Private Parts, Good Cause

On Valentine's Day in Los Angeles 3rd Rock From the Sun's Kristen Johnston thought the marquee on the Wiltern Theatre was a bit too tame. "We're performing The Vagina Monologues and they put the name of the cause but they wouldn't put vagina on the sign!"

The all-star reading of Eve Ensler's controversial play examining a key part of the female anatomy from a variety of perspectives was a charity performance to raise funds for groups devoted to ending violence against women. Yes, some stars were embarrassed about saying the title out loud, but that didn't include the celebrities who participated, from Gina Gershon, Rita Wilson and Annie Potts to Lara Flynn Boyle, Kathy Najimy and Kirstie Alley. And Gillian Anderson, who seldom steps out front at big public events, was an enthusiastic participant.

Gershon delightedly called her moment in the live performance, which was taped for broadcast on Lifetime, "fun. I don't get to do work on the stage very much, so that was scary... but you just remember what you are doing it for." She says it wasn't scary shouting out the word vagina and it's more vulgar synonyms over and over, though. "After a while it doesn't seem so weird anymore, which I think is really good."

Alley professed that "performing it was more fun than I've had in 10 years. I don't have [a] hot button about saying the word vagina, so that was relatively easy," she says. "Some of the four-letter words would be hard for me to say, but I have a 5-year-old daughter so I can talk the talk."

Wilson said her mother was not pleased that she chose to be part of what she thought would be a shocking evening, but her husband, Tom Hanks, supported her by saying, "You go girl!" His review? "Rita was great and the show is great. You know, my wife has one of those things they were all talking about," he said with a smile. "Now I've given away the family secrets."