The Things You Do For Charity

Illawarra Mercury

Tuesday November 28, 2000

Former Wollongong woman Barbara Parnell has been rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous at the launch of one of the hottest movies at world box offices.

Barbara, who was raised in Corrimal, attended the premiere of Unbreakable in Philadelphia where she has lived for the past 20 years with her husband - a Philadelphia lawyer.

Barbara attends many of the events staged by the Philadelphia 76ers National Basketball Association club for charities - including an orphanage in India supported by the Shyamalans - and the Unbreakable premiere was a 76ers fundraiser.

She is pictured with the film's writer and director M (Manoj) Night Shyamalan at the post viewing party.

Barbara and her husband have known Shyamalan, who also wrote and directed The Sixth Sense - since he was a student.

Despite his success in Hollywood, he remains a Philadelphia resident and makes his films there.

Barbara's father, Bill Parnell, still lives in North Wollongong and she has two brothers in the Wollongong area.

The film opened across the United States last week.

Unbreakable was second on the all-time high for Thanksgiving weekend box office sales, marking a new revenue record for any holiday weekend - topping $A481.9million.

Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas remained No1 for the second straight weekend, taking $142.3million from Wednesday to Sunday and grossed $264.8million in just 10 days.

Unbreakable was second, taking $90.98million.

The suspense thriller with supernatural overtones, is a riveting story shared by two men - David Dunne (Bruce Willis), the sole survivor of a train wreck who finds himself miraculously unharmed, and Elijah Price (Samuel L Jackson), a stranger who proposes a bizarre explanation.