By Tim Saunders on
An awe-inspiring array of stars paid tribute to Paul Newman at a benefit gala for one of the actor’s summer camps for sick children in California last night.
Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, Danny Glover, Danny DeVito, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening and Billy Crystal were just some of the stars who performed a reading of The World of Nick Adams, an adaptation of a number of Ernest Hemingway’s autobiographical stories at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
“We expected Paul to be with us and so this kind of turned into kind of a tribute,” said Danny Glover. “This is the first time we are doing this without Paul — there is a void there, without a doubt.”
The event, which attracted over 2,500 people, raised money for the The Painted Turtle, one of Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang camps for ill children.
Founded by Newman and Herb Alpert in 1999, The Painted Turtle provides the 17,000 chronically ill children in California who would otherwise be unable to attend summer camps with an empowering, renewing experience completely free of charge.
“Paul was a member of the ensemble more than anything else,” said Tom Hanks, who starred in Road To Perdition with Newman. “He didn’t care about the hierarchy, but he was a guy, quite frankly, who should have won the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Copyright © 2008 Look to the Stars
