Sharon Stone prepared some remarks in exchange for receiving the Courage Award on Thursday night during the Women’s Cancer Research Fund’s An Unforgettable Evening fundraiser. But she didn’t seem to need any help delivering a speech that at times brought her to tears and ended with a standing ovation.
“Brought a few bills tonight,” Stone said from the podium in the Four Seasons ballroom in Beverly Wilshire. “Most of the time I just talk off the cuff because as you know I don’t give a shit.”
The line drew laughter from a crowd that included Rebel Wilson, Nia Vardalos, Rachel Zoe, Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin, Julianne Hough, Chord Overstreet, Maria Bello and Dominique Crenn, Kathy and Rick Hilton, Lori Loughlin, Olivia Jade Giannulli, Paul Wesley and N. J. Falk. Rockers Maroon 5 closed out the show by performing a set of their greatest hits in a gig they donated to the night’s charity.
Gala president Jamie Tisch presented Stone with the trophy saying, “What makes you a shining star to me is not just your talent, your beauty and your grace, but your resilience no matter what life throws your way. Thank you for standing up again and again and inspiring us all by your shining example.”
The Oscar-nominated actress used her time on stage to pay respects to the evening’s other honorees, Hero Award recipients Dr. Stacie J. Stephenson and Richard J Stephenson, encouraged attendees to open their wallets even more in favor of WCRF and shine a light on life’s examples of courage by asking breast cancer survivors to stand up and be recognized . She also spent time describing her own past health challenges.
“Those mammograms are no fun,” she explained. “And for someone like me who was told I had breast cancer because I had a tumor that was bigger than my breast and they were convinced I couldn’t possibly have a tumor without it being cancer. It wasn’t. But I went to the hospital and said, “If you open me up and it’s cancer, please take both of my breasts,” because I’m not a person defined by my breasts. You know, that might seem funny of me since you’ve all seen them.
Not only that, she added that “you’ve seen them all since the surgery and you don’t even know it. So don’t ever feel compelled not to get a mammogram, a blood test, or an operation, because it doesn’t matter. I’m standing here telling you that I had one and a half and more tissue removed from my breasts and none of you knew about it.
According to Stone’s memoir, The beauty of living twicethe actress underwent breast reconstruction in 2001 after doctors removed benign tumors that she said were “gigantic, bigger than just my breasts.” People. More recently, Stone revealed last November that she had been misdiagnosed and had a “wrong procedure” that left her in progressively worse pain. As a result, she performed a second opinion and discovered she had “a large fibroid tumor” that also required surgery.
From the stage, Stone also explained that her hairdresser arrived to do her hair for tonight’s event after receiving her first chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer. “They told her she was going to lose her hair in a week, so tonight before we did my hair we picked her hats, her bonnets, her rags, her lipsticks and made sure it would look great and she would have a way to deal with it. And that was a lot of fun. A lot of fun.”
Then she got serious. Stone burst into tears as she tried to rally the crowd to give more money in an impassioned show reminiscent of her decades-long activism in raising money for HIV/AIDS and other causes on behalf of organizations like amfAR.
“I know that thing of having to do and figure out how to text the money is hard. I’m a tech idiot, but I can write a check. And right now that’s courage too, because I know what’s happening. I just lost half my money to that banking business, and that doesn’t mean I’m gone,” Stone said.
While she didn’t elaborate on the specific “banking industry” that caused her losses, her comments came on the heels of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the resulting volatility in financial markets. Bank stocks have been hit and broader markets are shaken by fears of the situation, even after regulators took action to contain the effects of the bank’s collapse and prevent a domino effect. US President Joe Biden told investors early this week that their money was safe, saying, “The taxpayers will bear no losses.” He also sought to reassure Americans “that the banking system is safe,” adding, “Your deposits will be there when you need them. Small businesses across the country that deposit accounts with these banks can breathe easier knowing that they can pay their employees and pay their bills, and their hard-working employees can breathe easier too.
Stone then referred to the death of her brother, Patrick Stone, last month at the age of 57 due to heart disease.
“My brother just died, and that doesn’t mean I’m gone. This is not an easy time for any of us. This is a tough time in the world, but I tell you what, I’m not going to let a politician tell me what I can and can’t do. How I can and can’t live, and what the value of my life is and isn’t. So get up. Stand up and say what you’re worth. I dare you. That’s what courage is.”