Swank Accepts Peace Award

Oscar winner HILARY SWANK fought back tears when she was honoured for her work in recent humanitarian movie FREEDOM WRITERS at the Time For Peace Awards on Thursday (08Nov07) night.

An emotional Swank struggled to maintain her composure when the film's director Richard LaGravenese presented her with the award at the Bel Air Hotel event in Bel Air, California.

Swank said, "It's a reminder that I was able to be a part of a movie that is so important. It's one of those stories where you learn how one person can make a difference in someone else's life." In Freedom Writers, Swank plays a teacher who inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance and pursue education beyond high school.

From: PR-Inside.com

See also: Hilary Swank Steals Shampoo

NVDL: I owe a lot - I feel - the flick Million Dollar Baby. I watched this movie alone in Port Elizabeth on the night before the Ironman. That dogged determination really inspired me, and put me into the sort of unassailable mindset you're going to need for the long long long day that the Ironman is.

Girl quits Winfrey Academy

From Sowetan Online:
by Canaan Mdletshe

Mom says daughter was ill-treated

Philanthropic TV personality Oprah Winfrey may have tried to light up the lives of some lucky South African girls with a R300 million state of the art school.
But for 12-year-old Aviwe Ngubo, her brief stay at the institution was a nightmare, says her mother, Bongiwe Ngubo.

“I have pulled my child out of the school and I regret the day I sent her there,” she said. “She was treated like dirt in that school and she suffered emotional abuse.”

For more, click here.

NVDL: Oprah recently mentioned on her own show that the school was not 'too strict'. She described the need to protect the girls from drug dealers etc. How though, to protect the girls from within, from snobbery and bickering?