Warner Bros. EVP/CFO Ed Romano, Screenwriter/Director Susannah Grant, NBC's TODAY and Lifetime Television Honored at 2007 Literacy in Media Awards

On Sunday, April 29, 2007, the Beverly Hills Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel was filled with prominent entertainment industry, business and community leaders along with celebrities for the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles' 2007 Literacy in Media Awards (LIMA).

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) May 2, 2007 -- On Sunday, April 29, 2007, the Beverly Hills Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel was filled with prominent entertainment industry, business and community leaders along with celebrities for the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles' 2007 Literacy in Media Awards (LIMA). This year's award ceremony honored Warner Bros. Entertainment EVP/CFO, Ed Romano, with the Spirit of Literacy Award for his tireless support and effort to combat low literacy; Director/Screenwriter Susannah Grant with the Spotlight on Literacy Award for her screenplay "IN HER SHOES," which brought to the screen a story of triumph over dyslexia; NBC's TODAY with the Literacy Awareness Award for their multi-part eye-opening series "Read for the Record," which focused attention on the importance of early childhood reading; Lifetime Television with the Literacy Achievement Award for Film & TV for their film "The Fantaisia Barrino Story: LIFE IS NOT A FAIRYTALE," which told the tale of the bravery of American Idol Fantaisia Barrino in publicly acknowledging and overcoming her low literacy.

Created in 1999, the Literacy in Media Awards thank, honor and inspire those individuals and productions that draw attention to the importance of reading and writing. By highlighting the significance of literacy in their work, artists in film, television, and radio can be powerful catalysts for change, and LIMA salutes those who through their artistry and commitment bring the message of the importance of literacy to a wider public.

The Honorary Dinner Committee was chaired by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and included Susanne Daniels, President, Entertainment, Lifetime Networks and from Warner Bros. Entertainment, Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer, President & COO Alan Horn, EVP, International Richard Fox and EVP and General Counsel John Schulman.

The evening's events kicked off with three individuals who have struggled with literacy issues. The first, high school sophomore Ramon Solache, told of his lack of interest and low grades in all his school subjects and how he felt he was doomed for failure until his parents found the Center for Lifelong Learners through the Literacy Network. It was there that he connected with teachers and tutors who explained math and other subjects in a way that he could understand. He now has a 4.0 GPA and looks forward to going to college. The next was Mary Pool, who had aspirations of becoming a doctor but always battled dyslexia and feelings that she had to work 100 times harder than anyone else just to keep up. After getting into Medical School at the University of Arkansas, her drive to keep up took such a toll on her that she became physically ill and had to drop out. Through the Literacy Network she found Recording for the Blind and the Dyslexic (RFB&D). She was then able to listen to the college books on tape, recorded by gracious volunteers. Mary graduated from UCLA at the age of 47 with a degree in Psychology and is looking forward to going back for her Masters and becoming a psychologist. The third, Annabelle Palacios, can never remember being a particularly good student and struggled in many situations because of not being able to read and being enabled by the people around her. She married very young, had three children, and her husband took care of everything that required more than practical knowledge. Her world changed drastically when her husband left her and the children, leaving her to run the household without the skills needed to understand, read or pay a bill. Through a woman's group she learned about the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles and through their resources was led to adult reading classes. Today her life is an entirely different world; she works at the Commerce City Library helping others struggling with low literacy problems.

Hosted by actress Bahar Soomekh ("Crash," "Mission Impossible III," "Saw III") and classical music announcer for KUSC-FM, Rich Capparela, the program included opening remarks by Literacy Network board member, Chairman of the Dinner Committee and Vice President of Operations for Classic Party Rentals Clayton Frech. Frech introduced a PSA about the Literacy Network's Multi-lingual Hotline that ran on one of the smallest Spanish language stations in Los Angeles but was so impactful that the number of Spanish language calls to the network's hotline quadrupled. Paul Koplin, Chairman of Board of Directors for the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles, expressed appreciation for all who were involved in helping to make the 2007 Literacy in Media Awards such a tremendous success, taking a moment to recognize California State Controller John Chiang, LAUSD School Board Chair Marlene Canter, LAUSD Board Member David Tokofsky and Former Assembly Education Committee Chairman Carol Liu as well as Network Partners Lennie Ciufo of L.A. Valley College, Gloria Moore of Wilshire-Metro WorkSource Center (partners on the Metro/Literacy at Work Project), Don Ott, Executive Officer of Administration for Metro, Toni Laudermilk of the Center for Lifelong Learners and Ben Avila from Belmont Community Adult School. He also extended a heartfelt thanks to Rob Morrow for narrating the Network's video and to Rob's wife Debbon Morrow for her continued support. Koplin went on to give statistics of just how bad the pandemic of low literacy is in Los Angeles and then rolled the video.

Dr. Bruce Hensel, Medical, Health and Science Editor for NBC4's "Channel 4 News" introduced the Literacy Awarness Award honoree, NBC's TODAY, for their multi-part eye-opening series "Read for the Record." The award was accepted by TODAY Senior Publishing Producer, Jaclyn Levin thanked the Network on behalf of TODAY and spoke of the upcoming weekly segment, "Al's Book Club for Kids."

Loretta Devine, comedian, singer and gifted actress from "Boston Public," "Grey's Anatomy," and one of the original "Dreamgirls" from Broadway introduced the Literacy Achievement Award for Film & TV awardee Lifetime Television, for their film "LIFE IS NOT A FAIRYTALE: The Fantaisia Barrino Story." The award was accepted by Vice President of Original Movies for Lifetime Entertainment Services Libby Beers, who stated that while Lifetime strives to highlight and empower women, they were incredibly driven by the passion and the subject matter of the film.

Carla Hacken, Executive Vice President of Fox 2000 Pictures introduced the Spotlight on Literacy Award honoree, Susannah Grant, for her screenplay "IN HER SHOES." Susannah expressed thanks to the Literacy Network for recognizing her work and for the work they do in helping to combat low literacy.

With warmth and wit Steven Koltai, former Warner Bros. Executive and former Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles introduced a tribute video about Spirit of Literacy Award recipient Ed Romano.

Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Alan Horn, President & COO, Warner Bros. Entertainment introduced the recipient of the Spirit of Literacy Award, Ed Romano, who thanked the Literacy Network and encouraged them to continue their important work in improving the lives of others.

Co-hosts Rich Capparela and Bahar Soomekh returned to the stage for thank yous and goodnights as well as to remind everyone that low literacy is a huge problem that can be fixed. "It is not a hopeless or helpless problem rather one that everyone has the ability to help. The first step is awareness." They went on to encourage everyone to "help pull low literacy out of the shadows and eliminate the shame by encouraging those in need to help themselves by contacting the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles."

This year's event marked the seventh presentation of the Literacy in Media Awards. Past presentations have bestowed honors on writers and producers in the categories of Feature Film, Television Series, Radio Programming, Documentary, Children's Programming and more. Past LIMA recipients include Sidney Sheldon, LeVar Burton, Edward James Olmos, C-SPAN co-founder Brian Lamb, "Seabiscuit" screenwriter Gary Ross, Hallmark Hall of Fame and Time Warner, Inc. The Literacy in Media Awards is the Network's signature awareness building event and has been awarded a commendation from the US Department of Education for "Innovation in Outreach."

ABOUT THE LITERACY NETWORK OF GREATER LOS ANGELES -- Incorporated as a private, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization in 1992, the Literacy Network of Greater Los Angeles supports and promotes individual, family, and workplace literacy efforts through direct programs and services, and by assisting other organizations and agencies that work in the literacy field. At the Network, we are dedicated to improving the quality of life in Southern California communities through literacy. Providers in the Literacy Network collectively reach and teach literacy skills to more than 700,000 adults, teens, and children every year. The Literacy Network works to address the problem of low literacy in our community in a variety of ways, especially through our Resource and Referral Program; our Volunteer for Literacy Program; and our major new initiative, Literacy@Work: The L.A. Workforce Literacy Project. Importantly, we work to raise public awareness of the issue of literacy in our community.

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