Actress Elaine Hendrix Urges Shoppers to Go Fur Free on Busiest Shopping Day of the Year

Tennessee Native Leads Fur Free Friday at West Town Mall in Knoxville

Knoxville, Tenn.—Actress and In Defense of Animals (IDA) celebrity spokeswoman Elaine Hendrix, best known for such popular and diverse projects as Disney’s The Parent Trap, the cult phenomenon What The Bleep Do We Know?!, and the critically acclaimed CBS series Joan Of Arcadia, will lead a peaceful rally to urge holiday shoppers not to buy products made from fur. The demonstration is part of IDA’s national day of demonstrations held across the U.S. on the day after Thanksgiving, known as Fur Free Friday.

The beautiful Hendrix wants shoppers to realize that tremendous suffering is involved for animals killed for their fur. “The holidays are a time for joyful celebration. We’re asking shoppers to not buy into violence and killing that is involved in every fur-trimmed hood or full-length coat,” says Hendrix. “This is especially true at a time in our lives when there exist so many cruelty-free faux “fur” products that are beautiful and harm no animals when they are being constructed.”

Many celebrated designers, such as Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney, Marc Bouwer, and Kenneth Cole, refuse to design with fur, and several prominent retail chains including Gap, H & M, JCrew, and Forever 21 have pledged not to sell real fur.

Knoxville’s Fur Free Friday event will be held at West Town Mall (at the intersection of Kingston Pike and Morrell Road) on Friday November 23rd, beginning at 11:00 a.m. and concluding at 2:00 p.m.

Elaine Hendrix will be conducting interviews via telephone on Tuesday, November 20th, Wednesday, November 21st and the morning of Friday, November 23rd, pre-rally. Television crews are invited and welcome to attend the rally for live and live-to-tape segments. For booking, please contact Liz Owen via email at lizowen@lo-pr.com or via telephone at (323) 404-3185.

For more information on IDA, please contact Annie Judah (757) 374-8112 or Kristie Phelps (757) 333-3015.

In Defense of Animals, located in San Rafael, Calif., is an international animal protection organization dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by protecting their rights and welfare. For more information on IDA’s anti-fur campaign, please visit www.FurKills.org.

In Hollywood ELAINE HENDRIX has been called an “actor’s actor,” a “triple-threat,” a “guy’s girl,” and Variety columnist Army Archerd likened her to Carol Lombard. 2008 kicks off with EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, Hallmark’s latest installment in Lea Thompson’s JANE DOE movie series. Airing later in the year on ABC Family Channel is Margaret Cho’s TWO SISTERS for which Cho wrote a role specifically for Elaine. Following that comes the feature film GOOD INTENTIONS, a Southern caper comedy in which she stars with LeAnn Rimes and Luke Perry; and TRU LOVED, a coming of age story starring Bruce Vilanch, Jane Lynch, Jasmine Guy, and Nichelle Nichols. Originally hailing from the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee, Elaine now lives in Los Angeles with her rescued four-leggeds: canines Tiloc and Rossmore, and felines Goodie Cornbread and Kimbo.