Jamie Lee Curtis: Helping Children Flourish :

Need a therapist? Click here to find one in your area.

You may have seen her in television interviews, or read about her in magazines, but you don't really know Jamie Lee Curtis. And the daughter of tinsel-town royalty prefers it that way. Born to Hollywood luminaries Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh in 1958, Curtis has been in the glare of celebrity throughout her life, and it has given her a gimlet-eyed view of fame.

Taking a seat beneath a long line of windows in her unpretentious southern California home, the actress explains both the danger and the usefulness of stardom. "I don't need any more attention; it didn't do much for me," she says. "The attention that I have received -- both because of the notoriety of my family and because I am an actor -- did not give me self-esteem. It didn't stop me from seriously risking my life with drugs and alcohol." It did, however, allow her to shift attention to people who need it, a beneficial aspect of fame she learned early on. "My mother joined forces with other celebrity women to create SHARE, an organization that works with the mentally handicapped community. SHARE stands for 'Share Happily and Reap Endlessly,'" Curtis says.

After 43 years in the limelight, Curtis now gets satisfaction from helping lesser-known causes. "Organizations that have hundreds of celebrities showing up for them don't need me," the actress says. "But many other organizations need a spotlight to raise awareness and money. The only value of having the spotlight on me is that I can mirror it back to someone or something else."

Which is just what Curtis does. Though involved with many charities, she is self-effacing about her role in all of them. If asked about her work at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh, she discusses at length the caring people who work there but doesn't mention that she has spent the past two decades visiting its terminally ill children. While describing in detail the bravery of those she met through the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation (CAAF), she neglects to tell you about her many hours of tireless fund-raising.

A little research unearths that Curtis first became involved with CAAF after losing a friend to the disease. Since 1998 she has attended the organization's annual Halloween fund-raiser every year -- a fitting touch for a woman who earned the title "Scream Queen" in the film Halloween.

"CAAF is just a natural fit for me, given my relationship with the AIDS crisis and because of my friend Rick, who died of the disease," she explains.

Continue reading »