People
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss told California lawmakers Thursday that he hopes the public will once again view politics as a noble calling, and he pledged to do his part through his civics education initiative.
The 66-year-old actor best known for “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” was honored by California state lawmakers for his work promoting civics in public schools.
In 2008, he founded The Dreyfuss Initiative, a nonprofit that promotes teaching about American democracy in classrooms nationwide. The initiative, among other things, provides teachers with videos and educational tools.
Dreyfuss won the Academy Award for best actor in 1977 for “The Goodbye Girl” and received a second nomination in 1995 for “Mr. Holland’s Opus.”
He urged lawmakers to work together for the benefit of future generations.
“We have a responsibility to the America of the future,” Dreyfuss said.
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LONDON — Jon Hamm, a St. Louis native, says he hopes “cooler heads prevail” in the Missouri city of Ferguson and “people come through it for the better.”
Talking about the riots that followed the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer, Hamm says “it’s difficult to watch because it’s my hometown.”
But the “Mad Men” star supports the protesters. He says “they have a legitimate reason to protest and they’re exercising their right to do that and so hopefully, in the end, people will come through it stronger.”
He said cities should not “be measured on how they have failed, but how they get through and how they clean up after their mistakes.”
Hamm was in London for a screening Thursday of the movie “Million Dollar Arm.”
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DETROIT — Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey is the new spokesman for Ford’s luxury Lincoln brand.
Lincoln said McConaughey will appear in a series of TV and digital ads featuring Lincoln’s new small SUV, the MKC.
McConaughey has a multiyear contract with the brand.
The actor said in a statement that he is a longtime admirer of Lincoln. In his 2011 movie “The Lincoln Lawyer,” McConaughey stars as an attorney who works out of the back of a 1988 Lincoln Town Car.
By The Associated Press
