Big-name stars from the worlds of TV, film and sports walked the red carpet in downtown Denver on Saturday night. They didn’t stand a chance.

Woody Harrelson, Laura Linney, Jessica Biel, Amanda Booth, John C. McGinley and others were more than happy to let the spotlight be stolen right out from underneath them by dozens of ebullient, rowdy, preening young rock stars with Down syndrome who collectively infused Saturday’s annual “Be Beautiful, Be Yourself” fashion show with a palpably fun energy at the downtown Denver Sheraton Hotel.

The stars were all in Denver for different reasons, but Denver was definitely the right place for all of them to be on Saturday night. 

“This is just an awesome experience. I’m so happy to be here,” said Harrelson, who would later receive one of the Denver-based Global Down Syndrome Foundation’s two 2024 Quincy Jones Exceptional Advocacy Awards. Mostly because last year, Harrelson teamed with director Bobby Farrelly to make “Champions,” the 2023 feel-good film of the year. It’s about a disgraced basketball coach who is court-ordered to manage a Special Olympics hoops team.

Harrelson and Farrelly were joined in Denver by four young stars of the film, including 22-year-old Canadian actor Madison Tevlin. They came mostly to have fun, starting from the lobby of the hotel all the way to the walkway of the fashion show that raised $2.5 million for the Global Foundation. And if they helped to obliterate any lingering misconceptions about people with Down syndrome just by being themselves, so much the better.

“Everyone with disabilities deserves to have opportunities to get what they want, and do what they love,” Tevlin said.

Farrelly’s great pride in making “Champions,” he said, was creating opportunities where few exist in the film industry.

“The best part was finding all these new actors who were undiscovered — at least to me,” he said. “I didn’t know them. Some of them had never acted. We had a big national casting search, and it was so much fun to uncover that kind of talent.”

A person with Down syndrome is born with an extra copy of chromosome 21. That means they have a total of 47 chromosomes instead of 46. That’s it. Still, changing people’s fixed minds is a tall order — especially coming out of a polarizing election, Harrelson said.

“I don’t know that I have any real expectation about change because that’s a very hard thing to bring about in people,” Harrelson said. “But I do believe that a lot of people I know who have watched that film now look at people with Down syndrome a little differently than they did before.”

Laura Linney

Linney, who has 17 Oscar, Emmy and Tony Award nominations, came to the Denver gala for the second straight year. (She’s married to Marc Schauer of Telluride).

“I love this organization, and I love the people who run it,” Linney said. “This is a  joyous, happy, wonderful event. And the education that happens here in just one evening is very profound.”

And by education, she means minds being peeled open.

“I think there’s so much for all of us to learn — and human beings are the most special teachers on our planet,” she said. “We come in a variety of types and heights and sexes and genders. And the Down syndrome community is a unique, wonderful, joyful group of people who we can learn a lot from. So, in return, I think we owe it to them to help raise money for their medical care and to make sure that the whole community is lifted up.”

Jessica Biel and Beverley Mitchell

Biel, who was growing up in Boulder until she was cast at 14 to play young Mary Camden in the family drama “7th Heaven,” was back in Colorado offering full support for her family — both in real life and on TV.

Biel’s goddaughter Zaya — the child of younger brother Justin Biel and his wife, Rose — was named the official ambassador of the 2024 “Be Yourself” fashion show. She’s a fiery 5-year-old who surprised her parents by arriving four weeks early during a big Colorado blizzard on New Year’s Eve 2018. She was transported by Flight for Life to Children’s Hospital and, by defying additional health challenges, her parents said she embodies the true meaning of love, strength and resilience.

“I mean, this is a huge deal for my family – and for my beautiful niece,” Biel said. “Just being a part of this organization is so important to me because of all the research and medical care they provide not only to expand Zaya’s life but all the lives of this community. And it’s just so cool for us to do this as a family.”

That her sister-in-law happily uses her celebrity and her ability to call attention to Down syndrome, Rose said, “means everything to me.” Added Justin: “It’s obviously really important to us that Jess is here. She has been a massive supporter of us and Zaya, as well as our son, Ziggy, from the time they were born. And as Zaya’s godmother, that relationship has been there, and very deep, for a long time.”

The evening served as a partial “7th Heaven” reunion when Biel appeared on the red carpet with Mitchell, who played her sister, Lucy, on the popular TV series. Mitchell, who was accompanied by two of her own children, recently moved to Colorado with her family. For many fans, photos of Biel and Mitchell on Saturday were the first they have seen of them together in 17 years.

“We grew up together and have known each other for so long that we just have a shorthand,” Biel said. “We’ve been friends all through the years and she now lives in Colorado with her family, which is so cool. Our relationship is special. She is somebody who will be close to my heart forever.”

Later, Biel walked the fashion-show runway alongside Zaya and her own two sons: Silas, 9, and Phineas, 4.

John Sie, Michelle Whitten honor Quincy Jones

The evening was dedicated to the memory of legendary record producer Quincy Jones, who died Nov. 3. Jones’ spirit was all over the Sheraton Saturday, particularly through cable TV pioneer John Sie, who founded the Global Down Syndrome Foundation in 2006, and his daughter, Michelle Whitten, who dedicated her life to improving the lives of people with Down syndrome after her daughter, Sophia, was born in 2003.

“I’m eternally grateful to Quincy,” said Sie. “His support and hard work was so impactful because his influence helped bring Down syndrome to the forefront of people’s minds.”

Jones “was with us from the very beginning,” Whitten added. “When Sophia was born, Quincy was the first to say, ‘How can I help?’ And he has, ever since. I know he’s looking down on us tonight and he’s saying, ‘Live, love, laugh,’ like he always did.”

Tom Green, who emceed the gala with fellow 9News anchor Kim Christiansen, has always been starstruck by those who have attended the gala over the years. But none have had the staying power of Quincy Jones.

“He spanned eras and medias from Frank Sinatra to Leslie Gore to Stevie Wonder to Michael Jackson,” he said. “And it always seemed like he had so much grace, and that’s something you don’t always see. Yeah, he’s the all-timer.”

Whitten said Harrelson was the perfect person to receive the Quincy Jones Award.

“Woody really championed, no pun intended, the movie ‘Champions,’ and he helped get it made,” she said. “And since making it, he has fallen fully in love with our community — and he’s never going back.”

The other 2024 Jones Award recipient was Sofia Sanchez, who made her acting debut in the 2015 TV series “Switched at Birth” and, in the summer of 2023, appeared at the “Barbie” movie premiere dressed as the first-ever Barbie with Down syndrome. Last year, she played Wovey in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.”

Even more stars

Also appearing in Denver were Chicago Fire (and former Colorado Rapids) soccer star Kellyn Acosta, and three cast members from TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy.” Niko Terho (Dr. Lucas Adams) and Alexis Floyd (Dr. Simone Griffith) were here in support of castmate Caterina Scorsone (Dr. Amelia Shepherd), who has said having a daughter with Down syndrome made her “reconsider everything you thought you know about love.”

Terho said Scorsone “is a dear friend of ours, and it is an honor for us to support her and her kid.”

John C. McGinley, known to audiences for everything from “Platoon” to “Scrubs,” was in attendance with his whole family, including his 27-year-old son, Max. John C. McGinley was over the moon to have just been handed a photo of him appearing in a celebrity edition of “American Gladiators” from 1994. (He lost to Dean Cain.)

In the photo, his hair is platinum blonde for his filming at the time in the John Candy comedy “Wagons East,” playing a gay bookseller (who happened to be the fastest gunslinger in the world) in the 1860s Wild West.

“Just so you know, this gives me street cred,” he said with a laugh.

McGinley has long been a fierce advocate for Down syndrome and appears at many fundraisers. The Denver gala, he said, is different.

“I’ve been involved with a lot of different Down syndrome initiatives, and a lot of them are wonderful, kumbaya kind of things,” he said. “But what happens with Global is that it is a science-based group. We built an adjunct to Denver Children’s Hospital called the Linda Crnic Institute, where we’re doing Alzheimer’s-driven research.”

He’s doing it, as he always has, for Maxie. And thousands more.

“I want people to know that being differently abled doesn’t mean you’re not capable in every single way on the planet.”

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