It’s easy to dismiss actresses on screen as just pretty faces. But there are many who are using their celebrity power for good.
Click start to play today’s Crossword, where you can find one such Hollywood actress in the clue for 6-Across.
Here's how famous Hollywood celebrities and singers are going out of their way to lend support and uplift others:
1. Reese Witherspoon
The actress-producer is an avid reader, and launched Reese’s Book Club on Instagram to share and discuss her favourite novels with the world. Even as her book club took off (it now has over 2.4 million followers), the actress was having a difficult time finding roles she liked in Hollywood. Her husband Jim Toth suggested that she turn some of the books she loves into movies, sparking the idea for Witherspoon’s female-centric production house Hello Sunshine. Witherspoon produced and acted in the company’s first movie, based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, Wild – and it landed her an Academy Award nomination. Since then, Hello Sunshine has been consistently and successfully putting women at the centre of every story they create, changing the narrative for how women are portrayed on the screen, and shining a light on female authorship and agency.
2. Angelina Jolie
This list would be incomplete without Jolie, who has been working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since the early 2000s. Since then, she has visited numerous war-torn regions, and participated in over 60 field missions to help refugees and shine the spotlight on their cause. In 2012, Jolie was appointed Special Envoy to the UNHCR, and in the same year, she co-launched the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative, which works to end impunity for war-zone sexual violence around the world, and provide resources and healthcare to survivors.
3. Dolly Parton
Considered one of the West’s most famous philanthropists, Parton grew up in poverty in the hills of Tennessee, US. After achieving fame and success with her music, in 1988, she launched the Dollywood Foundation, with the aim of helping impoverished Appalachian children find academic success. The year the foundation launched, high school drop-out rates in her home country went down by 29 per cent, according to a report in Teen Vogue. Parton has sinced launched Imagination Library, an organisation that distributes free books to children around the country – it delivers more than a million books each month! Parton was also found to have donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, which worked with Moderna to develop one of the world’s first full-scale coronavirus vaccines. Her donation funded its early stages, which were critical for its success.
Who else has made an impact, in your opinion? Play today’s Crossword and let us know at games@gulfnews.com.
