Let's Talk Music, TV & Celebrities 

What has lupus got to do with films, music and celebrities? Not much.  And that has to change! We all know about celebrity spokespersons for other disease causes like cancer, diabetes and heart disease.  They play an important role in helping promote greater public awareness for these causes.  Lupus needs more celebrity spokespersons!  February is the month of the Grammys, the Oscars and many other entertainment-related awards ceremonies, so we thought this would be a good chance to highlight some of those in film, music and television who are helping the cause of lupus awareness.

Grammy Award Winner TONI BRAXTON announced in 2011 that she's been struggling with lupus for years and has become an advocate for raising awareness about the disease. Just last month, Toni was rushed to the hospital for a lupus flare, but in her message to her fans on Twitter, she said "Just a lupus flare up, but I promise you all I am ok!  Love you all! Thanks so much for all your support!"

The month of February marks both the birth and death anniversary of James Dewitt Yancey (February 7, 1974 - February 10, 2006), better known by the stage names J DILLA and JAY DEE.  He was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990's underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan and was considered "one of the music industry's most influential hip-hop artists."  He passed away from lupus and the blood disorder TTP.  After his death, his mother Maureen Yancey co-founded The J Dilla Foundation, a public charity that serves to help fund inner-city music programs, and provide scholarships to students attending schools that have progressive music curricula.  In the past months, the Lupus Foundation of Northern California has been in constant communication with the J  Dilla Foundation, working on a joint initiative to promote greater public awareness about lupus. Watch for LFNC's spring/summer 2012 newsletter which will feature the life of J Dilla and the good work of the J Dilla Foundation.  

In the spring/summer 2011 issue of the LFNC Newsletter, we featured an article regarding LADY GAGA's announcement about being "borderline positive" for lupus, mentioning that her aunt had passed away at age 19 from the disease.  Now, her aunt is being honored by Lady Gaga's family by naming a new  restaurant called Joanne's Trattoria located in Manhattan's Upper West Side. 

"ROYAL PAINS" is a television show that focuses  on a young E.R. doctor who, after being wrongly blamed for a patient's death, moves to the Hamptons and becomes the reluctant "doctor for hire" to the rich and famous. When the attractive administrator of the local hospital asks him to treat the town's less fortunate, he finds himself walking the line between doing well for himself and doing good for others. The show recently aired an episode that tackles lupus nephritis.

"It's Not Lupus" is a phrase that originated from the FOX show HOUSE , also known as House, M.D. The series revolves around the unconventional and misanthropic genius, doctor Gregory House, working with younger doctors at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) in New Jersey, in order to solve difficult health mysteries.The phrase was coined when the younger doctors were suggesting a case of lupus, when they couldn't figure out what was wrong with the patient. Because lupus usually takes several years to be diagnosed, Dr. House usually says "It's not lupus." or "It's never lupus.". That was until the team actually ran into a case, where House had to admit there being an actual case of lupus.  

 

Other music industry celebrities with lupus include British soul and R&B singer-songwriter and Grammy Award winner SEAL and  Rapper Snoop Dogg's daughter, CORI Broadus. Cori first showed symptoms of lupus-lightening of her skin, hair loss, and dramatic weight loss-at age six, in 2005. According to a family profile published in People magazine last year, Cori is now playing softball and volleyball, doing well in school, and taking several medications to keep the illness under control. "I can't stay in the sun long, but I feel good most of the time," she told the magazine.