 Esteemed Actress Judith Light, More Honored
Peter Jennings Last Primetime Assignment on the Effects
of AIDS/HIV on African-Americans Recognized
By Libby Slate
Visit 2006 Ribbon of Hope Interactive Photo Gallery
Ten days before he was diagnosed with the lung cancer that would take his life, ABC News anchor Peter Jennings sat down with a group of African-American men to interview them about another deadly disease: AIDS, which is infecting black people in this country at far greater rates than it is whites.
The resulting documentary, a special edition of Primetime called Out of Control: AIDS in Black America, was Jennings’s last assignment. The episode was one of five shows recognized at the Tenth Annual Ribbon of Hope Celebration, which pays tribute to television programming about and personal commitment to HIV/AIDS awareness.
Held November 29 at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre, Ribbon of Hope Celebration 2006 bestowed special honors upon actress Judith Light for her tireless advocacy.
Plus, for the first time, the event spotlighted a non-AIDS-related program: Showtime’s The L Word, for its uncompromising, informative story about a lesbian with breast cancer.
Presented by the Television Academy’s HIV/AIDS fundraising and awareness arm Television Cares — rechristened this year from its founding name TV Cares — the Ribbon of Hope saw another first this year: The ceremony was taped for telecast, by the here! television network.
Ribbon of Hope committee chair David Michaels welcomed the audience with the disturbing statistics of the disease’s twenty-five year reign: 395 million people now live with AIDS, including 4.3 million newly infected this year. Twenty-five million people have died since 1981. “We’re still here because of complacency,” he noted.
The first two programs honored were made by production teams based in South Africa, where AIDS is rampant.
Cinemax’s Orphans of Nkandla, introduced by Peter Gallagher of The O.C., chronicles the efforts of a nun who helps children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS. HBO’s Yesterday, introduced by CCH Pounder of The Shield, captures the love of a young AIDS-infected mother for her daughter.
Next up: Frontline: The Age of AIDS, a four-hour PBS documentary examining AIDS since its beginnings, whose award was presented by Chad Allen, star of here! TV’s The Donald Strachey Mysteries.
“I’m so moved by this,” said producer-reporter Renata Simone, accepting with associate producer Sarah Anthony. “Two years ago today we did our first interview for this series. Filming started here, and we believe the fight will end here, in rooms like this, filled with people who are fighting.”
The fourth honoree, ABC daytime drama General Hospital, had broken new ground eleven years ago with a storyline about a heterosexual couple infected with AIDS, and is now following survivor Robin Scorpio in her current romance with a doctor who may also be infected.
“We made a promise that we weren’t going to let this story die,” writer Karen Harris said, accepting from Charlie David and Gregory Michael of here! TV’s supernatural drama Dante’s Cove. “We will continue to explore this story, with integrity, honesty and heart. I’m so glad to continue writing this, because it’s the right thing to do.”
Keynote speaker Sherri Lewis, an entertainer and AIDS activist, then recounted her life over the past twenty-one years, having discovered she was HIV-positive on her thirty-third birthday.
“Nobody gets it here,” she recalled her doctor telling her at the time of her diagnosis. “This is Massachusetts.” While her medication regimen works for her, “The war is not over,” she said. “Today, the fight continues. Education is our only vaccine.”
The last AIDS program honored was Primetime, presented by Michelle Stafford of The Young and the Restless. “Peter fought for this project,” said reporter and Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran, who completed Jennings’s work and accepted this night on videotape. “He started it as part of his commitment to work reporting on AIDS. I know Peter would be honored by this award.”
Accepting in person, producer Betsy Arledge also noted Jennings’s commitment, adding, “Everyone [at ABC News] said, ‘Ask those questions. Tell that story. People need to know.’ I think my dad [former ABC News chief Roone Arledge] and Peter are up there, smiling.”
The focus then shifted to breast cancer and its effect on lesbians and their partners, issues compellingly depicted by The L Word, with its story of the illness and death of popular character Dana Fairbanks, played by Erin Daniels.
Accepting the award, presented by Victoria Rowell of The Young and the Restless, creator-executive producer Ilene Chaiken said, “We’re very moved that the Television Academy and Television Cares equates our story with the exceptional programs about HIV and AIDS, that have done so much to change hearts and minds and raise awareness."
"Television has been extraordinarily effective in dispelling myths and disseminating information," Chaiken continued. "It’s an honor to be standing here tonight.”
The evening’s final award was presented by actor-writer Bruce Vilanch to special honoree Judith Light, “a television icon,” he said, “who has made herself visible [in the war on AIDS] from the very beginning.”
Said Light, who played the mother of young AIDS patient Ryan White in a television film, “No sector of our society has risen to the multi-faceted challenges of HIV/AIDS any more impressively than show business, and no segment of show business more than television."
"We in this country have been engaged in this struggle for twenty-five years. It should have been, from the beginning, a struggle against a disease," Light explained," [but] it has been about fear and bigotry and homophobia and small-mindedness and unconsciousness."
"We have learned that we continually need not only to educate people, but to confront and inspire them as well. Throughout it all, it has been television that has led the way,” Light said.
Also participating were Academy Daytime Programming peer group governor Kate Linder, Alison Arngrim, singer Deborah Gibson, saxophonist Dave Koz and the Pat Rettig Band. David Michaels, Susan Fincham, B. Harlan Boll and David Millbern produced the event. Robert O’Donnell is director of activities for the Academy.
Visit 2006 Ribbon of Hope Interactive Photo Gallery
|
