We know they aren’t shooting new episodes of their hit shows so how are the stars of our favorite primetime series’ spending their time off?
If you are Desperate Housewives’ star Marcia Cross you are spending time in Washington lobbying Congress to pass the Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act of 2007. The 45-year-old mother of twins recently spent time on Capitol Hill voicing her opinion regarding “drive-through” mastectomies for women forced to leave the hospital hours after surgery.
The actress tried to encourage lawmakers to give women the choice to recuperate for at least 48 hours following the invasive surgery. Cross was joined by various state senators and an executive from Lifetime network, which collected more than 20 million signatures for the petition on its website.
“It’s such a simple bill that it’s hard for me to understand why it’s been languishing in Congress for 10 years,” Cross told reporters. “When they told me about it, I just said, ‘What’s the problem?'”
Following her testimony in which she shared the stories of close friends who survived breast cancer, Cross told members of Congress that she couldn’t imagine how someone could go home the same day after losing one or both breasts.
“I tried to imagine losing a foot and then (people) saying, ‘OK, now go home.’ … It’s just really unfathomable,” Cross said.
The actress, who says she is optimistic that the breast cancer bill will finally pass, revealed that she was less encouraged about the writers strike, which is now entering its third month.
Another primetime star flexing his civic duty muscle is Steve Carell from NBC’s hit series “The Office.”
The actor was recently recruited for jury duty.
No kidding.
Carell was recently selected to serve on the jury in a civil case involving some type of employment dispute. Both the petitioner and respondent in the case are Korean and don’t speak a word of English, which means a translator has been present for the duration of the trial, according to news reports.
As a juror in Los Angeles, Carell will be paid $15.00 a day for his services. That’s $15 more than he would be making sitting at home waiting for the writers strike to end.
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