Actor Sean Penn receives award for work in Haiti
Source: AP
CHICAGO (AP) -- Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn gave an emotional speech Wednesday urging the world community to help Haiti as he accepted an award from a gathering of Nobel Peace Prize laureates for his humanitarian work in the earthquake-ravaged country.
"It's an overused phrase I know, but I trust you know its genuine today, I am humbled. I'm trembling and I like it," Penn said after accepting the 2012 Peace Summit Award from former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who was joined on stage by the Dalai Lama and former Polish President Lech Walesa.
Penn has become a major player in efforts to rebuild Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake that devastated the island nation, flattening thousands of buildings, killing more than 300,000 people and leaving at least 1.5 million homeless.
He used his speech at the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates to urge the world community to remember Haiti and invest in the country's future and President Michel Martelly, who took office in May 2011.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NOBEL_SUMMIT_PENN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
= new reply since forum marked as read
What an inspiration! 
Julie
I was flattered to shake hands with him at a San Francisco fundraiser for Howard Dean when he was running for WH in 03. And I had no idea he was sitting behind me until my friend sitting next to me whispered, "why don't you turn around and shake hands with Sean Penn." Anyone else from SF remember that? David Crosby and Bonnie Rait did some tunes too.
Thrilled he won the Oscar in Mystic River. Well deserved.
