Jamie Lee Curtis speaks on stage during Variety's 2025 Power of Women presented by Lifetime at The Beverly Hills Hotel on Oct. 29, 2025, in Beverly Hills, California.
Suzanne Yankovic, wife of Weird Al Yankovic, and honoree Jamie Lee Curtis attend Variety Power of Women presented by Lifetime at The Beverly Hills Hotel on Oct. 29, 2025, in Beverly Hills, California.
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 29: Honoree Jamie Lee Curtis attends Variety Power of Women presented by Lifetime at The Beverly Hills Hotel on October 29, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Stefanie Keenan/Variety via Getty Images)

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. − Jamie Lee Curtis delivered a rousing speech to a room full of powerful Hollywood women in a pink wig. But it wasn't meant for comedic relief.

"You'll stop laughing in a second," Curtis said bluntly as she took the podium, clad in an all-black power suit and a pink wig, which drew immediate laughs from the audience before she even said a word.

"I'm wearing the wig that was worn by a young girl named Katie Westbrook, who at the age of 10, got lung cancer − this is the power of women," she continued. "This is how Katie Westbrook decided to continue her life. She said, 'I'm going to wear this wig so that every time you look at me, you understand I'm fighting for my life.' That's her power. Katie died, and when she died, she and her mother gave me her wig."

While it was Curtis being honored at Wednesday's Variety Power of Women dinner at the timeless Beverly Hills Hotel for her advocacy work with the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles, the Oscar-winning actress never took the spotlight away from the young patients she has met and the healthcare workers who keep the nonprofit hospital running.

"The power of women is in every single woman who works at that hospital," the 66-year-old said at the Oct. 29 event. "Every nurse, every child-life specialist, every doctor, every mother of every patient who shows up to try to help these children − that's the power of women. We see it every day."

During her speech, Curtis addressed the obstacles the Children's Hospital has recently endured, including recent layoffs in August that impacted over 400 positions. The layoffs were part of a "strategic plan to ensure long-term sustainability and mission alignment amid growing financial challenges," according to a news release.

The hospital is "in desperate need right now," Curtis said on stage. "The cuts that have been made are awful, and because of the situation with the government, so much of their funding has been lost."

"People are afraid to go to the hospital because they're afraid they're going to be picked up by ICE agents, so they won't go to the hospital," Curtis said.

In concluding her speech, the actress, who's starring in the December film "Ella McCay," added that she felt privileged and "happy to represent an institution that will treat any patient regardless of their family's ability to pay."

"What is that? That's love. That's care. That's power," she said.

Earlier Wednesday, Curtis made headlines over her additional comments regarding the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The "Freakier Friday" star told Variety in an interview for the Power of Women cover that she received "threatening" backlash after she appeared on a podcast in September and cried over the conservative activist's death.

"An excerpt of it mistranslated what I was saying as I wished him well – like I was talking about him in a very positive way, which I wasn't; I was simply talking about his faith in God," Curtis told Variety.

She added, "In the binary world today, you cannot hold two ideas at the same time: I cannot be Jewish and totally believe in Israel's right to exist and at the same time reject the destruction of Gaza. You can't say that, because you get vilified for having a mind that says, 'I can hold both those thoughts. I can be contradictory in that way.'"

Curtis appeared on the Sept. 15 episode of the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast days after Kirk, the cofounder of the conservative organization Turning Point USA and an ally of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed during an event at Utah Valley University.

Variety Power of Women honorees include Sydney Sweeney, Wanda Sykes

This year's Power of Women honorees included "Running Point" actress Kate Hudson (supporting World Food Programme), Tony Award-winning singer-songwriter Nicole Scherzinger (supporting Special Olympics), Emmy Award-winning comedian Wanda Sykes (supporting the Ruth Ellis Center) and star of the upcoming "Christy" biopic, Sydney Sweeney (supporting the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence).

Gymnast and activist Aly Raisman was also honored with the Variety Courage Award, highlighting her advocacy for survivors of abuse.

Contributing: Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jamie Lee Curtis honors young cancer patient by wearing pink wig to Variety Power of Women

Reporting by Pamela Avila, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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