Tuesday, August 30, 2011

LYDIA CORNELL SPEAKING ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AT TEXAS A&M



"I’m Lydia Cornell. October is National Domestic Violence awareness month. I’m delighted to be coming to Texarkana to speak about the epidemic of domestic violence and encourage you to become a part of the solution. The kickoff luncheon is at noon on October 14th in Eagle Hall at Texas A&M University."





Please join us at the 30th Anniversary Celebration Luncheon on October 14th. Actress Lydia Cornell will be joining us from Los Angeles, CA to share an inspirational message about domestic violence and the importance of community support. Below, you will find more information on Lydia. To RSVP, call Ashley Smith at 903-794-4000.
ABOUT LYDIA CORNELL

Lydia Cornell has been Invited to contribute her writings to The International Museum of Peace, which houses letters from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mother Teresa, Maya Angelou and Sir Edmund Hillary
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Award-winning actress, writer, comedienne, talk-show host and inspirational public speaker Lydia Cornell grew up in America’s living rooms. Best known for her starring role as the daughter of TV legend Ted Knight (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) in the hit ABC series Too Close for Comfort, Cornell was one of the most popular sex symbols of the 80’s in her role as the virginal, dazzlingly beautiful yet stereotypically dumb blonde cheerleader ‘Sara Rush.’

     •    Known for her knife-sharp humor on HBO, in standup comedy concerts, and on morning-drive radio, Cornell has been called: “A fresh voice; one of the most original voices in America today.” -  Dreyfuss, Rolling Stone


An international celebrity, Cornell has starred in over 250  films and TV shows including Full House, Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, A-Team, Hunter, Hardball, Hotel (2), Love Boat (6), Fantasy Island, T.J. Hooker and the cult Sci Fi series Quantum Leap,with Scott Bakula. She signed hundreds of autographs at their convention earlier this year in Los Angeles. She co-starred with three Oscar winners James Earl Jones, Jose Ferrer and Lila Kedrova (Zorba) in The Red Tide, shot in the Greek Isles. 
Recently seen on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Lydia is currently starring in the new Kelsey Grammer-Bill Zucker Comedy Hour and has her own channel on Kelsey’s new celebrity TV network TODHD. As cohost of her own A.M. radio show in Las Vegas, she interviewed world leaders, Pulitzer Prize winners, White House advisors, presidential candidates and Congressmen. Now she has her own LIVE talk show each week — a provocative, humorous celebrity TV show on a the fastest growing network with Kelsey Grammer.

 Lydia is currently filming a new movie, “Cats Dancing on Jupiter”with Ashley Hamilton, Amanda Righetti (The Mentalist), Keith Coogan, Rex Smith, Richard Grieco. She costars in Dean Grakal's award-winning indie "Me, Miami and Nancy" with Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Bon Jovi. 

She was recently on stage in her own original 3-woman show "Pain is Inevitable, Sex Optional” written with standup comedy co-stars Destiny and Stephanie Hodge.  

She is working on a very funny book about Hollywood, which will be released in 2012. She is also developing a feature film which she wrote. 

Triumph over Tragedy
Lydia Cornell is a women and children’s advocate, and an inspirational speaker on domestic violence and teen suicide prevention — as well as on drug, alcohol and Adderall[1] abuse. She endured a shattering personal tragedy when she found her younger brother’s body after a drug overdose. Sober now for 15 years, she speaks to recovery groups of up to 300 or more.
She hosted a documentary for Safe Passage Home.org — an organization that gives extreme life makeovers to victims of domestic violence — which will be shown on Oxygen network. Last fall she housed domestic abuse victims and cared for their children throughout the school year. With the help of the police, Cornell helped rescue a battered woman from a predator.

Cornell speaks at high schools, hospitals, and women’s centers on overcoming grief, unemployment, sexism, ageism, depression, self-sabotage, obnoxious teenagers — and every imaginable hardship. Her talks are laced with poignant stories of transformation with an innate sense of comic timing. “If you can laugh at yourself you probably won’t kill yourself.”
Cornell’s triumph over tragedy, depression and addiction was the result of a ‘catastrophic spiritual awakening.’ “There is a reason so many celebrities are in rehab these days,” she says. Her experiences in overcoming a string of failures and humiliations inspired her to assist others with their own demons.


A mother of boys, she has been raising teenagers (and their girlfriends, who confide in her about the most troulesome things, on a daily basis.)  “I have three boys and two dogs, including my husband, and they’re all going through puberty.” She also is a teen mentor and has a site for troubled teens called “The Answer Room.” She had an epiphany: ”Teenagers are not nice people,” she jokes. “But I think the Universe makes them into jerks so we don’t miss them so much when they’re gone! Or when they’re finally old enough to leave home.”
More facts about Lydia Cornell
o     Received the USO Distinguished Service Award for trip to Beirut war zoneo     Known for her knife-sharp humor on HBO, in standup comedy concerts, and on morning-drive radio, Cornell has been called: “A fresh voice; one of the most original voices in America today.”o     Lydia was on Google’s Top Trends of 2008 and Yahoo Finance News’ Most Viewed News Storieso     TMZ: Lydia Cornell was the first celebrity profiled of 2009 on TMZ.o     In talks with Dancing with the Stars o     Yahoo! Finance News: Lydia Cornell interviews World Leaders, Pulitzer Prize Winners and Presidential Candidates for new Radio Showo     Political Voices of Women Best Writing Awards ~ World Report Award, Thinking Blogger Award; Weblog Award and Double Koufax Nominee.o     Standup: Improv, Laugh Factory, Las Vegas at the Riviera, Sahara; opening for Paul Rodriguez at Pechanga 1500 seat theatero     Too Close for Comfort has been in worldwide syndication for over 25 years and recently began airing again on WGN and in top markets nationwide.o     Mentor/Volunteer - Mentors teens; volunteers with sons for Red Cross, Imagine L.A., homeless childreno   

For ten years, Lydia raised a wonderful stepson who was diagnosed at birth with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bone disease) 


Recently divorced, but cherishes and adores her stepson and has an amazing story to tell about miracles, various treatments, Fosomax, Shriners Hospital and the daily coping with this disease.  In any broken relationship, only the good remains. 
LydiaCornell.com

Yahoo! Finance News: Actress Lydia Cornell Interviews World Leaders, Presidential Candidates, And Pulitzer Prize Winners for New Radio Show

http://facebook.com/LydiaCornell

Monday, August 22, 2011

THE DREAMS OF WOMEN

I looked out the window and saw a woman, a neighbor who had just lost her husband to a younger woman, walking to work, trying so hard just to hold her head up in spite of broken dreams. We are such a desperate species. 

All these years, the only way women could cope with the competition of so many beautiful women thrown at us on billboards, in advertising, in magazines and on TV is to become gay. The only way to deal with our defeat and low self-worth in the light of Victoria's Secret supermodels and spectacular female beauty is to embrace the enemy and make out with her!


It sure beats wallowing in envy and resentment that she has a hit series... and that any woman over 40 (who was ever considered beautiful) was not allowed to work in Hollywood. Up until recently, this was actually true. Helen Mirren aside.  



On that note, I think Piper Perabo is stunning and cool. She plays a spy and is not afraid to break a fingernail. 

I'm not gay, by the way. Not that there's anything wrong with that. My beautiful sister is gay and has written one of the most poignant "in defense of gay marriage" essays I've ever read. She describes how she has often felt "half a human" and not worthy of real love in her life, because of the way society classifies her as a second class citizen. Simply because she found her soul mate in another woman, she is not granted the freedom or rights or pursuit of happiness that other humans are granted without question. How can this even be possible after the Civil Rights Act? 





Lydia Cornell during Too Close for Comfort ABC