TheWrap's Richard Stellar took first place in the Best Facebook Presence by an Individual and Best Individual Weblog categories at the 54th Annual Los Angeles Press Club Awards on Sunday.
Stellar has been a passionate advocate for the Motion Picture Television and Fund's (MPTF) long term care facility. In his blogs for TheWrap, he has mixed in equal parts humor and outrage to chronicle the non-profit organization's plans to shutter the facility and later decision to abandon that controversial move and keep the hospital open.
From left: Stellar, Bill Smitrovich, SAG President Ken Howard and John Schneider
Sharon Waxman and Tim Molloy were also finalists in the Non-Political Column/Commentary and Entertainment Commentary/Reviews categories respectively.
Stellar won the Best Individual Weblog honor for his piece "Online Journalist Effects Social Change," sharing the award with Danielle Berrin in the Jewish Journal for her piece “Hollywood Jew."
He also received a prize in the Best Facebook Presence category for the page he created to support Saving the Lives of Our Own, the grassroots organization that was originally formed to protest the facility's closure.
Although the home remains open and the MPTF's administration has decided to admit new patients, Stellar is not abandoning his advocacy. He told TheWrap that he plans to use his platform to address the abuse of anti-psychotic and black label drugs in dementia and Alzheimer's patients around the world.
"We are hopeful that the MPTF takes a leadership position by first re-visiting their own use of these dangerous drugs in the treatment and control of the elderly, and instituting new humane and effective practices of treating dementia and Alzheimer's patients," Stellar said.
Click here for a full list of winners.
