence to this group.

Well, they're right about that "loser" thing. But can we bring Donald Trump into the mix somehow? Yes!:

Q- What triggered you to do this?

A- In March of 08 I saw Stephen speak boldly for Christ on Trumps Celebrity Apprentice Show. Then in Aug 09 I saw Stephen and God being laughed at for his bankruptcy.

The site appears to have been launched last December, but for some reason caught fire this week. According to that Q&A, Baldwin himself had nothing to do with the planning or launch of the site -- apart from, we assume, benefitting from donations. The site creators say only that they received permission to launch the site from Baldwin's "ministry president."

If only Job had had the Internet.

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Update, 2:49 p.m. ET:

Dan Southern, president of Stephen Baldwin's ministry, just confirmed to us that Baldwin had no involvement in the site. He also said Baldwin hasn't seen any significant money at this point.

"Up until yesterday [donations] were just a trickle. Yesterday we had 30,000 hits on the YouTube video. Right now, it's more curiosity."

But, said Southern, the financial plea isn't really the point.

"It's really about people standing behind Stephen who believe he's an important spokesperson. So they're trying to help him fix his flat tire."

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A big thanks to the chatter who brought this site to our attention in yesterday's Celebritology Live discussion.