Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Alicia Silverstone Honored as PETA Humanitarian

When it comes to animal cruelty, actress Alicia Silverstone says she’s not clueless.

The 38-year-old still-stunning Hollywood beauty, who grew up in a conservative Jewish family, was one of several big-name vegetarians and vegans of the year Wednesday night.

It was a star-studded bash celebrating People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ 35th year — and came on the eve of today’s World Vegetarian Day.

The other honorees included “Real Time” host Bill Maher, the son of a Hungarian Jewish mother and Irish dad who was raised Catholic but is now an atheist; and “American Pie” star Jason Biggs, who is often mistaken as Jewish, has joked he usually gets role playing Jewish, but is not a Jew.

Silverstone, whose silver screen flicks include “Clueless,” “The Crush,” and “Batman and Robin,” has been meat-free for two decades.

“If you ever have a chance to meet a cow, pig, turkey, or goat, you will see that they are just as cute and funny as your dogs and cats and that they, too, want to live and feel love,” the animal activist has said.

“They don’t like pain. Now when I see a steak, it makes me feel sad and sick because right away, I see my dog or the amazing cows I met at a sanctuary.”

She also has her own advocacy website: The Kind Life.

Performing at Wednesday night’s gala were famous PETA allies, Sir Paul McCartney, and Beck.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.