Hooray for Hollywood

Eva Mendes and mother Linda Hartman. Photo by Gregg Deguire/WireImage/Getty Images

Hollywood writers, producers and actors are helping AARP focus attention on health care and financial security—issues at the core of the Divided We Fail effort. 

In late May the Hollywood Radio & Television Society, along with the Entertainment Industry Foundation, the Motion Picture & Television Fund and AARP, hosted a celebrity luncheon where Academy Award-winning actor Sally Field shared personal stories about spiraling health care costs. Entertainment executives told USA Today they will produce TV shows and movies that portray health care issues realistically and urge people to take action.  

About 47 million Americans lack health insurance, and high medical bills are the biggest cause of personal bankruptcies. 

A new ad campaign unveiled at the luncheon features actor Eva Mendes and her mother, Linda Hartman, as “different, but not divided” supporters of Divided We Fail.