Women Speak! For Cancer

LOS ANGELES (Women Speak! Website) - A few star performers at Lifetime's Women Rock! Girls & Guitar concert Thursday night (Oct. 10) at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles took time to speak out on breast cancer, the evening's benefactor, among others things. Here are some highlights:

"There was a bit of confusion and fear, and that always gives you a rush," said Pretenders' singer Chrissie Hynde about performing with women she barely knew. Hynde described the Pretenders' forthcoming album, Loose Screw, as "Very upbeat, almost a party album. The songs are all like three and a half minutes long. It's easy to listen to." The Pretenders will tour in 2003.

"They're finding more and more cases of [breast cancer] in younger women," said host and performer Jennifer Love Hewitt. "I thought it would be good for me to come out on behalf of a demographic that doesn't expect this kind of thing to happen to them." Hewitt walked the red (actually orange) carpet pre-show in a black Dolce & Gabbana bustier, black leather pants, and borrowed diamond-festooned sunglasses, which came with their own security guard.

"The people around me have been very fortunate, and that's why I felt I should be here, because we've been so lucky," said Lee Ann Womack of her desire to participate in the show. The country singer will unleash A Season for Romance on Oct. 29, an album of standards featuring her duet with Harry Connick Jr. (a cover of "Baby It's Cold Outside"). Womack will perform the album's title in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Nov. 28.