Gwyneth Paltrow and the miracle celebrity t-shirts of Key to the Cure

The cover story in today's Women's Wear Daily featured Gwyneth Paltrow wearing the latest designer t-shirt for Key to the Cure, the annual cancer-related charity initiative of the the Entertainment Industry Foundation and Saks Fifth Avenue. The article (firewalled, alas for you) reviews the history of the effort, which has engaged a series of Oscar-winning spokeswomen and raised money in the usual ways.

Below: one of the project's aims, an example of its emotional effect and other recent shirts:

“There is not a woman alive who is unscathed or untouched by cancer,” Wilson said. “For me, the idea to actually fund scientists to help find a biotester, which would be a blood test for breast cancer, is very important. That is in our reach in our generation.”

Chapman Meyer agreed, adding that the T-shirts also served to help those affected by cancer on an emotional level. When a friend of her sister was in the hospital dying of cancer, Chapman Meyer recalled sending a batch of the Stella McCartney designed T-shirts for the patient and her friends. “They all wore it around her bed, rallied and put her in the T-shirt,” she said. “I think it just gave this friend of theirs who was dying of cancer hope that maybe her daughter wasn’t going to."

Or maybe it just made everyone gathered around the bed feel good about themselves, which isn't the same thing.

UPDATE: OK, I've had my caffeine, so a brief word about that bedside anecdote.

At some point you might read on this site that I'm t y p i n g m y la st pos t from de at hbed, and I know you'll all rush there to send me off. If I have a fatal disease & you decide to cheer me up by slapping on a tee shirt for a race for a cure that I've clearly lost & speculating that there's an off-chance my offspring will survive my cruel genetic legacy, the gleam you'll see in my eyes will not be an inspirational moment of hope. It will be me summoning every last ounce of energy I have to get out of that bed just one more time so I can f**king whup your healthy ass.