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Actress Susan Sarandon appointed UNICEF Special Representative

Monday, 13 December: Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon has been appointed a Special Representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and today represented the agency at the New York launch of The State of the World's Children 2000, a comprehensive assessment of the world's children at the turn of the millennium.

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"I feel as if all of my public work has been leading me to this, and I'm proud to begin as a UNICEF Special Representative," Ms. Sarandon said. "I know 'my world will be rocked,' as the kids say, by the people I meet and the places I visit. My intent is to speak on behalf of those whose voices are less readily heard - children and women at risk. We can't go on with business as usual. I ask responsible adults in every walk of life to become a Mother, in the large sense of the word. Become a Mother to the children of the new millennium."

Ms. Sarandon, herself a mother of three, also spoke of the great disparities between children of privilege and the majority of the world's young persons, as revealed in The State of the World's Children 2000. "When my children wake up in the morning they know they will eat breakfast, get hugs from their parents, go to a good, safe school, come home and get help with homework," she said. "Plates are full and store windows are glittering. But at the same time the great majority of the world's children and women stand - no - shiver on the precipice."

Throughout her life, Ms. Sarandon has dedicated herself to a variety of social causes and charitable endeavours, devoting her voice, talents and resources in support of children's and women's issues, hunger relief efforts, people living with HIV/AIDS, and other advocacy efforts. Today she joins the ranks of other celebrities who have made major commitments to promoting the work of UNICEF, including Goodwill Ambassadors Roger Moore and Sir Peter Ustinov (who is at today's Berlin launch), and the late Audrey Hepburn.

Ms. Sarandon's distinguished motion picture career includes her Academy Award-winning portrayal of Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking and her other Academy Award-nominated roles in The Client, Lorenzo's Oil, Thelma and Louise, and Atlantic City. Among her many other memorable films are Bull Durham, The Witches of Eastwick, Pretty Baby, A Dry White Season, Little Women, and Bob Roberts.

Most recently, Ms. Sarandon starred in Stepmom and Illuminata. She can currently be seen as "Adele August" in Wayne Wang's Anywhere But Here and also stars in Cradle will Rock, an ensemble film directed by Tim Robbins.

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