A weekend for charity!

Sorry we've been off the blog for a week, thanks to Hurricane Sandy, which caused such destruction throughout our area. Our hearts go out to those in need. We are still praying that power and heat will be restored soon!

Friday night, we were the guests of Gary Corts and his lovely wife Hillary at the 38th Annual Denim and Diamonds Gala to benefit the Winslow Theraputic Riding Center. The event, held at beautiful Falkirk Estate and Country Club in Central Valley, honored Bonnie Masi Oswald for her tireless work in support of rehabilitation through equine contact. The charity auction event included dinner and dancing. The band, Cloud Nyne, performed fabulous renditions, both old and new. It was a great evening!

On Saturday evening, it was on to the 13th Annual Pillars of the Community Awards dinner, sponsored by the Great Hudson Valley Family Health Center of Newburgh. Now in its 45th year of operation, the black-tie event paid tribute to Janet and Tom Sullivan of Smith, Seamen and Quackenbush Funeral Homes in Monroe in Highland Mills and the William F. Hogan Funeral Home in Highland Falls. Also honored were Margaret and Andy Stahl of Hearthstone Contracting, and Elise Gold, executive director of Jewish Family Services of Orange County, for their extraordinary support. A silent auction event, that included Acting Anyone Academy lessons and a Willy Gilly storyboard package, was capped off by a performance by the Chris O'Leary Band, a zydeco and blues band, featuring all original music. These guys are hot!

And on Sunday, we headed to the Poughkeepsie Mall for the HV Parent Magazine Superheroes Event, where we entertained kids and their parents with juggling and pictures of the young ones (and those not-so-young) with Superman (aka Christian Frahme) and Catwoman (Lisa Brodsky)! A good time was had by all!

The much-anticipated completion of "Chasing G" is expected tomorrow! We look forward to everyone's response. Excerpts from the pilot episode can be seen right now on www.chasingg.com!

On "36 Hours", we spoke with Anthony Hopkins' agent on Friday. Sir Anthony, currently promoting his new bio-pic, "Hitchcock", has yet to see a script; however, we are confident that he will in short order! Word on the street is that it is a great film, with a host of Oscar-calibre performances, including his and Helen Mirren's (who plays his wife). We can't wait to see the results!

And good news for "Collar"! The marketing survey compiled over the past twelve months, from the 2,500 people who have seen the film, shows that nine out of ten would not only see it again but would recommend it to a friend! The test sample was conducted by Film Rx Partners, with demographics covering both sexes and ages eighteen and up. We look forward to being back on track with domestic distribution by the end of the year!