Ashley Judd was honored last night as part of USA TODAY’s fourth annual Hollywood Hero Awards for her work as a Global Ambassador for YouthAIDS. The 41-year-old actress was modest in her acceptance of the award, telling USA TODAY’s Ann Oldenburg, “I’m just the front woman. I was just lucky that this wonderful organization was put in my lap and I had the opportunity to be involved with them.”

Joining the celebration in honor of Judd were Morgan Freeman, Mandy Moore, Molly Sims, Eva Amurri, Omar Miller, Debra Messing, and last year’s recipient Magic Johnson. “After I received the award last year,” said Johnson, “I said, ‘The next person has to be beautiful.’ They have to care about the community, give back to the community, do it with passion, love and a big heart. When I found out it was Ashley Judd, it couldn’t have been a better person. The only thing I don’t like about her is she’s a Kentucky Wildcat fan. Sometimes they play against my Michigan Spartans.”

Another revealing tidbit from the evening? Judd is currently pursuing a masters in public policy from Harvard University. Might we one day see her in politics?

Pictures from the evening below!

As much as we adore famous faces here at Ecorazzi, we also know that it doesn’t take a movie contract and an entourage to be a star! There are incredible people doing awesome deeds all around the world and Anderson Cooper and CCN will honor them this week with CNN Heroes – An All-Star Tribute.

This past February, CNN launched its search to find the most outstanding humanitarian and received 3,700 nominations from 75 countries! Since then, philanthropic leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jane Goodall, Magic Johnson, George Lopez, and Queen Rania Al Abdullah have narrowed down the search to 10 finalists.  We’d like to congratulate the following people on all their great work: 

Tad Agoglia,Yohannes Gebregeorgis, Carolyn LeCroy,  Anne Mahlum, Liz McCartney, Phymean Noun, David Puckett, Maria Ruiz, Marie Da Silva and Viola Vaughn.

The final winner will be chosen by the public and voting starts tomorrow! To read more about these remarkable people and cast your vote, visit cnn.com/heroes!

via: looktothestars.org

The legitimacy of a charity seems to be on everyone’s mind these days. I’ve been amazed at the responses to the recent post on a Scientology benefit for charity. That conversation may not have been that surprising (I’m not Scientology’s OMG #1 Fan myself!), but when I heard that charities run by Bono — one of my favorite celebs ever– George Clooney, and other famous people might not be as legit as they claim, I was pretty shocked.

Apparently, Bono’s DATA Foundation (now part of One), which works to eliminate poverty and AIDS in Africa, raised $31 million in 2006–but only used $6 million of that for charity. The rest went to transportation, security, and U2 tour tickets. Clooney’s Not on Our Watch (also founded by Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and others), which fights genocide, has some shady dealings with an offshore gambling company. Wyclef Jean, Osi Umenyiora, Tyra Banks, Larry King, Gary Payton, Petra Nemcova, Magic Johnson and Dyan Cannon also seem to have skeletons in their charities’ closets; read more about them here.

So what do you think? Do a few gray areas make a charity all bad? Do any of these charities sound completely illegitimate to you, or do you think they still have redeeming qualities?