Sponsors Set For Hollywood Arts Council’s 25th Charlie Awards Luncheon

Paramount Pictures, The Walt Disney Company and CNN are among the companies who will be sponsoring the Hollywood Arts Council's 25th Annual Charlie Awards Luncheon to be held on Friday, March 25, 2011 starting at 11:30 a.m. in The Blossom Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel; 7000 Hollywood Boulevard (at Orange Street); Hollywood, CA 90028.

Event Gold Sponsors include: Paramount Pictures and Author Services. Silver Sponsors include: Sunset Gower Studios/Sunset Bronson Studios. Bronze Sponsors include: CNN, The Walt Disney Company, Alliance Residential Company, COP Communications, Community Redevelopment Agency, Millennium Partners/Argent Ventures and Madame Tussauds Hollywood.

Rowena Adalid, Marketing Manager of Madame Tussauds Hollywood, said: "In celebration of Larry King being honored at the 25th Annual Charlie Awards, we will be flying in a wax figure of Larry King from Madame Tussauds Washington, D.C. for the occasion. The wax figure cost $300,000 to produce, and took over six months to fashion."

Emceed by ABC7's George Pennacchio, celebrity guests will present awards to individuals and companies for significant contributions to the arts and Hollywood. 2011 Charlie Awards Honorees include: Larry King (Media Arts); Sunset Gower Studios (Hollywood Arts); Hollywood Tower/Hollywood Labelle (Architectural Arts); Celebration Theatre (Theatre Arts); L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future (Literary Arts - Inaugural Presentation in this new award category); Starline Tours (Entertainment Arts); and Nine O'Clock Players/Assistance League of Southern California (Community Arts).

The Annual Charlie Awards help support Project S.O.A.R. (Students Overcoming All Risks), the Hollywood Arts Council's After School Art Workshops held in eight Hollywood Title 1 elementary schools serving over 15,000 children, and its Annual Children's Festival of the Arts held each August at Paramount Pictures.

Eric Garcetti, President, Los Angeles City Council said: "The Hollywood Arts Council has been a critical partner in revitalizing Hollywood through a variety of advocacy work, including free public arts events and after school programs such as Project S.O.A.R. (Students Overcoming All Risks). Serving the culturally, economically and socially diverse area of Hollywood, the Arts Council has not only lived up to its mission of promoting, nurturing and supporting the arts, it has gone above and beyond the vision to reintroduce the arts to local business and residential communities."

According to Nyla Arslanian, President of the Hollywood Arts Council: "This is a challenging year economically, but our kids' art programs must continue; Hollywood's at-risk children can't wait for times to get better. The Charlie Awards provide support for worthy and necessary community efforts."

The Hollywood Arts Council, a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization, is an action-oriented organization that works for the benefit of the Hollywood community through the arts. Strongly linked to the Council's purpose to promote, nurture and support the arts is the belief that the arts revitalize people as well as communities. Project S.O.A.R. (Students Overcoming All Risks), its after-school art program and the annual Children's Festival of the Arts held each August at Paramount Pictures brings free art workshops and performance to thousands of children and their families. The arts of Hollywood are promoted through a daily calendar of arts activities published in "Discover Hollywood" magazine and on its website www.hollywoodartscouncil.org.

Nancy J Brown and Ira Handelman are serving as Co-Chairs of the event. Charlie Award Event Committee Members include: Nyla Arslanian, Oscar Arslanian, Tony Clark, Carol Connors, Daniel Henning, Joni Labaqui, Shauna McClure, Patti Negri, Anita Rosenberg, Harvey Schwartz and Deanna-Marie Smith.

The 25th Annual Charlie Awards Luncheon is open to the general public. Tickets are $100 each. For reservations and further information, please call 323-462-2355 and visit the website www.hollywoodartscouncil.org. Valet Parking is available. An Online Auction for one-of-kind celebrity items, shows, arts, etc. is being held at www.biddingforgood.com/hollywoodartscouncil in advance of the Charlie Awards. Please visit online for details.

About The 2011 Charlie Award Honorees:
Media Arts: Larry King
Larry King is a television icon. During the span of his 54-year career in broadcasting to date, the Emmy Award, Peabody Award, Cable ACE Award winner, has also authored several books. As the recent Host of CNN's Larry King Live, which debuted in June 1985, Larry King has been dubbed "the most remarkable talk-show host on television ever" by TV Guide and "master of the mike" by TIME magazine. His interviews are as famous as his trademark suspenders.

Community Arts: Nine O'Clock Players/Assistance League of Southern California
Formed in 1929 by a group of Assistance League of Southern California members, the Nine O'Clock Players was the first fundraising Auxiliary of the Assistance League. The Nine O'Clock Players Theatre for Children is operated and supported entirely by a group of dedicated women volunteers who present two full-scale musicals based upon classic children's literature in the fall and spring of each year.

Literary Arts: L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future
Twenty-seven years ago L. Ron Hubbard established the Writers of the Future contest with his literary agency, Author Services, Inc. On a quarterly basis, unpublished science fiction and fantasy writers submit their work for judging by a panel of famous writers of the genres. Ever year, 12 winners are published in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, an anthology available wherever books are sold. A sister contest for illustrators is based on the same criteria and 12 are selected as winners and are published in that same volume, illustrating the winning writer's works. The book is released at the annual awards ceremony and includes a week of workshops during which time the writers are mentored by the famous judges. The winners of the writing contest have published over 700 novels and 3,000 short stories and eight have become New York Times bestselling authors. Illustrator winners have gone on to work in 31 major motion pictures, have produced over one million art prints and garnered hundreds of awards, including an Academy Award just this year, which was awarded to Shaun Tan, who took home the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film based on his book, The Lost Thing.

Architecture Arts: Hollywood LaBelle/Hollywood Tower
Alliance Residential recognized that Hollywood's allure is in its architecture when it created a new apartment building next to its recently acquired historic Hollywood Tower. LaBelle is beautiful inside and out and clearly demonstrates that historic influences can be incorporated into new design.

Theatre Arts: Celebration Theatre
Founded in 1981, this ensemble-based organization is dedicated to providing a creative environment in which to collaborate on and develop maverick theater. Its four Main Stage shows a year focus on World, West Coast, California and Los Angeles premieres.

Entertainment Arts: Starline Tours
It began as one of Hollywood's enduring attractions - tours of movie stars homes - and has grown to include tours of Hollywood and beyond providing visitors with a look at the Hollywood of their dreams.

Hollywood Arts: Sunset Gower Studios
The former Columbia Pictures lot continues today as Hollywood's largest independent studio and an active facility for television and film production on its 12 soundstages. It continues a tradition of movie mogul Harry Cohn who originally created the studio in 1921 where independent filmmakers created their "great American dreams." The re-named studio keeps busy renting out its ample sound stages for assorted television and independent movie productions and employees between 2,500 - 3,000 people, depending on the time of year.