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Friday, April 18, 2003
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Matthew Perry
He's the guy that delivers the comic relief each week on "Friends." But it's a different set of friends that has Matthew Perry talking to "Extra."
Perry says, "These kids that survive this disease are just beautiful."
The disease is Williams Syndrome, a nuero-genetic birth defect with serious physical consequences. The foundation is called Lili Claire and in this months InStyle magazine "cause celeb" Matthew explains his connection to the families that struggle with it.
"Friends" casting director Leslie Resnick and her husband, Keith, lost their young daughter, Lili Claire, to the syndrome when she was just five-and-a-half months old. They created the Lili Claire foundation, which raises money to help those afflicted with Williams and other similar birth defects, in her honor. Matthew says, "They were going to have a yearly event and asked me to host it and before she'd gotten to the end of the sentence I said yes."
The Lili Claire foundation's star-studded annual dinner brings out some of Hollywood's biggest names, but for Matthew it's clear who the real stars of the evening are. He says, "They kind of have this light inside, it makes the event like my favorite night of the year because it's just this wonderful kind of glowing presence that they all have."
And what these kids also have are some very special talents. Perry says, "They steal the show and every year at the event we have different singers and different performers and it tends to be the kids with Williams disease that really blow people away."
And they have the ability to turn the tables on one of TV’s top funnymen. Perry says, "They have an unbelievable sense of humor. Every year I start out the show with something funny that one of the kids had said to me. The last time somebody kind of looked at me and I thought she was very happy to see me. And she had this kind of look in her eye and she said, 'Come here.' And I walked over and I was very excited to have a nice moment. And she asked me where Matt LeBlanc was."
Well Joey wasn't there, but Matthew always brings some of his other "friends" to help out. He says, "I think Lisa’s been there every year and most of the cast has been there and last year Jenny [Aniston] was one of the presenters at it."
Aniston says, "I'm inspired by Matthew everyday."
But at the end of the day, what inspires Matthew Perry about these kids is their grace in the face of adversity. He says, "We tend to have problems like traffic and our version of hell in the everyday world is being late for work or something. And then you meet these kids and see what they have to deal with and see how happy they are and see how outgoing they are and giving with their happiness - that it puts everything in perspective."
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