Putting the "Act" in Activism

By Barbara Kiviat

Don't try to keep HELEN MIRREN off the world stage. The Oscar-nominated actress, brave enough to go stark naked in Calendar Girls, was all set to visit Sudan's Darfur region this week to use her celebrity status to call attention to the genocide there. A surge in violence prompted Oxfam, the sponsor, to cancel the trip, but Mirren refused to make her exit. After a minor script adjustment, she is now headed to northern Uganda, another African hot spot, where 18 years of war have driven more than 1.6 million people from their homes, including some 20,000 children abducted and forced to become soldiers or sex slaves. "Very often these sorts of conflicts become old news," says Mirren. "My purpose is to remind people it's not over."