Gene Simmons, Erin Foster and Lynn Harris were among the honorees at the Creative Community For Peace’s eighth annual Ambassadors of Peace gala in mid-October. The event, hosted by the entertainment non-profit CCFP, was attended by 600 artists and industry leaders, there to support the list of honorees that also included Atlantic Music Group President Kevin Weaver and Hybe America’s President of Music, Ethiopia Habtemariam.
“Hate spreads like a cancer, and we must stop the hatred now. Today,” Simmons said at the event. “And we cannot be passive about it.”
Simmons was joined at the event by his wife and actress Shannon Tweed-Simmons, as well as his Kiss co-founder, Paul Stanley. The rockstar stopped by to talk to TheWrap before the event, echoing his sentiments about the night and his award.
“Awards are nice, but it’s about something that’s important, which is, we’ve got to all remind ourselves we live on this planet,” Simmons said. “I don’t want to get too cornball. There’s a lot of hatred going on. We’ve got to stop that, and it’s easier if you’re Jewish to talk about Jewish hatred, or if you practice Islam, you can talk about Islamophobia, or if you’re gay … there’s a lot of hatred going on. We’ve got to stop that.”
Among the night’s honorees was “Nobody Wants This” creator Erin Foster, attending the event held exactly one week before the release of her show’s third season. Foster, a convert to Judaism, used part of her speech to thank the Jewish community and CCFP for their acceptance.
“I want to thank the community here who has welcomed me to learn and grow with you and never making me feel like I don’t belong,” she said.
Foster wasn’t the only honoree with a big release on the way. The event, hosted on Oct. 15, came just over a week before honoree Lynn Harris returned to superhero cinema for the first time since producing 2004’s “Blade Trinity” with DC’s horror feature “Clayface” — the top film at the box office for its opening weekend.
“We are in an epic battle against an algorithm fed by misplaced rage and misinformation,” Harris said at the event. “The power of CCFP begins with that algorithm, helping us understand and distinguish the difference between noise and reality and uniting leaders and storytellers and empowering and encouraging us to take back our narrative.”
Legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Grammy-nominated artist Keri Hilson, former Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing, producer Matti Leshem and music execs Carianne Marshall and Simon Tikhman were among those who turned out to honor the night’s award recipients. Previous honorees at CCFP’s Ambassadors of Peace event include Eugene Levy, Diane Warren, Liev Schreiber, Scooter Braun and Mayim Bialik.
Several of the night’s speakers reflected on the climate of the past three years following the Oct. 7 attacks of 2023, speaking to the organization’s overall message of fostering peace.
“We are living through a time of pain and division and in our creative community we have a responsibility to listen carefully, make room for different experiences and remember the human beings behind every story,” Weaver said at the event. “We can disagree and still care deeply about each other. That is why the work CCFP matters so much.”
“I will always be about peace first,” Habtemariam added in her acceptance speech. “I won’t allow people to be bullies or treat others like they don’t matter.”
