27 September 2008

Paul Newman - a mensch

(I'm moving this to the top, since I think it is important. I'm sure Mr. Newman would not mind me doing so).

...in the spirit of Mr. Newman's philanthropy, something simple you can do:
When my sister Laura was handicapped by multiple sclerosis, adaptive computer technology made the difference between sitting around watching TV all day and having an active, interesting life online.

This man, a former firefighter needs the same type of technology that helped Laura so much.

Please click on the link above and click "like it" next to the number of votes so that he can win a $5000 tech makeover. I don't know him but I would love to see him get the help he needs.

Please tweet, link, email, blog, whatever. He will need at least 1,000 votes to win.

Edited to add: Woo hoo! Keep it up! It has gone from 125 votes to 242 290 345 in one day.

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Paul Newman was the first man I ever had a crush on. I was a very young teen and he was already in his 40s, but I saw some pictures of him in a magazine and I got this funny tingly feeling...dang, that was a man!



He never stopped being hot as hell, and the glowing love he expressed for his wife, Joanne Woodward, made him even sexier.

One of the most attractive things about him was that he always looked like he was having a ball while living his life. The word "gusto" was made for him. He raced cars, he made salad dressing, he set up camps for kids with life-threatening illness and he changed the world doing it.

Before him, no one had thought of giving every penny of a company's profits away to charity. It was a crazy idea that worked. Newman's Own ended up donating more than $220 million to charities and made some fine salad dressings and cookies to boot.

I heard author and psychotherapist Dennis Palumbo tell a story at a writer's workshop:

Palumbo worked helping people with their writing and got hired by Robert Redford, with whom he was flying to Colorado on Redford's private plane. He was thinking to himself how amazing it was that a guy from a poor Italian family ended up flying around with Robert Redford on a private jet.

Redford looked off in the distance and said out of nowhere "You know who has it made? Paul Newman. That guy has everything. He's had a great career that has lasted for decades. He has a beautiful wife and a great family..." and so on.

Palumbo told the story to show how almost everyone, no matter how well they have it, tends to think there is someone else that has it better. But maybe Redford was right. Maybe no matter who you are, you could still have had it better if you had been Paul Newman.

Newman's Goodbye Video (not safe for mascara)

13 comments:

mar said...

oh. i knew he was ill, but i'd hoped he wouldn't go.

Elan Morgan said...

I'm sad that he's gone. In my mind, he was timeless. Logically, I knew that he was now quite old, but part of me had him frozen in his forties or fifties. It almost feels like an era passes with him.

West Coast Grrlie Blather said...

Paul was a generous donor to his alma mater, Kenyon College in Ohio. He also founded the Hole in the Wall Camps. Whatta great guy.

brandy said...

Definitely a sad day. I'm with you on the crush, Cool Hand Luke?? Could he have got any hotter in that movie?

Celebrities today could really learn a lot from his example I think.

Anonymous said...

I just read the news a few minutes ago and I was "Oh no!" My mom was a big fan, and liked to say, "80 or not, I wouldn't toss him out of my bed for eating crackers."

Well, he had a good long life and made a lot of difference in the world.

Anonymous said...

I was soooo sad when I heard the news. He's just one of those actors I've always had a soft spot for and not just because he was hot as hell. He had such a big heart for humanity and his loved ones. His relationship with his wife was so admirable. He was so devoted. For a hot guy in Hollywood to be like that is such a rarity.
What a sad loss.

Glennis said...

Wow. What a great guy. I love the fact that they had such a rich, enduring, and loving marriage. Makes you believe in the institution!

Goodbye, Paul, rest easy.

J said...

I kinda think it would be nice if more of the hollywood elite, the youth there, would look at this and say, "I can do that, too." And then do it. Some of them do, to be fair. But it would be nice if more would. And beyond. We can all probably afford to give a bit more than we do.

And god, yeah, he was HOT.

Issa said...

It's so sad that he's gone, but I'm glad he had a good long life. Dam the man was hotttt.

Deb Rox said...

I loved his devotion to the brilliant Joanne, too. And he was vocally pro gay marriage, and generously supported writers and First Amendment causes, too. You could not invent a finer man.

super des said...

I've loved Paul Newman since I had his salad dressing when I was too small to understand why an actor made food.

He had a great quote, re: infidelity in a marriage. "Why would I go out for a hamburger when I have a steak right here?"

Love him.

Suzanne said...

They sure don't make enough people like that.

Ruth Dynamite said...

Such a beautiful tribute...

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