Celebs put down party hats, put on thinking caps

By Marty Meitus, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published August 26, 2008 at 5:57 p.m.
Updated August 26, 2008 at 6:31 p.m.

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Preston Gannaway © The Rocky

Actress Daryl Hannah speaks to demonstrators at a rally at Civic Center Park on Tuesday.

The daytime events were a little easier to cover because it wasn't a game of hide and seek, where they came in and out of events — or were no-shows — as the party spirit moved them.

They turned out in droves to tackle the more serious issues that had brought them to Denver and the Democratic campaign in the first place.

At the Congressional Black Caucus Institute Town Hall Meeting at the Sherman Events Center, Alfre Woodard and Hill Harper and U.S. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, D-Miss., introduced the Congressional and celebrity attendees who answered text questions from the crowd.

Woodard thanked the crowd for "holding down the fort every day." LeVar Burton spoke eloquently about the importance of literacy programs; Star Jones, the actress and lawyer, spoke about the importance of the next Supreme Court justice — likely to be chosen in this next administration — in influencing all of our lives in the future; Jasmine Guy spoke about the importance of the arts in education in shaping well-rounded kids. Aisha Tyler, the tall, stunning actress, who majored in government at Dartmouth, talked about personal responsibility for the environment. Tracee Ellis Ross, Diana Ross' actress daughter also spoke beautifully. Asked would Barack Obama's election change the view of people of color, she said, "it would change the way we see ourselves as a country."

At a lunch at Panzano, the Creative Coalition met for a program on the challenges facing patients with diabetes, sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company. The who's who included Matthew Modine, Josh Lucas, Dana Delaney, Susan Sarandon, Giancarlo Esposito, Tim Daly, Zooey Deschanel, Alan Cumming, Jane Seymour, Rachel Leigh Cook, Gloria Reuben, Richard Schiff, Anne Hathaway, Kerry Washington, Barry Levinson, J. Paul Dejoria, Lawrence O’Donnell and Tony Goldwyn.

The guests watched a clip of “Life for a Child,” an official selection of the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. When this intrepid reporter asked Modine who's the best person he kissed and he said, ''My wife. You're not going to get me in trouble."

Dana Delaney said to get ready for an interesting season on "Desperate Housewives" where she and character Bree, played by Marcia Cross, are caterers five years later — and Bree's her boss. She's also excited about the prime-time special "Stand Up 2 Cancer," an infotainment show, to raise cancer awareness put together by her friend, breast cancer survivor and producer Laura Ziskind. ABC, CBS and NBC have agreed to air it in prime time.

"I was filmed getting a mammogram, Billy Crystal was getting a prostrate exam — and Homer Simpson gets a colonoscopy," she said.

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