Splash
Project Angel Food’s Lead with Love Telethon Raises $589,000
By Sarah Meyer
July 12, 2026

Los Angeles gets a bad rap as a city where everyone is out for themselves. As the center of the entertainment industry, sure, there is some of that superficial swagger. But there are more Angelenos with hearts of gold, doing good for others, than there aren’t.

The most beautiful display of selflessness is through Project Angel Food. The organization began in 1989, to prepare and deliver meals to people living with HIV and AIDS. Since then, the number of meals prepared and delivered has certainly grown, but the mission has remained the same – provide nourishing meals to those facing critical and life-threatening illness. Project Angel Food delivers more than 1.5 million medically tailored meals each year. They do this with love, care and dignity.

None of it would be possible without the thousands of volunteers who donate their time and money each year. One of the non-profit’s biggest fundraisers of the year is their annual telethon. The nostalgic event draws world class entertainers and celebrities who host, sing and even answer phones as donors all over the globe show their support.

The beauty is that these celebrities don’t just show up for one glitzy night, they show up all year. Just as other volunteers do, they help prepare meals, deliver meals, advocate for the organization and those who need this service, and give their time and funds to this great cause. Telethon viewers get to see that passion firsthand.

Thanks to some of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Bryan Cranston (The Studio), Noah Wyle (The Pitt), Steven Weber (Wings), Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) and Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeannie), Project Angel Food raised $589,000 during their 2026 broadcast, which took place on June 27. The television special, Lead with Love: Going the Distance was presented by City National Bank and aired on KTLA 5. The telethon was hosted by Weber, McCormack, Loni Love and KTLA’s own Jessica Holmes.

The evening’s biggest surprise came when Weber and Wyle — both beloved for playing doctors on television — joked that they had learned so much from their roles they could probably operate on McCormack. He fired back, “If TV doctors are doing anything on me, I’m going to need much stronger drugs.” Right on cue, Cranston stepped in, invoking his iconic Breaking Bad alter ego Walter White, and deadpanned: “Did you say you would need serious drugs? I might be able to help you with that.”

On top of some great comedic outbursts, there were heartfelt moments too. Singer Clay Aiken sang “Go the Distance” from Disney’s Hercules, reminding viewers that if we all go the distance, we can make the world a better place.

Ricky Moore, a Project Angel Food driver was showcased in a moving segment that demonstrated what “going the distance” truly means. His story gave viewers an intimate look at the people behind every delivery — the drivers who bring meals, smiles, check-ins and human connection to clients who often rely on Project Angel Food as their primary source of nutrition. It’s not just the food that feeds their souls, it’s the interactions with the volunteers. Project Angel Food volunteers have proven that a warm greeting or big smile can often do just as much as a nutritious meal.

One of the evening’s most beloved moments came when Barbara Eden, the 94-year-old star of I Dream of Jeannie, appeared in a puff of pink smoke and delivered her famous “Jeannie” blink. Eded shared, “Eden added, “We all have someone in our family we can’t care enough for, this is needed.” She told veiwers she still receives fan mail nearly 60 years after I Dream of Jeannie premieried. A legend like her deserves it, and she event got a special serenade from Weber and McCormack with a cheeky rendition of the I Dream of Jeannie theme song during the telethon. Actress Morgan Fairchild and celebrity hairstylist Chaz Dean also made special appearances.

“Project Angel Food offers meals that go beyond basic needs. They offer dignity and connection and a reminder that no one is forgotten,” shared California Governor Gavin Newsom, as he recalled volunteering at Project Angel Food with his family. Also delivering messages of support were Amy Poehler, Regina King, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sherri Shepherd, Adam Brody, Brooke Shields, Judith Light, Jason Ritter, Valerie Bertinelli, Lori Loughlin and Caroline Rhea.

The telethon would be unsuccessful without the crew manning the phones, and their excitement to take calls and donations was palpable. The All-Star Phone Bank included Amy Yasbeck, Bruce Vilanch, Kym Whitley, Jodie Sweetin, KTLA’s Melvin Robert, Gregory Zarian, Lawrence Zarian, Lisa Foxx and soccer great Ali Riley, who helped L.A. get into the “summer of soccer” by giving away 10 pairs of tickets to Angel City Football Club vs. Orlando Pride on July 3.

Project Angel Food CEO Richard Ayoub joined the broadcast to celebrate the progress and completion of The Chuck Lorre Family Foundation Kitchen and Campus, with new facilities completed and a second building beginning construction later this summer. “Every dollar raised tonight keeps our vans on the road and our meals reaching neighbors in their greatest time of need,” said Ayoub. “This is what Lead with Love has always stood for: dignity, nourishment and the very best of the human spirit.”

Noah Wyle and Bryan Cranston excited to see each other on the red carpet at Project Angel Food’s Lead With Love (Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Project Angel Food)

It was a magical night for a marvelous cause. Angelenos, along with people from all over the globe tuned it to share their love and support for an organization that gives that and so much more to Los Angeles.

Singer Sam Harris closed out the telethon with a beautiful rendition of “Over the Rainbow” before leading the full cast in an exuberant finale of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.”

The event was produced by Emmy-winning producer Brad Bessey (Entertainment Tonight, The Talk). Michael Orland served as musical director.

The total raised is expected to increase as donations continue to be accepted at www.anelfood.org/leadwithlove.

ABOUT LEAD WITH LOVE

Created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Lead with Love has become one of Los Angeles’ most inspiring televised events. Now in its seventh year and nominated for three L.A. Area Emmy Awards, the special has raised nearly $6 million for Project Angel Food, featuring more than 150 celebrity appearances, including Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand, Jimmy Kimmel, Richard Gere, Ringo Starr, Elton John and Lily Tomlin, among others.

ABOUT PROJECT ANGEL FOOD

Founded in 1989, Project Angel Food nourishes the health and spirit of vulnerable people facing critical and life-threatening illnesses by preparing and delivering medically tailored meals with love, care and dignity to more than 7,100 Angelenos each year. Since its founding, the organization has delivered more than 20 million meals across Los Angeles County and now provides more than 1.5 million medically tailored meals annually, along with nutrition counseling and compassionate client support. Project Angel Food is accredited by the Food is Medicine Coalition, is a Four-Star Charity Navigator organization and has twice been named California’s Nonprofit of the Year.

To learn more, visit www.angelfood.org.

The post Project Angel Food’s Lead with Love Telethon Raises $589,000 first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

The Rushfield Jamboree
The Cultural Census Of Bruce Vilanch
By Richard Rushfield
July 8, 2026

Questionnaires have been a part of our world going back to at least Marcel Proust, if not to the Phoenicians, or at least the Greeks. Questionnaires are what enables us as a species to find out the fun parts of what people are like, without having to do too much heavy slogging through long blocks of words. Repopularized by Vanity Fair, Questionnaires are now a staple of old media and new media alike, and who are we to be left aside. Here then, to be put to some – but not all – of the most interesting people I know is my Cultural Census – my shot to really see where they stand in the tumultuous cultural deathmatch in which we live today.

My inaugural guest is the great Bruce Vilanch, one of my favorite people in Hollywood, which makes him one of my favorite people anywhere. Writer, comedian, doyenne of comedy, here is the cultural milleau of an entertainment legend, questionnaire style!

What Generation are you a member of?
Boomer! It’s all our fault.

Where do you grow up?
Paterson, new jersey, home of Rubin Hurricane Carter and other notables.

Where do you live now?
Hollywood USA

Where you would live if you could live anywhere?
I’m insanely happy here.

What is your profession?
Writer actor comedian stripper, you name it. You book it, you got it.

Where do you sit on the political spectrum?
To the left of the rethuglicans and to the right of Alexandria the Great.

Are you more of an introvert or extrovert?
Extro!

What are some of your favorite movies?
Well, then. TOM JONES, which is a forgotten Best Picture winner. Too many to list without sounding simple. Really. my all-time guilty pleasure is THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS, with Monroe, Merman, Mitzi G, Dan Dailey, Donald O’Connor and Johnny Ray, who becomes a priest because, he tells his mother Merman, “I’m not like other guys, ma.”

What are some of your favorite TV shows?
Oy. I miss the old variety shows, but I am still a fan of SNL. I actually like police procedurals, as well as all those class-conscious British period dramas. I think ROSEANNE and THE CONNERS were the best-written sitcoms ever. They were funny and serious and real and depicted the struggles of a genuine working-class American family.

What movies/show you would force everyone who works in Hollywood to watch? THE BAD & THE BEAUTIFUL, even though it is about a system that no longer exists, but people still behave as if it does.

What was the last movie you saw in the theaters?
Tonight I saw THE INVITE which was a very clever update on WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? for the generations that don’t shut up about their feelings.

What is your moviegoing ritual?
Used to be popcorn and diet coke, but ozempic cured me of that. Otherwise, an aisle seat for an easy escape.

When was the last time you walked out on a movie?
Runaway Bride. But I was with my mother and she was getting cranky.

What shows are you currently watching?
See above. I look at everything once and go back again later if I had a good time. Some shows are very well done, but are just not for me. Hey, that’s show biz. Shows about stand-up comedy where the stand-ups are not that funny are my personal bane.

Name three things (people, shows, movies) that in the past year you think have been genuinely funny?
Anything Mulaney does. Feckham Hall, although Downton Abbey and Bridgerton are low-hanging fruit. Leslie Jones makes me laugh, as does Jessica Kirson. Kate McKinnon is a genius.

What is a show or film you love that people around you hate? I couldn’t tell you. The world is so negative, people delight in hating everything.

What is a show or film that upsets you to think about? (The news doesn’t count) Anything that uses castration as a plot device. Although it did spice up GAME OF THRONES.

Your favorite albums of all times:
GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE by Laura Nyro and Labelle and THE DIVINE MISS M by Bette Midler. They each took songs regarded as throwaways and turned them into art. JUDY AT CARNEGIE HALL is a record of the most knockout old school showbiz performance of all-time. Both Joni Mitchell albums. BLUE and COURT & SPARK — genius. David Byrne and Talking Heads, probably STOP MAKING SENSE, an insane workout.

The group or singer that you would give a huge amount of your life savings to reunite/resurrect to see a concert by?
Hard to say. Everything is available on YouTube. Why mess with perfection?

What is playing in your car/Spotify right now?
All of the above, when it’s available, but I skip around from channel to channel to discover things.

What was your most listened to song of last year?
It probably wasn’t a song OF last year. There is a cut from an HBO special when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Tina Turner and she sang River Deep, Mountain High,, conducted by Paul Schaefer, with an unbelievable group of all-star musicians backing her. Never fails to make me feel great. So much energy and talent and heart and it kicks ass.

What your karaoke song?
A little-known number from the musical of CANTERBURY TALES that is difficult to find; it’s sung by a chicken farmer and is titled I HAVE A NOBLE COCK.

If you couldn’t do what you do now, what would you do?
Be the idle father of a wealthy child, but that ship has sailed

What are your favorite books?
I love the “humorists.” Patrick Dennis, SJ Perelman, Russell Baker, H. Allen Smith, Art Buchwald. Dorothy Parker and the noir boys, Hammett, Chandler, Ellroy, Macdonald. I also devour show business bios and autobios.

What is the fiction book you would make everyone read?
I wouldn’t presume to think Travis Kelce would want to read the same things I’m reading, even though I look so much like his mother that he might have to.

Favorite fast food restaurant?
I drive by.

Favorite non-chain restaurant?
Musso & Frank, because I feel like I’m in a silent movie from when it was built.

Movie snack?
Was popcorn, and I guess still is, when I actually do it.

Favorite food from youth?
Pizza, which is still a frontrunner. Especially the gorpy kind you got in Jersey.

Favorite TV chef or food personality:
Julia Child, who I met once on a plane, and was just as hysterical not cooking

Give your ranking for the following:

The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin. \
Actually, if I had to rank these bands, this is exactly how I would rank them…

Comedy, drama, horror, romance, mystery, sci fi:
Comedy, mystery, drama, horror, sci fi, romance

Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan
Aretha, Michael, Elvis, Dylan, Hank

Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Eddie Murphy, Lily Tomlin, George Carlin
Dangerous, as I’ve written for all of them and they are each in a class by themselves. George really was something else. The observations were so clever and literate.

Rank the following tickets: The Superbowl, the Oscars, the first concert of the next Taylor Swift tour, the Grammys, the next Presidential inauguration.
Too much walking and climbing. but the Oscars and Grammys are always fun.

Name your F-, Marry, Kill for movie characters.
Fuck: Brad Pitt as Achilles. Marry: Brad Pitt as Benjamin Button. I’d do everything in reverse. Kill: Brad Pitt in Mr and Mrs North. He.’d leave me for Angelina.

Name your F-, Marry, Kill for TV characters.
Good one! fuck; either of the Magnums. Marry: same. Kill: anyone who got in my way of fucking or marrying them

Facebook/Instagram/TikTok?
I am on all of them, but I only post on Facebook, and generally just jokes and oddities. The internet is narcissism central, where everyone gets to publish their first draft with no editor or even filter.

What sites/apps do you visit every day? Deadline, joemygod, Politico playbook, Pornhub

Name your top 3 news sources. I’m all over the place, just to see how they cover things. PBS Newshour is unique.

Would you rather be photographed in full regalia at the Met Gala or the Renaissance Faire? Oh, the Met Gala, but I’m scared of those stairs

Do you post comments or articles on or about other people’s posts? Comments occasionally, but that’s about it.

Who is the oldest person you actively follow on social media?
Older than ME?

Who is the youngest person you actively follow?
Are we talking OnlyFans?

How much and which sports do you consume?
Zero to none. Tennis or swimming, if they’re hot. I enjoyed baseball as a kid, and I still do, when I bother to check it out.

Do you believe in ghosts?
No. My smart friends who do remind me that anybody who has to haunt anything is trying to accomplish something they couldn’t accomplish in life and are therefore hopelessly tragic. So who wants to invest in that?

Do you believe aliens visit Earth?
No. I believe it is in the nature of explorers to conquer, so if they have, they have rejected us as a bad bet for colonizing. I love HG Wells’ War of the Worlds, where the aliens discover they can’t breathe our atmosphere, so they die. Wait, why do they have to breathe at all?

Do you believe in an afterlife?
No, it’s right up there with the ghost thing. You have unfinished business, but hey, you may get another shot, as a prune or a dormouse.

Does learning that someone else believes in any of the three above, do you view that person differently?
We all have our quirks. It’s better than finding out that they hate the jews.

What would you like on your tombstone?
It’s a secret. I can’t give everything away.

The post The Cultural Census Of Bruce Vilanch first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Beverly Press
How Hollywood helped spread patriotism
By Randy Collins
July 4, 2026

A little over 80 years ago, Hollywood legend James Cagney played song-and-dance man George M. Cohan in “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” The Oscar-winning role ended up having a lasting impact on culture, far beyond the movie. Released in 1942, right after the United States entered World War II, Cagney’s performance of unabashed patriotism communicated a feeling of hope during one of the nation’s most embattled times.

Cohan in real life was a consummate showman, whose best-known numbers included not only “The Yankee Doodle Boy,” but also “Over There” and “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” A statue of him sits in Times Square paying tribute to his contributions to the American theater. The movie subscribes to legend, moving Cohan’s birth from July 3 to July 4, and using the framing device of Cohan receiving the Congressional Gold Medal, presented by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sparklers, sequins and flags adorn musical numbers, lionizing the man as Hollywood’s vision of a patriot.

This is not to say that Cohan himself was not a patriot – by all accounts he was – but the way in which the Warner Bros.-produced, Michael Curtiz-directed film showcases it, in all its pizazz, splashes forward a template for which people still use to base their Independence Day festivities – all, of course, conveniently produced on sound stages and backlots actually located in Los Angeles County.

“People think they want to be in that world. They want to be in a world where, [it’s like] ‘Meet Me in St. Louis,’ that kind of thing, where Fourth of July is a big deal, and we’re all going to go out and shoot fireworks,” writer, comedian, actor and Hollywood aficionado Bruce Vilanch said. “Who knows if George M. Cohan was really a patriot or was he just a showman? That was a way of getting the audience on his side.”

It is during those World War II years Hollywood went full tilt into projecting that stars and stripes on screen. Los Angeles, the true motion picture company town, fully embraced the war effort, as well. In addition to hundreds of recognizable actors enlisting in the armed services – including James Stewart, Henry Fonda and Clark Gable – those on the homefront sold war bonds, performed in the newly-established United Service Organizations and helped run the Hollywood Canteen, the studio-run club created for service members to meet and interact with the stars.

“The studios all were involved in the war effort, and I think they were a big part of keeping not only the morale up on the home front but also encouraging people to enlist in the war effort,” said Bryan Cooper, the producer of the Cinecon Classic Film Festival.

Cooper noted that studios greatly increased their production output during the war years, and the films produced almost all had some tinge of patriotic propaganda attached to them – including title cards at the end encouraging patrons to buy war bonds. Movies promoting the freedoms and might of America helped to rally those both at home and abroad. “Casablanca” artfully showcased an ex-pat who finds his patriotism. “Mrs. Miniver,” though set in England, shined a light on the self-sacrifices of a middle-class family, a theme that would be echoed in the U.S.A.-set “Since You Went Away.” “Destination Tokyo” and “Air Force,” among many, many others, glorified the bravery of soldiers.

“The films are behind that, and the stars were also enlisted to promote that kind of patriotism, devotion, that love for our country. So that they got you on a gut emotional level … so that you were going to just give whatever you could of yourself or your time or your finances in order to get the outcome that we eventually got, but we didn’t know at that time if we would win,” Cooper said.

This kind of sentiment piggy-backed on the movies of Frank Capra from the late 1930s and early 1940s, which highlighted hokum community spirit of the American small town – real or imagined. “You Can’t Take It With You” and “Meet John Doe” leaned heavily into these ideals, and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” almost certainly had the most lasting impact, with its small-town-hero-conquers-D.C.-corruption storyline.

“Frank Capra really did feed into patriotism, idealism, love of our country and the good within people being brought out and human qualities. He was a master at sort of touching on those chords and brain chemistry, and I think really changing the hearts and minds of a lot of people through he way he told his stories,” Cooper said.

During the Great Depression, as Americans struggled economically, Hollywood made movie after movie that established quintessential small towns, ala the “Andy Hardy” series that starred Mickey Rooney, as well as other musical films that featured Rooney and the young powerhouse Judy Garland.

“People were always very depressed that their lives were not like people in MGM movies,” Vilanch said. “Their families were not like Andy Hardy’s families.”

This Americanism was very whitewashed, morally strict and Chistian-adjacent, even if not overtly stated as being so. This was what the moguls felt the U.S.’s core audience wanted to see and aspire to, and it was also what would most certainly not ruffle the ire of censors or politicians who wanted to hold up the movies as something akin to sin. But the true irony sat in who was running the movie studios. Most of the studios’ heads, including Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner, were Jewish immigrants.

“They were barred from being in any of the major institutions that traditionally [were not open to] the Jews – I being one – and so they kind of took over show business and used it to create an idealized view of America that they wanted to be a part of,” Vilanch said. “This was all an idealizing that they made up, and that they tried to live. So, obviously they influenced things very heavily. And our perception of America – and the flag waving and red, white and blue and all that kind of stuff – they just kept firing with that kind of stuff over the years. They were part of the pageant.”

By the end of World War II, a quietly patriotic, but subtly antiwar film like “The Best Years of Lives” seemed rather bold.

“The post-war period … I think is more important,” Vilanch said, adding that he felt the country is still feeling the ripple effects over 80 years later. “We’re still in it, it seems, [more so] than some kind of cocked-up celebration with people, fireworks and a lot of patriotism that disappears on July 5.”

Somewhere between post-war pessimism, pre-war musical numbers baked in monochromatic red, white and blue, James Stewart’s epic filibuster and Mickey Rooney’s “aw shucks” spunk, an idea of patriotism was born. In these commercial products, America saw its identity flashed in light and shadow, and those fireworks and flags remain the basis for how the Fourth of July holiday is celebrated to this day – all ideas either born or emboldened by immigrants subscribing to the American Dream.

The post How Hollywood helped spread patriotism first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

Bay Area Reporter
Bruce Vilanch To Read From His Book At Books & Letters
By Lois Pearlman
June 24, 2026

On Sunday, July 12, there will be a champagne fundraiser for Guerneville’s September 19 Pride celebration. It will feature gay comedian, actor, and Emmy Award-winning comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, reading from his 2025 memoir, “It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time,” and otherwise entertaining the audience. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.  

Address: Books & Letters, 14045 Armstrong Woods Road, Suite B, in the Sonoma County town that’s popular with the LGBTQ community. (Guerneville, CA)

The post Bruce Vilanch To Read From His Book At Books & Letters first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

FrontRow Classics
Podcast: FrontRow Classics Present Bruce Vilanch
By Brandon
July 23, 2026

Front Row Classics is thrilled to welcome comedy writer & actor Bruce Vilanch. Brandon and Bruce discuss his life in show business from his early days as a child actor to becoming one of the most sought-after comedy writers in the business. Bruce has worked with some of the most beloved entertainers of the last 50 years, from Bette Midler to Robin Williams & Billy Crystal to Dolly Parton. We also chat about his time on Hollywood Squares and his role as head writer for the Oscars.

His book, “It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time is currently available from Chicago Review Press, wherever books are sold.

The post Podcast: FrontRow Classics Present Bruce Vilanch first appeared on We Got Bruce!.