The Bearded Trio

+Getty Images   USC Shoah Foundation Honors Mellody Hobson and George Lucas at the 2016 Ambassadors for Humanity Gala We reported last month that George Lucas and Mellody Hobson were to be honoured by the USC Shoah Foundation for their dedicated commitment to education and the gala event took place two days ago at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles, California.  The USC Shoah Foundation tells us: In recognition for their longstanding commitment to humanitarian efforts and education, Mellody Hobson and George Lucas were presented December 7 with the Ambassador for Humanity Award by Steven Spielberg, USC trustee and founder of USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education.Hobson is the president of Ariel Investments. Lucas is one of the world's most distinguished filmmakers.The husband and wife have long been supporters of the Institute, as well as advocates of children’s education. Hobson is the chairwoman of After School Matters, a nonprofit...

Today sees the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.  The scene of horrific crimes against humanity where some 1.1 million people, the majority being Jews were killed between 1940 and 1945. Survivors as well as director of Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg were in attendance at the camp to pay their respects and remember the awful history which hopefully will never be forgotten.  Spielberg said at one point "memory is life...memory is life." Yesterday Mr Spielberg was talking to a group of Holocaust survivors in Krakow, Poland.  He expressed his concerns for the rising tide of  anti-Semitism from people who were provoking hate crimes.  He warned that Jews were threatened by “the perennial demons of intolerance”.  He also said: 'If you are a Jew today, in fact if you are any person who believes in the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom in free expression, you know that like many other groups, we are once again facing the...

This past Wednesday, the 20th Anniversary of the USC Shoah Foundation - founded by Steven Spielberg - was celebrated at a gala in Los Angeles .  Conan O'Brien hosted the event, and Liam Neeson was a special guest.  Bruce Springsteen served as the entertainment for the evening. President Barack Obama was on hand to receive the Ambassador for Humanity Award. Looks like some good-natured photobombing was going on as well.... Bruce Springsteen, his wife Patti Scialfa, and a certain very serious director... Kate Capshaw, Steven Spielberg, and a mysterious character... Source: Variety.com Images belong to: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+ THE BEARDED TRIO ON PINTEREST Contact Lisa at  lisad@coffeewithkenobi.com

Steven Spielberg will be asked to help create a permanent British memorial to the Holocaust which will capture the audio-visual testimonies of all the survivors of Nazi persecution who forged a new life in the UK. The film director sent a message of support to 400 survivors of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution who gathered at Wembley Stadium for a consultation staged by the cross-party Holocaust Commission, announced by David Cameron in January. The Commission was set up to investigate what more needs to be done to ensure Britain has a fitting memorial to the Holocaust and the right resources to educate future generations about the genocide, in which an estimated six million Jews were killed. Spielberg, whose USC Shoah Foundation has filmed about 52,000 two-hour eyewitness accounts in 34 languages and in 58 countries, told the gathering: “The singular perspective of those who were there is vital. You are teachers of the next generation. The power of your stories is an inspiratio...

Steven Spielberg recently explained to Maria Shriver during an interview for TODAY that the work he launched after Schindler's List has come to mean the most to him. Spielberg founded the USC Shoah Foundation after filming Schindler's List, a non profit organisation.  The aim of the foundation is to "overcome prejudice, intolerance and bigotry" through the use of "a visual history," and that's where Spielberg's movie-making talents come in to it. Over the last 20 years, The USC Shoah Foundation has filmed interviews with 52,000 survivors of the Holocaust and genocides in Nanjing and Rwanda. Spielberg explained why it's so important to himself: "This is something that I was put on this earth to do — not just to make movies, but to tell this truth to people, especially young people...This could've been me if I had been born at a different time and place,"  Read more at TODAY THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ...

Vanessa Marshall who plays Hera in the upcoming and much anticipated Star Wars Rebels has told us she is a huge Steven Spielberg fan.  Not only that she dedicates a lot of her own time to the Shoah Foundation which Steven Spielberg founded in 1994.  The foundation is a non-profit organisation established to record testimonies in video format of survivors and other witnesses of the Holocaust. In a previous event for the foundation, Vanessa live announced Disney chairman, Bob Iger.  Well it's got to be hard to top that.  Vanessa emailed us to say: So I can tell you that I will be live announcing President Barack Obama at an upcoming Shoah Foundation event! What an event that's going to be and what an honour!  We will of course report on it when it happens.

Bruce Springsteen will be performing at a spacial benefit gala to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation , which was founded by Steven Spielberg in 1994.  Spielberg's work on Schindler's List inspired him to collect and preserve testimonies from the survivors of the Holocaust, as well as from the survivors of other genocides.  The testimonies serve to educate and to help overcome intolerance, prejudice, and bigotry. Springsteen will be joined by talk-show host Conan O’Brien and special guest Liam Neeson, who played Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List .   Said Spielberg:  "I am personally honored that Bruce, Conan, and Liam are joining me and lending their considerable talents to this year's special 20th anniversary gala.  Not only do they entertain and inform us through song, laughter and words, but by helping us commemorate this significant milestone, they also draw attention to the vital w...

The foundation that Steven Spielberg founded after being inspired by Holocaust survivors he met while filming Schindler's List  is marking its 20th anniversary this year. The USC Shoah Foundation has collected the testimonies of 51,413 survivors in 34 languages from 58 countries - surpassing expectations Spielberg had when he created the foundation in 1994.  The scope of the foundation has grown to include those who have survived genocides in countries such as Rwanda, Cambodia, and Armenia. The foundation hosts a searchable digital archive used both for education and outreach.  Spielberg himself visits schools so he can share some of the collected testimonies with young people.  Admittedly, at first they're more interested in discussing movies, but their focus shifts as those testimonies are presented. Needless to say, that pleases Spielberg a great deal. “It just restored my real faith in all these new generations that at the core of all of their values...