Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon has been chosen as Avon's first-ever global ambassador. Serving as honorary chairman of the Avon Foundation, the 31-year-old will focus on issues of breast cancer, domestic violence, and emergency relief.

"I'm very excited about working with the Avon Foundation, with many different aspects of it," Witherspoon says. "First and foremost, breast cancer research and awareness, programs that they're working on. Someone very close to me is a breast-cancer survivor. It's a cause that's very close to my heart."

Witherspoon will also represent Avon Products Inc.'s beauty brands and sales representatives.

Jack Nicholson has been serving up a steady stream of cheer for cancer patients at the Cedars-Sinai Los Angeles hospital.

The Hollywood icon and Oscar winner has been visiting terminal patients and cheering them up with jokes, card games, and behind-the-scenes stories about his career.

Nicholson's next career move comes in the form of a movie called The Bucket List. He plays a dying man in the film and began spending time at the hospital to research his role. But once his film finished, Nicholson kept visiting. He was that touched and moved by the patients.

Hospital staff say the actor's visits do wonders for the patient spirits. The only down side is for Nicholson who finds it hard to leave, knowing he may have seen some of his new friends for the last time.

Director Robert Altman, one of the most influential forces in American cinema, died of complications from cancer on Monday. He was 81.

A five-time Academy Award nominee and 2006 Lifetime Achievement Oscar recipient, Altman just recently directed A Prairie Home Companion -- while at the same time battling the cancer that just took his life.

Altman worked while fighting cancer for last 18 months. No one expected he would die. His death was a surprise.

Not surprising is the collection of quality work Altman had under his belt. He is known for his work on the dark war comedy M-A-S-H, the Hollywood farce The Player, and the British murder mystery Gosford Park. Altman is also known for his method of assembling large casts and weaving in and out of storylines. A Prairie Home Companion modeled this approach, featuring a cast including Lily Tomlin, Meryl Streep, Woody Harrelson, Kevin Kline, and Lindsay Lohan.

Altman was born in 1925, served as a World War II pilot, and studied engineering before entering the film business. Married three times, Altman is survived by his wife, Kathryn Reed Altman, and six children. He also has 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Glenn Close is the 2006 Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF) ambassador to the Saks Fifth Avenue Key to the Cure campaign. Oscar de la Renta is the 2006 designer of the Key to the Cure t-shirt -- available now at Saks Fifth Avenue stores for the price of $35. For each t-shirt purchase, $31 will benefit EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund. T-shirts are available on-line and in retails stores everywhere.

All Saks Fifth Avenue retail stores and Saks.com will contribute to Key to the Cure by donating 2 percent of all profits during October 12-15. Off Fifth stores will donate 1 percent of profits during the same time period to benefit local and national women's cancer charities.

Key to the Cure is a women's cancer initiative founded in partnership with EIF's Women's Cancer Research Fund. The program receives on-going support from Mercedes-Benz USA -- set to donate one million dollars to the cause. EIF is the entertainment industry's leading charitable organization and has shared hundreds of millions of dollars in support of critical issues facing our society. Like breast cancer.

Japanese-American actor Mako Iwamatsu, who received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor when he played the Chinese character Po-ha in the 1966 movie The Sand Pebbles, is credited for Hollywood's acceptance of Asian-Americans as serious actors, not merely caricatures or stereotypes. Last Friday, Mako died of esophageal cancer.

During Mako's career in film and theater, he co-founded the first Asian-American theater company, East West Players, where he trained aspiring actors and playwrights. Mako had roles in the films Conan the Barbarian, Seven Years in Tibet, Pearl Harbor and the Japanese film Owls Castle.

Mako was the voice of evil demon Aku in the animated series Samurai Jack, and as the parody of Aku, Achoo, in Duck Dodgers, as well as Uncle Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

According to artistic director Tim Dang of East West Players, "If it wasn't for Mako there wouldn't have been Asian-American theater. He is revered as sort of the godfather of Asian-American theater." Born in Kobe, Japan, Mako was the son of noted children's book author and illustrator Taro Yashima. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Mako was 72.

Diahann Carroll, an actress who started her career back in the 50s, and Oscar nominee who has starred in such TV shows as Dynasty, will be reaching out to older women in an effort to raise breast cancer awareness and the breast cancer risks they face. Carroll, who was diagnosed at the age of 63, spoke with CBS The Early Show's Julie Chen about the shock of being diagnosed with breast cancer when she had no family history for the disease. At the time, she said she was much more concerned about preventing age-related diabetes and heart disease.

According to recent surveys, so are most postmenopausal women. The results of a new Harris Interactive survey of nearly 20,000 women revealed that only 37 percent of women 55 or older are concerned about developing breast cancer as they age. The findings also show that three out of every four women don't know that being over 50 is the greatest risk for developing breast cancer. In fact, most women believe that the greatest risk factors are having a family member with the disease and inherited genetic mutations.

Carroll has been hired by Eli Lilly as the spokesperson for the launch the Strength in Knowing: The Facts and Fiction of Breast Cancer Risk campaign and website created to educate postmenopausal women about the real breast cancer risk factors. In the new fall TV season, Carroll will become a part of Grey's Anatomy. She would not give Chen any details. You can watch The CBS The Early Show interview with Carroll here.

Lord of the Rings Oscar award-winning filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have donated over $300,000 dollars to the University of California for human embryonic stem cell research.

Jackson is quoted as saying, "We have lost close friends and relatives to cancer and Parkinson's disease, and the level of personal suffering inflicted on patients and their families by these diseases is horrific."

The Bill and Joan Jackson Scholars Fund, in honor of Jackson's parents, will be established through the university to award two scholarships to students specializing in stem cell research. Because the US government restricts research funding for the use of stem cells from human embryos -- which some religious groups have objected to as morally equivalent to abortion -- and others support as the path to cures for many diseases including cancer -- human embryonic stem cell research in this country requires private funding.

"Stem cell therapy has the potential to treat a multitude of diseases and illnesses, which up until now have been labelled incurable. It has the capacity to exponentially improve the quality of life for those who currently suffer from spinal cord injury, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and many other debilitating medical conditions, " stated Jackson.

Death. We all have to face it yet for many it is an uncomfortable subject to think about much less talk about. Why do we have such a hard time facing it, fearing it, struggling with it? It is an ending here on earth and no one likes endings.

One of my all-time favorite actresses Sally Field, is taking a lead role in a film that is a bittersweet comedy about four adult siblings who gather at their dying mother's house in North Carolina for what they expect to be a quick, last goodbye. Instead, they find themselves trapped -- together -- for two weeks. Hence the title Two Weeks. It is a movie with a tough subject matter -- living with dying. In the movie Sally Field is playing a woman dying of cancer and only has four more days to live. She ends up living a lot longer.

''It's a human comedy. About the truth of what happens when you deal with this at home. A lot is very funny and a lot is very sad,'' director and writer Steve Stockman said.

Sally Field in no stranger to acting roles facing death with her characters in Forest Gump and Steel Magnolias. I for one can't wait to see this film that is full of great actors like Ben Chaplin, Tom Cavanagh, Julianne Nicholson, Glenn Howerton and Clea Duvall. The film is being shot entirely in Nashville. I hope to see another Oscar in the hands of Sally Field. Yes, we love you Sally.