Some Thanksgiving diners got a side of celebrity with their turkey meals yesterday. A handful of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Harrison Ford, Kirk Douglas, and Calista Flockhart spread the holiday spirit at Los Angeles’ downtown mission doling out drumsticks, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie during the center’s annual Thanksgiving Day feast.
The hot holiday meals were served to more than 3,000 of the area’s homeless people. Some stars brought their children and turned the event into a family affair. Actress Nia Long had her 7-year-old son place rolls on plates while she dished up vegetables. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the room one of Hollywood’s most discreet couples—-Ford and Flockhart–stood next to each other wearing red aprons and plastic gloves as they served up candied yams and handed out bright green and orange punch to the men, women and children who call the streets their home.
In a release sent to media outlets, Douglas, who helped develop the mission’s Anne Douglas Center for Women, noted that the celebrities who volunteer “help their souls as much as they help the guests they serve.”
Nice that the media has torn themselves away from Britney watch to document celebrities who actually try to make life better for those less fortunate.
They didn’t show up at the Los Angeles mission, but the Osmond family say they plan to feed just as many mouths in Utah this Thanksgiving.
Yesterday Donny Osmond joked to reporters: “This year it’s going to be 4,562.”
Noticeably missing at today’s family feast will be sister Marie who is staying behind in Los Angeles to rehearse her new moves after making it to the final round of “Dancing With the Stars.”
Donny noted that the gathering will be particularly significant since this will be the first Thanksgiving the family has celebrated without 90-year-old patriarch George Osmond who died two weeks ago.