Variety has named Oprah Winfrey, Salma Hayek Pinault Anna Kendrick, Gwyneth Paltrow and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki as Lifetime Impact Honorees. They’ll be feted at an Variety-hosted luncheon recognizing philanthropic and inspiring women in the entertainment industry on October 9.
“The women we are honoring this year are the perfect embodiment of the Power of Women initiative,” said Michelle Sobrino-Stearns, Variety’s publisher. “We salute Salma Hayek Pinault, Anna Kendrick, Gwyneth Paltrow, Oprah Winfrey and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki for their incredible philanthropic work and their personal commitment to fostering change.”
Winfrey is being honored for her work with the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy Foundation and Hayek Pinault for her support of Chime for Change, a campaign to raise funds and awareness on behalf of girls and women worldwide. Kendrick is being recognized for her contributions to the LGBTQ crisis-intervention organization The Trevor Project and Paltrow for her advocacy for L.A.Kitchen, a non-profit focused on food-related issues. Wojcicki is being honored for her efforts with Room to Read, which promotes literacy and gender equality in education.
A new award has been added to the program, and the recipient of the inaugural EmPOWerment Award will be Jim Gianopulas, Chairman and CEO of Twentieth Century Fox Film.
“Variety’s first-time EmPOWerment Award is being given to an individual who empowers and creates opportunities for women to succeed in the entertainment business,” said Claudia Eller, Variety’s co-editor-in-chief. “With so many of the division heads at Fox being strong, influential women, we could think of no one better to give the award to than Jim Gianopulos. Between Stacey Snider, Emma Watts, Elizabeth Gabler, Vanessa Morrison, Nancy Utley and Claudia Lewis, among others, Fox empowers more women in top management positions than any other movie studio and for that we are honored to recognize Jim and his team at Fox for this significant achievement.”
Both Variety and Entertainment Industry Foundation will make donations to the charities that each of the honorees work with. The women will appear on the cover of Variety’s Women’s Impact Issue on October 6.
[via Variety]
