Dear Gossips,

Quick reminder that new photos from the carpets at last night’s event(s) have been posted directly to LifeStyle including an all one colour Naomi Watts and Freida Pinto in a sheet that did nothing for her.

Hilary Swank was supposed to deliver the keynote speech at the Women of Baycrest first women’s brain health conference in Toronto today. However, the organisation sent word this morning that the keynote has been cancelled; Swank has pulled out “due to illness”.

It sucks, obviously, that she’s sick. It sucks even more for her because the last time she made headlines, and that was just last week, was for attending the birthday party for the President of Chechnya who is under fire from human rights groups around the world for atrocities committed against his people. Swank insisted that she had no idea the event was in his honour, even though she gave a speech there and wished him happy birthday (source). She also said she’d be donating the cash money she received for her appearance to a charity.

I’m just saying it would have been really, really great for her to follow up that public relations f-ck up by showing up at a gathering for women to discuss to gender bias in Alzheimer’s research. “Almost two-thirds of all Americans living with Alzheimer’s are women, according to a 2011 report from the Alzheimer’s Association. To put it into perspective, of the 5.2 million people over age 65 with Alzheimer’s in the United States, 3.4 million are women and 1.8 million are men, the report says. Yet, animal research still focuses on males because female hormones, even in rats, are considered too complex to deal with, according to the foundation.”  (Source)

Being sick is unavoidable. I’m sure she feels sh-tty about it. The larger point here though is...

How celebrities are spending their time when they’re waiting for their next role. Hilary Swank has two Oscars (and Annette Bening none). Hilary Swank’s next movie is New Year’s Eve. And, um, she’s not imminently scheduled to go to work on anything else. They need to pay for the house, the apartment, the cars, whatever. Getting, I dunno, 50 grand or so, maybe more, to fly to exotic places and wear pretty dresses... doesn’t sound like a bad deal, right? You just... have to be careful about the perception.

Click here for more information on the Women of Baycrest conference today. The event is called Sex, Aging, and Memory. Fascinating, non? If you have some time today in Toronto, it’s worth checking out.

Yours in gossip,

Lainey

PS. Today’s blind is my new favourite. Will be posted before noon PT.