'Sharing Miracles' Television Program to Feature Emmy Award-Winning Actor Joey Pantoliano

'Sharing Miracles' Television Program to Feature Emmy Award-Winning Actor Joey Pantoliano

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This month, Sharing Miracles - a 30-minute public affairs television program that tells the compelling and inspirational stories of real patients - will feature Joey Pantoliano, an Emmy Award-winning actor, writer and producer who suffers from mental depression.

Pantoliano is one of the best-known character actors in Hollywood, appearing in more than 100 movies and television shows. But he is probably best known for his critically acclaimed and Emmy award-winning performance as psychopathic mobster Ralphie Cifaretto on The Sopranos. His lengthy movie credits include Risky Business, The Matrix, The Fugitive, U.S. Marshals, Bad Boys, Empire of the Sun, Running Scared and The Goonies, among others.

In his most recent film, Canvas, Pantoliano plays a husband trying to hold his family together while his wife, portrayed by Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden, battles with schizophrenia.

Making the film helped him come to terms with his own depression, a condition he revealed he has been suffering from for more than a decade. Rather than hide his struggle from the public, Pantoliano has chosen to speak out about his disease, and founded the organization No Kidding, Me Too! (www.nkm2.org) to help remove the isolation and stigma that often surrounds mental illnesses.

In this month's Sharing Miracles show, Pantoliano speaks of the pain he endured because of his undiagnosed and untreated depression: "Here I was, winning an Emmy award for a performance in one of the best shows that television has ever produced, and I couldn't feel good. I couldn't feel the love of my children or the love of my wife."

However, he also spoke of the change in his life now that he is successfully treating his depression through a variety of means, such as therapy, exercise and medication: "I like to say that I live with clinical depression; I don't suffer from it. I went and I got help...and I've got my life back."

Previous episodes of Sharing Miracles have featured former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, who is battling colon cancer; syndicated television talk show host Montel Williams, who suffers from multiple sclerosis; cancer survivor and mountain climber Sean Swarner; and breast cancer survivors Mayte Prida, a Telemundo personality, and North Carolina State University women's basketball coach Kay Yow. Future programs will highlight Leave it to Beaver television star Jerry Mathers, who is fighting diabetes; Olympic Gold Medal winners Greg Louganis, who suffers from HIV, Mark Spitz, who has high cholesterol, and Bruce Jenner, who has attention deficit disorder; and pop icon and Broadway star Deborah Gibson, who has suffered from devastating anxiety attacks. Sharing Miracles is produced by PhRMA's Communications & Public Affairs Department.

Sharing Miracles airs on Sunday mornings on the following network-affiliated stations:

   WUSA-TV (CBS), Washington, DC, 11:30 am-12 noon   WCIA-TV (CBS), Springfield/Champaign/Urbana/Decatur, IL, 10:30 am-11 am   WLAJ-TV (ABC), Lansing, MI, 11 am-11:30 am   WNYT-TV (NBC), Albany/Schenectady/Troy, NY, 11:30 am-12 noon   KOVR-TV (CBS), Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto, CA, 6 am-6:30 am   WBRZ-TV (ABC), Baton Rouge, LA, 11 am-11:30 am   WAPT-TV (ABC), Jackson, MS, 9 am-9:30 am   WOWK-TV (CBS), Charleston/Huntington, WV, 11:30 am-12 noon   WSYX-TV (ABC), Columbus, OH, 7:30 am-8 am   WNAC-TV (FOX), Providence, RI, 10:30 am-11 am   WMTW-TV (ABC), Portland/Augusta, ME, 11:30 am-12 noon   KHBB-TV (ABC), Helena/KFBB-TV (ABC), Great Falls, MT, 10 am-10:30 am   KIVI-TV (ABC), Boise, ID, 8 am-8:30 am   WXIN-TV (FOX), Indianapolis, IN, 11:30 am-12 noon   WMBD-TV (CBS), Peoria, IL, 10 am-10:30 am   WTWC-TV (NBC), Tallahassee, FL, 10 am-10:30 am   WWL-TV (CBS), New Orleans, LA, 7:30 am-8 am   WOI-TV (ABC), Des Moines, IA, 6:30 am-7 am   WKOW-TV (ABC), Madison, WI, 11 am-11:30 am   WVNY-TV (ABC), Burlington/Montpelier, VT, 11:30 am-12 noon   WHBF-TV (CBS), Davenport, IA/Moline, IL, 10 am-10:30 am   KEYE-TV (CBS), Austin, TX, 10:30 am-11 am   KDEV-TV (ABC), Cheyenne, WY, 7:30 am-8:00 am   KTKA-TV (ABC), Topeka, KS, 8:30 am-9 am   WRAZ-TV (FOX), Raleigh, NC, 7:30 am-8 am   KATV-TV (ABC), Little Rock, AK, 10 am-10:30 am   WMAR-TV (ABC), Baltimore, MD, 6 am-6:30 am   KDLT-TV (NBC), Sioux Falls, SD, 9 am-9:30 am   WRLH-TV (FOX), Richmond, VA, 10 am-10:30 am   KRCG-TV (CBS), Columbia/Jefferson City, MO, 10:30 am-11 am   WNCF-TV (ABC), Montgomery, AL, 9:30 am-10 am   KBMY-TV (ABC), Minot/Bismarck, ND, 9 am-9:30 am   KLKN-TV (ABC), Lincoln, NE, 10:30 am-11 am   WACH-TV (FOX), Columbia, SC, 11 am-11:30 am   KOCO-TV (ABC), Oklahoma City, OK, 11 am-11:30 am.   

The show also airs on 35 community broadcast stations across the country. In addition, people around the world are able to view the show each week on PhRMA's Web site, www.phrma.org. For free DVDs of Sharing Miracles, please contact the PhRMA press line at 202-835-3460.

The show's corresponding Web site, www.sharingmiracles.com, is an interactive forum for people to relate their own personal stories of hope and survival. Every patient's battle is unique, but the collective power of shared experiences can offer great help and courage to others who are fighting for their lives.

The Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) helps uninsured and financially-struggling patients access information on programs that provide prescription medicines for free or nearly free. To find out if they may qualify for help, patients should call toll-free 1-888-4PPA-NOW to speak with a trained specialist or visit www.pparx.org.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) represents the country's leading pharmaceutical research and biotechnology companies, which are devoted to inventing medicines that allow patients to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. PhRMA companies are leading the way in the search for new cures. PhRMA members alone invested an estimated $44.5 billion in 2007 in discovering and developing new medicines. Industry-wide research and investment reached a record $58.8 billion in 2007.

PhRMA Internet Address: http://www.phrma.org/

For information on stories of hope and survival, visit: http://sharingmiracles.com/

For information on how innovative medicines save lives, visit: http://www.innovation.org/

For information on the Partnership for Prescription Assistance, visit: http://www.pparx.org/

For information on the danger of imported drugs, visit: http://www.buysafedrugs.info/

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America

CONTACT: Kate Michael of PhRMA, +1-202-835-3460

Web Site: http://www.nkm2.org/
http://www.phrma.org/
http://www.pparx.org/
http://www.sharingmiracles.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment