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Tim McGraw and Buddy Valastro greet Marine Chris Chaput on "Cake Boss."

When it comes to generous gestures, Tim  McGraw really takes the cake. Monday night's new episode of "Cake Boss" is dedicated to the country superstar's partnership with Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping members of the military and their families.

As Tim's mom Betty (aw!) explains to baker Buddy Valastro in the preview clip below, her son has been awarding a house to a military family during each stop of his 2012 tour.  

Before his performances, Tim hosts a meet-and-greet before presenting the keys to the mortgage-free house to his surprised guests. At a New Jersey performance, the Grammy winner enlists Buddy to design a cake for the event.

Buddy incorporates the theme with Tim's new single, "Truck Yeah," constructing a cake house in the back of the flatbed truck.  

"This is not just a cake," Tim announces to injured Marine Chris Chaput and his wife, Roseanna. "This represents a real house that you guys are gonna get."

"It means we can have a baby now," Roseanna says while fighting back tears. "We just got married and have been waiting to get a house so we can have a baby."

Talk about having your cake and eating it, too!

"Cake Boss" airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on TLC.

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Donn Jones/Invision/AP

Tim McGraw

Country singer Tim McGraw recently came clean about his alcohol-heavy past, but he had another revelation to make on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Tuesday: He's not wearing underwear.

DeGeneres regularly gives out "Ellen Show" underwear to guests, and displayed a photo a reader had sent in of McGraw with the waistband of his "Ellen" undies peeking out. After McGraw teased her for only giving him one pair in nine show appearances, she presented him with an entire box, and then asked if he was wearing them currently.

"These pants are too tight to put underwear on," McGraw said, blushing. "Now I've really embarrassed my daughters."

But McGraw also told DeGeneres he'd wear the new pairs "with pride and honor."

McGraw's latest album, "Two Lanes of Freedom," was released Tuesday.

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Harrison McClary / REUTERS file

Tim McGraw in 2012.

Tim McGraw changed his life by replacing alcohol with working out when he got sober five years ago, the country star tells People magazine in a cover story.

"I drank a lot from my point of view, and I needed to stop," McGraw tells the magazine. "I felt quitting was something I needed to do. I didn't have any moral high ground with my kids in the long run."

"I wasn't a beer drinker," the singer said of his alcohol habits. "I was more a whiskey drinker. And I wouldn't just have a drink. If I was going to drink, I'd have some drinks. People were worried about me."

"It was to the point where I felt it was negatively affecting my relationships and getting in the way of things I wanted to accomplish in life," McGraw said. 

He now works out at a gym two hours a day, McGraw said. "Working out is a great way to go out on stage," he told the magazine. "When I hit the stage, my adrenaline is going and I'm ready."

McGraw and singer Faith Hill married in 1996 and have three daughters. His latest album, "Two Lanes of Freedom," will be released next week.

"I'm in a good place right now," McGraw told People. "I really feel like this new album is not a culmination of the things I've done, it's a new beginning of the things I am going to do. I want to enjoy my career and having my family. I have a busy life, but it is a fulfilling life." 

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Mark Humphrey / AP

Tim McGraw in Nashville on May 21.

Singer Tim McGraw announced on Thursday that he’s going to give away 25 mortgage-free houses -- one for each stop on his upcoming “Brothers of the Sun” tour with Kenny Chesney -- to wounded or needy service members.

The campaign, which kicks off with a Memorial Day concert for military members at the Beacon Theater in New York, was inspired by the close relationships McGraw has with veterans in his life.

“My sister’s a veteran, my uncle’s a veteran, my grandfather was a veteran, one of my best friends is a veteran,” McGraw said in an interview. “I’ve known people my whole life who are in service to America. And I think in my position to be able to do something like that is probably the ultimate thing. So to be able to go on tour and provide sort of a stable foundation for a veteran and their family is something I really look forward to.”

No doubt, McGraw’s gesture is a fantastic one. Veterans who’ve given so much get homes, and it’s impossible to quantify the impact that greater awareness of veterans' needs could have on their plight. It does however, raise a question: no matter how well intended, how beneficial are these grand gestures? In short, very beneficial, but it’s complicated.

“It’s a fantastic gesture from someone who has done well and wants to support the troops with something far greater than lip service,” Joe Davis, director of public affairs for the Veterans of Foreign Wars told TODAY.com. “Supporting the troops means impacting lives, and I know this heartfelt donation will tremendously strengthen 25 former military families in their readjustment to civilian life.”

Jon Soltz, Iraq war veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org, emphasizes that McGraw’s donation is wonderful and generous, but points out that such offerings don’t fix some of the more specific issues that impact veterans on a broader scale. “We hope he (McGraw) uses the opportunity to call attention to the fact that there are thousands of homeless veterans across the US, and in just the past few years, banks have wrongly foreclosed on a large number of our troops,” Soltz says. “We veterans sincerely thank Tim McGraw for his amazing gift to veterans, and hope he uses this as a springboard for speaking out about the need to not cut Federal funding -- even in these hard economic times -- to help veterans in need.”

Hiring our Heroes: A focus on getting vets back into the workforce

To Soltz’s point, McGraw’s donation does spotlight, but doesn’t specifically address, an incredible housing need among veterans. Between 2008 and 2010, the rate of foreclosure filings in military communities spiked 32 percent, according to USA Today and data collected from RealtyTrac, a foreclosure research firm.    

But let’s be fair here: What’s just one person to do? Gary Sinise is often used as an example of a celebrity who displays the ultimate support of veterans. In addition to his dedication to Building Homes for Heroes, which builds homes for severely wounded veterans, the actor supports at least 25 other charities that point to various other needs via the Gary Sinise Foundation.

“The veterans community has known about Gary Sinise’s dedication for years, and the public is finally aware now, too,” said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director and founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “But what Tim is doing is a wonderful effort, too. If you can give a veteran a house, then that’s a huge impact.”

Impact aside, the elephant in the room is this: celebrities are often derided for their involvement in causes, especially if their involvement seems less-than-sincere. Ultimately, and importantly, that’s not the case with McGraw.

"He comes from a military family, and has a real connection with veterans. So many campaigns are only awareness and don’t have a monetary value. He has a cultural competency that everyone doesn’t have,” Rieckhoff emphasizes. “At a time when most folks aren’t doing anything, we should celebrate folks like Tim who are stepping up."

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