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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 8 april 2019

Henson, Hadid give emotional remarks at Variety honors

NEW YORK (AP) — Taraji P. weapon against journalists. Also appearing at the
Henson teared up as she "Increasingly we are in a event were several accus-
discussed suicide rates war from within our own ers of R&B star R. Kelly
among young black peo- democratic societies who had participated in
ple. Gigi Hadid did the where we are bludgeoned the Lifetime documenta-
same as she spoke about over the head day after ry "Surviving R. Kelly." Lisa
the fate of the Rohingya day by this untruthful trope Van Allen, Asante McGee
people in refugee camps of fake news. It is very, very and Kitti Jones received a
in Bangladesh. difficult to keep going," she standing ovation from the
The two were among five said. crowd.
celebrities honored Friday Honored for her work with Hadid, introduced by Jim-
for their philanthropic work the Committee to Pro- my Fallon, was honored for
at Variety's annual Power tect Journalists, Amanpour her work with UNICEF. The
of Women event in New made a note of praising 23-year-old supermodel
York. Jacinda Ardern, prime min- spoke not only about her
Bette Midler spoke passion- ister of New Zealand, for experience in Bangladesh
ately about her restoration her leadership in the wake visiting Rohingya refugees
work cleaning up neigh- of the recent mass shooting from Myanmar, but her use
borhoods in New York City in Christchurch in which 50 of social media as a force
through the organization people died. for good.
she founded in 1995. Singer "Out of the most brutal and "I feel resentment toward
Kacey Musgraves talked unspeakable tragedy, she social media at times, but
about the importance of rose to the occasion like as I documented my trip
arts education for young I've seen very few world with UNICEF, I understood
people, particularly music. leaders do," she said of Ar- the true value: someone is
And journalist Christiane dern. "That's power." listening," she said.
Amanpour evoked the The annual event was host- "We cannot let the nega-
grave dangers faced by ed by comedian Michelle tive comments, the bad en-
reporters uncovering truths Wolf, who riffed on recent touching by former vice president Joe Biden. ergy, and false assumptions
Honoree Taraji P. Henson attends Variety's Power of Women:
around the world, and es- news stories like the college New York presented by Lifetime at Cipriani 42nd Street on Fri- of us keep us from doing
pecially decried the use of admissions scandal and day, April 5, 2019, in New York. the good we know we can
the term "fake news" as a accusations of unwanted Associated Press do with our platforms."q