Recognized

The Oscar-winning actress was being recognized for her humanitarian efforts in co-founding Time’s Up.

“Be embarrassed if everyone in your workplace looks like you,” Portman said.

Portman said Weinstein is “still free” because “our culture protects the perpetrators of sexual violence, not its victims.” She added that the Time’s Up defense fund has served more than 3,500 people from “workers at McDonald’s to prison guards to military personnel to women in our own industry who have faced gender-based harassment, coercion and assault.”

“Recently our lawyers helped Melanie Kohler triumph against Brett Ratner and his lawyer Marty Singer...who tried to use Brett’s enormous financial advantage over her to try to bully her into silence,” Portman said. “Because of our lawyers...he dropped his case of defamation.”

Regina King, an honoree supporting the I Have a Dream Foundation, followed Portman saying “Man, Natalie Portman 2020.”

Portman was not the only person to get a standing ovation Friday. Eighteen-year-old Emma Gonzalez, who became a nationally recognized advocate for gun control after surviving the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, also brought the well-heeled Hollywood crowd to their feet.

Advocating for March for Our Lives, Gonzalez, wiping away tears, said to the women in the vast ballroom at the Beverly Wilshire hotel, “You know that you are forces to be reckoned with. You can and have inspired peace and understanding and most importantly right now, you can inspire your audience to vote. Now more than ever, women need to continue to rise up.”