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Tag: Coretta Scott King

  • The King Center hosts the King Holiday Observance Press Conference

    We are in need of the beloved community, now more than ever.

    That message marked the start of the 2026 King Holiday Observance, as The King Center hosted a press conference outlining a series of events honoring what would have been the 97th birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and renewing a call to nonviolence amid a deeply divided moment in history.

    The observance, running from Jan. 8 to 19, is guided by the theme “Mission Possible II: Building Community, Uniting a Nation the Nonviolent Way.” Organizers described the theme as both a response to present-day challenges and a continuation of the King’s unfinished work, a framework for action rather than remembrance alone.

    “People are anxious. People are weary,” said Bernice A. King, CEO of The King Center (above).
    Photo by Noah Washington/The Atlanta Voice

    “People are anxious. People are weary,” said Bernice A. King, CEO of The King Center and daughter of Martin Luther King Jr, during remarks that directly addressed global conflict, domestic polarization, and rising social isolation. She emphasized that the holiday is not about nostalgia, but about equipping people to meet today’s realities with moral clarity and courage.

    From politics to the arts, technology to grassroots service, this year’s observance includes in-person, virtual, and hybrid events designed to engage participants of all ages. Programming intentionally highlights both Dr. King’s leadership and the role of Coretta Scott King, whose efforts to institutionalize her husband’s legacy transformed the movement into a global force for education, training, and social change.

    Among the cornerstone events is the Beloved Community Global Summit, scheduled for Jan. 15–16 at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. The summit will convene leaders across sectors to explore how nonviolence can be applied to public policy, education, civic engagement, and conflict resolution. Youth-focused programming, including a global youth summit, book readings, and teach-ins, will further extend the observance’s reach.

    Complementary events across the Sweet Auburn Historic District will connect the holiday to the physical spaces that shaped Dr. King’s life. Reggie Chapple, superintendent of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, announced a series of activities designed to deepen public engagement with that history, including a birthday observance at Ebenezer Baptist Church, a volunteer day of service in the park, and a Beloved Community gospel tribute on Jan. 18.

    Chapple also highlighted plans for a block party at the birth home along Auburn Avenue, where streets will be closed to allow visitors to learn more about the preservation district and the broader history of the area. While King’s birth home remains closed due to construction expected to conclude in mid-2026, visitors will be able to experience narrated virtual tours through QR codes, offering a room-by-room walkthrough of the site.

    Other speakers at the press conference included Jill Savitt, president & CEO of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights; Helen Butler, executive director of the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda; and state Rep. Billy Mitchell, who represents Georgia’s 88th District, to name a few.

    Throughout the press conference, speakers stressed that the King Holiday Observance is not merely ceremonial. The programming centers Nonviolence365, The King Center’s year-round training initiative that frames nonviolence as a daily practice rather than a one-day commemoration. Organizers said the approach is especially critical as communities confront inequality, political extremism, and dehumanization at home and abroad.

    “My father also said on many occasions that we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny,” she said. “That means our survival, our flourishing, our future are all collective, and when any community is pushed down, the whole nation sinks.”

    Noah Washington

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  • ‘Accessible housing is how we solve it’: Dr. Terence Lester talks housing in Atlanta and more

    Dr. Terence Lester, founder and executive director of Love Beyond Walls, dropped by The Atlanta Voice on Monday, Aug. 25, to discuss the unhoused and affordable housing and what could be done about both in Atlanta.

    Lester has many conversations about how a city growing as fast as Atlanta can ever truly keep up with the number of people living on its streets, in its shelters, and in its motels. His answers can be both complex and quite simple.

    Love Beyond Walls founder Terence Lester (center) addresses a crowd of volunteers before a Thanksgiving meal/supplies giveaway in College Park, Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023. Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice

    “Accessible housing is how we solve it,” Lester said. “You know many Americans, United States citizens, are one paycheck away?”

    According to data from RentCafe.com, Atlanta is one of the most expensive cities in the country. The average rent for an apartment in Atlanta is $1,773 per month.

    Lester believes the city and state political leaders can help create an environment where there can be luxury apartments and accessible housing (he doesn’t like to use the more popular phrase, “affordable housing”) in the city.

    “People who hold or occupy spaces of political power can address some of these issues,” Lester said. “Do we create a task force to think of how to create more housing? Do we put caps on the rising rents?”

    Reframing the narrative of homelessness in order to humanize the people who are enveloped in the issue.

    “We have to keep the narrative in the forefront of people’s minds,” Lester said. “People strategically make suffering invisible, whether by public policy, public sanitation, or displacement. If people aren’t seen, then people aren’t part of the conversation.”

    Having experienced brief periods of homelessness as a young person, Lester said he wants to change what it means to be poor and unhoused in the country, not just in Atlanta. He says this is the type of work he, his wife Cecilia, his daughter Zion, 17, and Terence II, 14, are also involved in.

    “I’m really passionate about this. I wish we cared more about building people than building people,” Lester said.

    Lester explained that it would be as simple as jumping in a car and riding in any direction in Atlanta to find homelessness.

    “Correta Scott King said poverty is violence,” Lester said. “Poverty is not just about economics; it’s social, it’s spiritual, physical, psychological, and environmental. When you see a person standing on the street corner who you know is from this city, you can see the erosion of their soul. Poverty has impacted their whole well-being.”

    More discussions involving “the actual people who love the city and the people from here”, Lester said. He wants more local forums on homelessness and “accessible” housing to include the people it directly affects.

    “We need to reframe the language of what’s affordable. Affordability doesn’t solve the issue of homelessness because you’re talking about people being able to afford something they can’t afford,” Lester said.

    Donnell Suggs

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  • Riding for Freedom: MARTA hosts John Lewis bus unveiling

    Riding for Freedom: MARTA hosts John Lewis bus unveiling

    Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) and the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation hosted a special bus unveiling and voter registration drive honoring late Civil Rights icon and MARTA advocate Congressman John Lewis and his wife Lillian Miles Lewis at College Park Station.

    Throughout his life, Congressman Lewis was a tireless advocate for voting rights. In 1965, he helped organize voter registration efforts in Selma and was one of the Civil Rights leaders in attendance when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law. Congressman Lewis’s work advancing voting rights continued throughout his political career until his death in 2020.

    As long-time community leaders and activists in Atlanta, he and his wife, Lillian Miles, understood the significant role public transportation plays in providing opportunity for all. On MARTA’s 30th anniversary, Congressman Lewis said, “MARTA is a shining example of what can be done. We wouldn’t be the capital of the American South if we had not had MARTA.”

    Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice

    Additionally, Congressman Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders who fought to desegregate the interstate bus system, and who was a tireless advocate for MARTA.

    MARTA General Manager and CEO Collie Greenwood said MARTA history is Black history.

    “As part of our yearlong celebration of Black history, we want to recognize the profound contributions of Congressman Lewis who championed public transit and MARTA, and fought for voters’ rights his entire life,” Greenwood said.

    Greenwood also said MARTA is honoring Lewis who throughout his life advocated for public transit, voting rights, and opportunities for all people.

    “Congressman Lewis was a happy warrior who dedicated himself to helping others and into making good trouble in the face of injustice and inequity. A good example of his good trouble was when he joined the original group of freedom riders who fought to desegregate the U.S Interstate Bus System,” he said. “Congressman Lewis and his wife were tireless advocates for MARTA because they understood the significant role the public transit plays in providing opportunity.

    In fact, Greenwood said on MARTA’s 30th anniversary, Congressman Lewis said, “Marta is a shining example of what can be done.

    “We wouldn’t be the capital of the American South if we hadn’t had MARTA,” Greenwood said.

    The event is part of a year-long celebration of Black history featuring Atlanta Civil Rights icons on a series of special buses. In the past, MARTA has honored icons like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Juanita Jones Abernathy, and Coretta Scott King.

    “These buses have given us the opportunity to celebrate the profound contributions the black community has made to our transit agency, to Atlanta and to the world. MARTA history is Black History,” he said.

    Also, during the event, a voter registration drive, conducted as part of National Voter Registration Month, was held after the bus unveiling and short program.

    Fulton and Clayton County Offices of Registration & Elections were on-site to conduct voter registration and education from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. 

    “Lewis also spent his life advocating for voting rights, so what better way to honor him than to host a voter registration project,” Greenwood said. “There will also be events this upcoming Tuesday, Sept. 17 at seven of our railroad stations to honor national voter registration day to raise widespread awareness and promote voter registration.”

    “We are excited to partner with MARTA on this special ‘John Lewis Bus’ and on the voter registration drive,” said Detria Everson, president and CEO of the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation. “Congressman Lewis was inspired by the work of Rosa Parks and others to integrate transit systems across the country. He would be proud to know that a MARTA bus with his pictures and quotes was serving constituents he represented in Congress.”

    The unveiling of the bus isn’t just a bus, Everson said, but it’s a “symbol of progress and perseverance.”

    The deadline for voter registration is October 7. Early voting in Georgia begins on Oct. 15 and Election Day is November 5. To register to vote or for more information, visit https://georgia.gov/register-vote. To check your voter registration status, visit https://mvp.sos.ga.gov/s/mvp-landing-page.

    Isaiah Singleton

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  • Morris Baxter’s ‘Morris Motivations’ uplifts listeners on Jazz 91.9 WCLK FM

    Morris Baxter’s ‘Morris Motivations’ uplifts listeners on Jazz 91.9 WCLK FM

    If you turn on your radio to Jazz 91.9 WCLK FM between 7 and 10 a.m. on weekdays and hear a motivational message, you are undoubtedly listening to Morris Baxter’s voice.  

    91.9 FM WCLK Morning Jazz Announcer Morris Baxter (6 a.m. – 10 a.m.) Credit: Photo submitted

    Baxter has been on-air with WCLK since 2006, when the previous morning show host, Bill Clark, passed away. He auditioned for the program with three other potential hosts and was chosen by staff members and listeners to become the station’s newest personality.

    “Morning Jazz with Morris Baxter” features an eclectic mix of jazz music from Maysa to Maxwell to Mike Phillips. But the highlight of his three-hour program is his “Morris Motivations.” He’s also the author of “The Morris Code—21 Ways Something Good Is Going To Happen To You Today,” a collection of 21 stories, quotes, and affirmations.

    Special from WCLK

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  • Here are 5 ways to do good on MLK Day | CNN

    Here are 5 ways to do good on MLK Day | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    January 15 is Martin Luther King Day. But any day is a great time to do good for the community. Dr. King’s holiday celebrates the civil rights leader’s life by encouraging public service. Here are a few creative ways people of all ages can help the world around them in honor of Dr. King.

    The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center) is once again offering up lessons plans for grades K-12 as part of their global “Teach-In.” The lesson plans include resources and activities exploring the work, teachings and philosophies of Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King. The King Center’s theme for this year’s holiday is “Cultivating a Beloved Community Mindset to Transform Unjust Systems.”

    Kelisha B. Graves, the King Center’s Chief Research, Education, and Programs Officer, says the lessons will help “translate the overarching theme into concrete examples and demonstrations that students can absorb.”

    “One of the things that Mrs. King used to always talk about was being your best self and that’s the essence of all of the learning content that we produce through the King Center, helping to encourage students to be their best selves,” Graves told CNN.

    The lesson plans include English and language arts activities, character building objectives and even ways to help students identify and interrupt injustices. Graves says that last year over 700,000 students in 22 countries accessed the lessons plans and they are hoping to continue to spread Dr. King’s and Mrs. King’s philosophies across the globe.

    MLK Day is a national day of service; “a day on, not a day off.” Tim Adkins, of Hands On Atlanta, hopes for an uptick of in-person volunteers compared to the last few Covid-affected years.

    “This year’s days of service really allows for people to get back and do what they’ve done for years and that is to go on site and actually be able to do something physically with their hands.”

    Hands On Atlanta is partnering with the King Center and many others on a number of volunteer community projects, but there will be ways to get involved in almost every major city. AmeriCorps has a searchable database of MLK Day volunteer opportunities available around the country. Simply put in your zip code and click on the “MLK Day” box to find the projects available in your area.

    If you’re looking for something to do from your home, help rewrite history. The Smithsonian Institution and Library of Congress are both looking for volunteers to digitally transcribe historical documents. The projects range from African American history and women’s suffrage to the personal letters and journals of historical figures. The digital transcriptions will help make the documents more widely available to the public and more accessible by people with vision impairments.

    If volunteering is not an option this year, consider donating to organizations working year-round to support the social justice Dr. King dedicated his life to.

    The Equal Justice Initiative works to end mass incarceration, excessive punishment, and racial inequality. The organization provides legal representation and promotes criminal justice reform. It is also heavily involved in public education about racial injustice in America. In 2018, EJI opened the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. The Museum and the Memorial will both be open on Monday and offering free admission.

    The National Urban League has been fighting for African Americans and others for more than 100 years. The organization advances civil rights and economic empowerment by providing education, job training and community development.

    Volunteers pitch in during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service project on Monday, Jan. 17, 2022 near Olympia, Washington.

    If time is an issue, much like digitally transcribing historical documents, there are plenty of altruistic apps and websites available that allow anyone to volunteer and help others any time they can. “On-demand volunteering” apps and websites are available to help those with vision impairments, those who need help with language translation or those looking for career or mentoring advice.

    Tim Adkins from Hands on Atlanta believes volunteering is a way you can better your community and yourself at the same time.

    “I’m a pretty strong believer that volunteering is a potential solution to a lot of mental health issues that have sprawled over the last couple of years,” Adkins said. “I don’t really think it matters what you do as long as you get out there and the intention is, for lack of better phrase, to go do something good.”

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  • Martin Luther King Jr. Day Fast Facts | CNN

    Martin Luther King Jr. Day Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday that falls on the third Monday in January.

    January 15, 2024 – Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

    King’s actual birthday was on January 15.

    April 8, 1968 – Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) introduces legislation for a federal holiday to commemorate King, just four days after his assassination.

    January 15, 1969 – The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in Atlanta sponsors and observes the first annual celebration of King’s birthday.

    April 1971 – The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) presents to Congress petitions containing three million signatures in support of the holiday. Congress does not act.

    1973 – Illinois is the first state to adopt Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a state holiday.

    November 4, 1978 – The National Council of Churches urges Congress to enact the holiday.

    1979 – Coretta Scott King speaks before Congress and joint hearings of Congress in a campaign to pass a holiday bill. A petition for the bill receives 300,000 signatures, and President Jimmy Carter supports passage of a bill.

    November 1979 – The House fails to pass Conyers’ King Holiday bill by five votes.

    1982 – Coretta Scott King and Stevie Wonder bring the speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill, petitions with more than six million signatures in favor of a holiday.

    1983 – Congress passes and President Ronald Reagan signs legislation creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday. Senators Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Gordon Humphrey (R-NH) attempt to block the bill’s passing.

    January 20, 1986 – First national celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday takes place.

    January 16, 1989 – The King holiday is legal in 44 states.

    1994 – Coretta Scott King goes before Congress and quotes King from his 1968 sermon, “The Drum Major Instinct,” in which he said, “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” She requests that the holiday be an official national day of humanitarian service.

    1994 – Congress designates the holiday as a national day of service through the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday and Service Act.

    1999 – New Hampshire becomes the last state to adopt a holiday honoring King.

    January 17, 2011 – Marks the 25th anniversary of the holiday.

    December 15, 2021 – The family of King calls for “no celebration” of MLK Day without the passage of voting rights legislation.

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  • Monument to Coretta Scott King dedicated in Atlanta

    Monument to Coretta Scott King dedicated in Atlanta

    ATLANTA (AP) — A new monument and garden celebrating and honoring the legacy of civil rights activist Coretta Scott King was dedicated on Thursday, which would have been her 96th birthday.

    The Coretta Scott King Peace and Meditation Garden and monument sits on the grounds of The King Center in Atlanta, which she founded in 1968 to memorialize the life, work, legacy and commitment to nonviolence of her husband, slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

    “The magnitude of her contributions to humanity are yet to be known,” the Rev. Bernice King, CEO of The King Center, said of her mother. “Today’s dedication of this monument is but a beginning. There’s much more to come, and when her legacy is fully revealed, we will know that because of her, because of Mom, because of Coretta Scott King, the dream lives and the legacy continues.”

    After a program featuring speeches, a poem and musical performances, Bernice King and her niece Yolanda Renee King — the 14-year-old daughter of Martin Luther King III — together untied a ribbon on the gate of the garden and cut another ribbon on the monument.

    Also on hand for the ceremony was MLK lieutenant and former Atlanta mayor and United Nations ambassador Andrew Young, civil rights advocate Xernona Clayton, as well as other King family members and civic leaders.

    The monument was created by artist Saya Woolfalk, who said the desire of the King family to have it on the “sacred ground” of The King Center, rather than a site somewhere else in the city as originally planned, was meaningful to her.

    “It’s an immersive environment,” Woolfalk said of the work she created. “It’s not a representational sculpture. It’s intended to make you feel like you’re in the spirit of Mrs. King. So you walk into the space, and you feel her spirit.”

    The monument features a circular “chapel dome” made of steel that is open on the sides. Underneath the domed canopy is a bronze cast sculpture of microphones that includes a live microphone that Woolfalk said is meant to allow visitors “to speak their own words and commitments to civil rights and nonviolence.” The floor is a tiled mosaic of the rose that bears King’s name.

    The garden features a stone-paved area flanked by benches and flower beds leading up to the monument. It is near the eternal flame that burns next to the pool that surrounds the crypt that holds the Kings’ bodies.

    The monument was commissioned by Hulu as part of its “Made By Her: Monuments” project, which aims to chip away at the gender disparities in public art. Similar monuments to journalist and conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg have been commissioned in Miami and Los Angeles, respectively.

    The monuments all include the canopy structure to link them as part of “a kind of sisterhood of sacred sites,” said Woolfalk, who designed all three.

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  • FBI Celebrates With Traditional Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination Day Cake

    FBI Celebrates With Traditional Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination Day Cake

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  • Julia Roberts says Martin Luther King Jr. and wife paid hospital bill for her birth – National | Globalnews.ca

    Julia Roberts says Martin Luther King Jr. and wife paid hospital bill for her birth – National | Globalnews.ca

    In honour of Julia Roberts‘ 55th birthday, fans of the actor are sharing a little-known fact about how Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, played an integral role in her birth story.

    Roberts’ Oct. 28 birthday congratulations included several videos shared to Twitter in which the Academy Award winner discussed with journalist Gayle King in September how the civil rights leaders helped her parents pay for her birth.

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    Zara Rahim, a former strategic advisor for Barack Obama, shared the video to the social media platform, writing, “Can’t stop thinking about this since I read it.”

    In the video, which shows Gayle and Roberts chatting as part of an A&E Networks and History Channel HISTORYTalks event in Washington, D.C., King asks Roberts to share the story of her birth and who helped her parents pay for the hospital stay.

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    “OK, her research is very good,” the smiling movie star told the crowd. “The King family paid for my hospital bills.”

    Roberts went on to explain that her parents, Betty Lou Bredemus and Walter Grady Roberts, were unable to afford the hospital bill after she was born in 1967.

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    “My parents had a theatre school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers Workshop,” she explained. “And one day Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids. And my mom was like, ‘Sure. Come on over.’

    “And so they just all became friends and they helped us out of a jam.”

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    The cast of ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding’ 20 years later




    Noted Gayle: “Yeah, because in the ’60s, you didn’t have little Black children interacting with little white kids in acting school. And your parents were like, ‘Come on in.’ I think that’s extraordinary, and it sort of lays the groundwork for who you are.”

    “Oh, absolutely,” Roberts replied.

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    The Kings’ youngest daughter, Bernice King, also shared the clip on Twitter, writing that she was “grateful” the video was circulating.

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    “Grateful that #JuliaRoberts shared this story with @GayleKing and that so many people have been awed by it,” wrote Bernice, 59, on Sunday.

    “I know the story well, but it is moving for me to be reminded of my parents’ generosity and influence. #CorettaScottKing #MLK.”

    &copy 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

    Michelle Butterfield

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  • Julia Roberts Reveals Surprising Connection She Has To Martin Luther King Jr. And Coretta Scott King

    Julia Roberts Reveals Surprising Connection She Has To Martin Luther King Jr. And Coretta Scott King

    By Becca Longmire.
    Published:

    A clip from an interview Julia Roberts did with Gayle King has been doing the rounds online.

    The A+E Networks and History Channel’s HISTORYTalks September chat saw Roberts reveal a surprising fact about herself — that Martin Luther King Jr. and the his wife, Coretta Scott King, paid the hospital bill when she was born.

    The clip resurfaced online as Roberts turned 55 on October 28.

    “Let’s start with the day you were born — who paid for the hospital bill?” King questioned in the clip, as Roberts praised: “Her research is very good.”


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    Roberts explained how her parents, Walter and Betty Roberts, “couldn’t pay for the hospital bill,” so the King family sorted it.

    The actress recalled, “My parents had a theatre school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers Workshop, and one day Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids.

    “And my mom is like, ‘Sure come on over.’ And so they just all became friends, and they helped us out of a jam.”


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    King pointed out, “Yeah, because in the ’60s, you didn’t have little Black children interacting with little white kids in acting school. And your parents were like, ‘Come on in.’ I think that’s extraordinary, and it sort of lays the groundwork for who you are.”

    “Oh, absolutely,” Roberts responded.

    Dr. Martin Luther King and his wife Coretta Scott King pose for a portrrait in 1964. (Photo courtesy of Library of Congress/Getty)

    The Kings’ youngest child, Bernice King, noticed the clip doing the rounds, and praised her parents.

    “Grateful that #JuliaRoberts shared this story with @GayleKing and that so many people have been awed by it,” she wrote.

    “I know the story well, but it is moving for me to be reminded of my parents’ generosity and influence. #CorettaScottKing #MLK.”

    Becca Longmire

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  • Julia Roberts reveals Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King paid the hospital bill for her birth | CNN

    Julia Roberts reveals Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King paid the hospital bill for her birth | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A previously little known fact about Julia Roberts is now more widely known, thanks to social media.

    It all started recently when a Twitter user shared a compilation video of Roberts, writing “Martin Luther King Jr. paying for her birth is still a little known fact that sends me.”

    A few days later, in honor of Roberts’ 55th birthday on October 28, consultant Zara Rahim tweeted a clip of Roberts sharing the story about her birth with journalist Gayle King (no relation to Dr. King).

    Roberts explained that Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, took care of the hospital expenses since her parents couldn’t pay the bill.

    “My parents had a theater school in Atlanta called the Actors and Writers’ Workshop,” Roberts said. “And one day Coretta Scott King called my mother and asked if her kids could be part of the school because they were having a hard time finding a place that would accept her kids.”

    Roberts’ mother said sure and thus began the friendship between the civil rights leaders and Walter and Betty Lou Roberts.

    That led to the Kings paying for the birth of the woman who would go on to become an international star.

    “They helped us out of a jam,” Julia Roberts said.

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