Global Vision for Peace "Dove of Peace" pin makes major statement at Academy Awards Ceremony

Hollywood March 4, 2004 -– Multiple Academy Award-winner "Lord of the Rings" Director Peter Jackson was joined by fellow film artists wearing the Global Vision for Peace "Dove of Peace" pin at Sunday's Academy Awards Ceremony.

Sporting the "Dove of Peace" pin just above the "Lord of the Rings" pin on his lapel, the multiple award-winning director stated, "The Oscars bring us together from around the globe, much in the way the U.N. does and I salute the U.N."

Also holding up a light for peace and showing their support for the U.N. by wearing the "Dove of Peace" pin at the 2004 Academy Awards were Sir Ben Kingsley, Annie Lennox, Chris Cooper, Jim Sheridan, Benicio del Toro, Haskell Wexler, Michael McKean, Annette O'Toole, Frances Fisher and Thomas Newman.

For the second year in a row, the director of the Oscar-winning Best Picture showed support for peace by wearing the "Dove of Peace" pin. Director Rob Marshall, who won the Oscar for Best Picture and wore the pin last year, was succeeded this year by director Peter Jackson, who took home the Oscar for Best Picture and also wore the "Dove of Peace" pin to the Awards.

Last month, at a press conference at the U.N. Headquarters in New York City, Global Vision for Peace launched Artists for the U.N. to enroll artists from all disciplines, as well as statesmen and women, to collectively support the vision and power of the United Nations as the global peacekeeping and humanitarian organization.

Since last month, artists and spiritual leaders from across the creative spectrum have been lending their voices to Artists for the U.N., including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Robert Altman, Deepak Chopra, Melanie Griffith, Sharon Stone, Alan Cumming, Illeana Douglas, Donna Karan, Yoko Ono, Kurt Vonnegut, Marianne Williamson, Jessica Lange, Chris Cooper, Anjelica Huston, Michael York, Robert Graham and Henry Dunay, who designed the pin inspired by Picasso's legendary peace doves.

Actress Drew Barrymore joined Global Vision for Peace co-founders Xorin Balbes and HeathCliff Rothman at the Artists for the U.N. launch at U.N. Headquarters. She was pinned as the inaugural Friend of the U.N., an honorary, unofficial designation arranged in association with the U.N. Barrymore spoke of the role of artists within the culture. Additionally, former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Gillian Sorensen spoke of the mission of the United Nations.

Artists for the U.N. recognizes and honors the role of artists within a society as embodied by the philosophy of author Mordechai Richler: "Be an honest witness to your time." Artists play a unique role in culture: to be beacons of consciousness, to transcend politics and partisanship, to autonomously hold up a mirror to their time – the illusions, ideals and ideas.

Global Vision for Peace and Artists for the U.N. will introduce artists to the vast global outreach of the U.N., develop projects in various media to support and promote U.N. initiatives, and invite enrolled artists to participate.

Global Vision for Peace is co-funding and co-sponsoring a film documentary, "Angels of Africa," about a group of children in Uganda orphaned by AIDS who tour America every two years as a musical performing group, raising both money for the orphanage and visibility for the devastating crisis of AIDS, though offering an uplifting message of hope and possibility. The documentary will complement the U.N.'s coordinated global AIDS outreach. GVP will be hosting a performance by the children in March when they are on tour in Los Angeles, and GVP has approached the U.N. about unveiling the documentary at the U.N. on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2004.






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