When Tara Met Blog: Hollywood Heroes award ceremony

I recently was able to cover Prevention Magazine's award ceremony for "Hollywood Heroes" committed to using their celebrity for making a world of difference. Recipients included Emmy and Tony Award-winner Kristin Chenoweth on behalf of Maddie's Corner, CSI actress Marg Helgenberger on behalf of The Race to Erase MS, and actress Holly Robinson Peete (The Talk, 21 Jumpstreet, Celebrity Apprentice) for her HollyRod Foundation.

The reason why I attended though, was because they were also honoring Laura Ziskin, the co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer, who passed away last week from cancer. I had posted a photo of Laura in my recent Wordless Wednesday post as I had the honor of working with her back in 2008 when she launched the non-profit.

I knew it was going to be an emotional night, especially once I saw her SU2C colleagues Sue Schwartz and Rusty Robertson. Sue made me cry when she bravely said

"Tonight is special because it's all about Laura and it's an opportunity to galvanize the public and say 1,500 Americans died today, 1,500 Americans died last Sunday and Laura was one of them and 1,500 Americans will die tomorrow and the next day and the next day until we stop this."

On a happier note, the evening wasn't all sad as it was nice chatting with the other honorees. Holly's answers to my questions were awesome, but unfortunately my iPhone recorder wasn't working at that moment, so I was forced to paraphrase her response in my Huffington Post piece instead of having a direct quote like I did for the others.

Oh, and having seen Kristin on Broadway before, I knew she was tiny, but she was even more so in person and she was wearing heels. She's probably the first person I've interviewed who I was taller then, well except for Brandon Soo Hoo from Tropic Thunder, but he's a kid, so that doesn't count.