SciFi Red Carpet: Mary McDonnell at Love Letters
Mary McDonnell was looking lovely Saturday in Los Angeles, as she hit the red carpet for a reading of the classic play Love Letters that was held in honor of World AIDS Day.
The reading of A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters featured Hollywood legends Elizabeth Taylor and James Earl Jones, and was a benefit for AIDS related research and causes. Taylor, who has been extremely supportive of writers throughout her career, refused to cross a picket line to hold the event and instead worked with the Writer’s Guild of America to create that would allow the event to take place in spite of the writer’s strike. In a lovely gesture the striking Hollywood writers agreed to endorse the performance which was technically a violation of the union rules.
“The Writers Guild of America has shown great humanity, empathy and courage by allowing our little evening to move forward,” Taylor said in a statement. “Everyone knows my heart belongs to people with HIV and AIDS. I also share my heart with people who must battle unfairness. Without the gifts of writers, the world would be rather empty. I beseech those in power to treat members of the Writers Guild with fairness and decency.”
According to reports tickets for the event were $2,500 each, and guests got to be a part of Hollywood history as this was the first time Taylor had been on the theater stage in over two decades. Taylor hoped to raise $1,000,000 for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Other celebrities in attendance included Maria Shriver, First Lady of California and wife of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Swoozie Kurtz, Kathy Ireland, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and Mimi Rogers.
December 6th, 2007 at 4:35 am
[...] McDonnell was looking radiant on the red carpet for the second time this week Tuesday night, as she attended Paramount Pictures’ premiere of The Kite [...]