FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW YORK CITY-Two of the nation's leading voices for civil liberties will join forces when American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero and actor/director/writer Tim Robbins meet for a public ""conversation"" at The New Yorker magazine this evening.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero (left) and Tim Robbins.
Their discussion inaugurates an exhibition of images from the ACLU's provocative ""Scrapbook for Freedom"" advertising campaign and honors the nationally known celebrities who are featured in dramatic full-page advertisements that have been appearing in national magazines since September 2003.
""Tim Robbins exemplifies the many celebrities who are speaking out for freedom and fairness,"" Romero said. ""We salute their commitment to America's core values and we are pleased that they are using their voices to protect our fundamental rights.""
Tonight's celebration, Romero noted, takes place on Bill of Rights Day, which was declared by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1941, 150 years after the signing of the Bill of Rights - and, ironically, one week after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when safety and freedom were also paramount in Americans' minds.
The host for the gala evening is David Carey, Vice-President and Publisher of The New Yorker magazine.
The portraits in the ""Scrapbook for Freedom"" series feature a virtual ""Who's Who"" of public figures well known as vocal advocates of civil liberties. Pictured with the provocative headline, ""I Am Not An American Who?"" each celebrity featured in the campaign describes a civil rights issue that defines American identity and cites the ACLU's commitment to defend those rights.
In a recent New Yorker ad, for example, actor Richard Dreyfuss says: ""I am not an American who believes in selective due process. I am an American who believes that the rest of the world defines us by our Bill of Rights in which ""freedom"" and ""equality"" ring true for all. And whenever we break faith with those things, everyone knows it.""
Other ads feature Mr. Robbins, Holly Hunter, Martin Sheen, Al Pacino, Hector Elizondo, Samuel L. Jackson, LaTanya Richardson, Sheryl Crow, Kristin Davis, Taye Diggs, Gary Dourdan, Richard Dreyfuss, Emilio Estevez, Melissa Gilbert, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anthony Michael Hall, William Hurt, Nata Kaupas, Larry Flynt, Wendie Malick, Richard Masur, Moby, Jon Rose, Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, and Michael Stipe.