Hawke, visiting Romania to help promote his mother's charity supporting education for Gypsy children, placed Madonna alongside Bob Marley and John Lennon in the roll call of performers who spoke against racism.

"She transcended being a pop star," he said in Bucharest. "She drew international attention and shone the spotlight on a level of racism and the need for greater education."

It was at an August concert - part of her "Sticky & Sweet" tour - in the Romanian capital that Madonna called for an end to widespread discrimination against Eastern Europe's Gypsies, also known as Roma. Thousands of fans responded by booing her.

"I don't have an agenda, Madonna doesn't have an agenda," Hawke said. "We aren't politicians."

Hawke, 38, was in Bucharest for the Ovidiu Rom charity Halloween ball. He and his mother, Leslie Hawke, the charity's president, went there in costume: the actor in top hat and tails and his mother in a Japanese-style kimono, black wig and geisha-like makeup.

A pair of Madonna's Christian Dior shoes with autographed skyscraper gold heels were raffled at the ball, which was held in the giant palace of late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Among other prizes was a gold chain donated by actress Vanessa Redgrave.

Hawke, who has been going to Romania to support his mother's work since 2000, explained: "I feel I can do something instead of being part of the problem."

Romania has the largest number of Roma in Europe - officially half a million but believed to be closer to two million. The European Union's Fundamental Rights Agency says Gypsies face "overt discrimination" in housing, health care and education.

Romania, home to the Dracula legend, may have influenced two-time Academy Award nominee Hawke's latest movie, Daybreakers, in which he plays a researcher in the year 2019 facing a plague that has transformed the world's population into vampires. The movie comes out next year.

Vlad the Impaler, the Romanian warlord whose cruelty inspired Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula, has spawned dozens of Hollywood movies about vampires in Transylvania. ASSOCIATED PRESS