Last night, dozens of celebrities gathered at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre for the Stand Up To Cancer special to help raise funds for cancer research. The event was broadcast by all four major networks, as well as several cable channels.
The long list of celebrities who attended included Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Katie Couric, Sofia Vergara, Kevin Bacon, Jon Hamm, Jessica Alba, Halle Berry, Pierce Brosnan and many others. Several others stars - including Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Mira Sorvino and Josh Gad - took part in the social media lounge, interacting with fans during the broadcast.
“We have to keep rising as one, because cancer keeps going after the ones we love,” Aniston said at the start of the show, notes USA Today. “This is just enough. We have the power to change this.”
Hamm lost his mother to colon cancer when he was only 10. Couric, whose mother died Thursday, lost her first husband Jay Monahan to the same type of cancer in 1998. Paltrow’s father, Bruce Paltrow, died of oral cancer in 2002. Singer Ariana Grande recently lost her grandfather to cancer and dedicated her performance to him.
The special also had some comic relief from Steve Carell, Melissa McCarthy and Eric Stonestreet, who did a torch relay at the start. CBS News also notes that Will Ferrell showed up as his Anchorman character Ron Burgundy.
Organizers will take donations at StandUp2Cancer.org through Sunday.
image courtesy of Peter West/ACE/INFphoto.com