Hats off to Kate and her charity
KATE WINSLET passed the hat quite literally after she founded a charity for autistic children.
She dug up a beloved and battered old trilby and sent it around to celebrity friends asking that they either don it or doff it — and take picture of themselves doing so.
Since the Golden Hat Foundation benefits nonverbal, autistic children — children who can’t communicate — she asked each shining star to “express something that’s important to you.”
The celebs’ self-portraits and their pithy words are included in Winslet’s new book, “The Golden Hat: Talking Back to Autism.” In it, the actress tells a story as moving as any she’s acted on screen as to how to she came to be involved in the cause. The book is out Tuesday.
Winslet was asked to narrate a 2009 documentary made by a hard-pressed mother of three whose youngest boy was severely autistic. In the process of researching “A Mother’s Courage,” Margret Ericsdottir discovered that her 10-year-old son, Keli, could pick out sentences from a letter board.
“It was a total breakthrough. He had never communicated before,” says Ericsdottir. “He had been diagnosed as having the mind of a 2-year-old.”
In two years of rapid progress, he was mainstreamed at school and maintains a 3.8 average.
As Winslet, who narrated the documentary for free, learned more about the plight of nonverbal autistic children, she felt the need to do more.
The foundation, which will receive all profits from the book, is geared toward raising awareness that outreach and new technology — computers, tablets, smartphones — can break the silence.
So she passed the hat to Julia Roberts. And Angelina Jolie. And Matt Damon. And Meryl Streep. And Don Cheadle. And Reese Witherspoon. And Johnny Depp. And Leonardo Dicaprio.
All those and many more who claimed fame and fortune by expressing themselves put the hat on and smiled pretty for the camera to help those who can't.