July 27, 2005

Charlize There on the AIDS Big Screen

Thursday, July 28, 2005—South African starlet Charlize Theron helped put her country’s battle with AIDS in the spotlight this week by signing on to co-produce a film about the life of Nkosi Johnson, the South African AIDS activist who died in 2001 at age 12. You may remember Nkosi as the kid who almost single-handedly won positive kids the right to attend public school in his country—and then delivered a keynote address before the 2000 International AIDS Conference in Durban that artfully slammed HIV stigma and highlighted South Africa’s need for HIV meds. Gail Johnson, Nkosi’s white foster mother, negotiated to get South African representation in the cast and crew, and she is pushing to get some of the proceeds to Nkosi’s Haven, which houses HIV positive mothers and children in the Johannesburg suburb of Berea. If rumors pan out that the Oscar-winning Theron is starring as Gail, the film should rake in plenty for that.