The popular press was all gaga over Jennifer Lopez and Reese Witherspoon arriving ‘perfectly in sync’ in their ‘similar read and black dresses as they got frocked up to attend the 2014 Variety Power Of Women Luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel on a balmy Friday in October.’

The duo represented two of the five power players honored for their philanthropic and activist efforts. AOC loves Jane Fonda, who is ‘sexy at 76’. Rock on, Jane.

Bottom line though — we read not a word about why the women are being honored. Their causes aren’t nearly as interesting as their fabulous bods!! In fact, their philanthropy work isn’t even worth a stylish mention.

Thankfully, AOC Smart Sensuality readers want more substance in celebrity news, so let’s get to work telling the real news story.

Co-hosted with Lifetime TV, the October 10 luncheon paid tribute to Viola Davis and Donna Langley in addition to Fonda, Lopez and Witherspoon.

We share details about these five women and the important philanthropy projects motivate them.

All Variety photos by Williams+Hirakawa

Five Fabulous Women Honored At 2014 Variety Power of Women Luncheon

Donna Langley

Donna Langley, Chairwoman of Universal Pictures, had her contract renewed until 2017 this past summer, positioning her as the industry’s second most powerful woman after Sony Co-Chair Amy Pascal. Langley has two major female-directed projects in the pipeline: Sam Taylor-Johnson’s ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ (due out early in 2015) and Angelina Jolie’s ‘Unbroken’ (opening December, 2014). Langley was profiled briefly last January by The New York Times.

Langley was honored for her with Vital Voices, an NGO dedicated to identifying, training, and empowering women leaders and social entrepreneurs around the globe. Vital Voices was established in 1997 by then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright after the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

Universal Chairman Donna Langley was introduced by California Attorney General Kamala Harris at the Women of Power luncheon. Listen to her remarks.

Viola Davis

Actor Viola Davis is taking ABC television by story in her role as defense attorney Annalise Keating on ABC’s ‘How To Get Away with Murder’. In a recent episode, Viola — as Annalise — removed her wig and all of her makeup before confronting her husband about his infidelities. Removing her wig resonated with so many African American women, with even Halle Berry weighing in, saying: “Girl, I had to send you an email, you’re doing such a great job, I celebrate you.”

Viiola Davis delivered a moving speech at the Women of Power luncheon, where she was honored for her work combatting childhood hunger. ‘Hunger Is’ was founded as a joint charitable initiative of The Safeway Foundation and the Entertainment Industry Foundation.

“I am honored to help bring attention to Hunger Is and increase public awareness of the problem of childhood hunger right here in America, and I am thrilled to see how swiftly we are responding to the issue at the most local levels with the award of over $1.3 million in grants,” stated Academy Award®-nominated actress and Hunger Is ambassador Viola Davis. “Millions of children go hungry every day in the United States. I was one of those children and I pledge to tell and re-tell my story until we have eradicated childhood hunger across the nation,” Davis continued in comments on the foundation’s website.

Standing before the crowd of primarily powerful women breaking bread together on November 10, Davis spoke of her drive against childhood hunger as being fueled by memories of growing up in ‘abject poverty’, stealing and crawling through maggot-filled garbage bins to get food.

“I sacrificed a childhood for food,” Davis said, “and grew up in immense shame.”

Jane Fonda

Actor and activist Jane Fonda needs no introduction.

Variety’s ‘Power of Women’ 2014 luncheon recognized Jane for her work with the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential. Reflecting on her move to Georgia as the then-wife of CNN media mogul Ted Turner, Jane said it took time for her to be accepted. After all, the anti-war activist brought a considerable amount of controversy and ‘activist baggage’ to the southern state.

Fonda quickly identified the reality of Georgia’s then teen pregnancy rate as being the highest in America.

“Hope is the best contraceptive,” she says. “Young people don’t see a future for themselves to motivate them to delay sexual activity or use contraception. Middle-class kids know it will compromise their future, jobs, marriage.”

Georgia continues to struggle with a high pregnancy rate, but major progress has been made. Her foundation now has a program to fight repeat pregnancies called ‘Second Chance Homes’. GCAPP also maintains a focus on teaching teens how to eat healthy food on a budget.

Fonda has returned to Hollywood, where she lives with partner Richard Perry. The full-of-life duo has privately — and now publicly — battled Perry’s Parkinson’s disease, which he revealed on their first date. In true Jane Fonda hit the ground running style, the actor is working to become an expert on the disease.

Jennifer Lopez

Sisters Jennifer and Lynda Lopez launched the Lopez Family Foundation dedicated to improving health care for children in 2009 after Jennifer’s own scare in 2008.

“Very early after my twins were born, my daughter (Emme) developed this bump on the back of her head,” Lopez says. “So I rushed to the hospital, and it was the middle of the night and the doctor met me there. And I had all these privileges, which wasn’t lost on me. I went back that night and thought, what if I didn’t have that? What if something was really wrong with her?”

Initially the sisters paired with Los Angeles Children’s Hospital to support the telemedicine program. Expanding their philanthropy efforts, Lynda and Jennifer expanded their work to facilities in Panama and Puerto Rico, the sisters have partnered with Best Buy and Sansung for additional support.

This year the Lopez Family Foundation created the Center for a Healthy Childhood at the Montefiore Medical Center in the sisters’ native Bronx borough of New York.

On the Montefiore partnership, Lynda says: “Our focus is improving the well-being of women and children, and not imposing some idea of what that is, but really looking at the community and seeing what do they need? What improvements are they lacking? There are huge issues with obesity, nutrition and childhood health in the Bronx, and we knew that pretty well from our own lives. It was just a matter of sitting down with everyone there and figuring out what we could really do to improve lives.”

Reese Whiterspoon

Actor Reese Whiterspoon was honored as a 2014 Power of Women leader for her participation in the Malala Fund, dedicated to empowering girls through education in developing countries. Witherspoon learned about Malala Yousafzai — the young Pakistani girl shot in the head by the Taliban and now co-sharing the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize — through her 15-year-old daughter Ava. (Read AOC’s extensive Malala Coverage)

Co-authored with Christina Lamb, “I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban” details her story and also talks about the Malala Fund, which aims to secure education for all women, no matter what their income level or where they live.

It’s worth noting that Malala is under tremendous pressure in her home country of Pakistan, with accusations that she is a tool of the West. The New York Times reported that the All Pakistan Private Schools Federation, claiming to represent 150,000 schools across Pakistan, declared that Monday, Nov. 9, would be “I am not Malala” day and urged the government to ban her memoir, “I Am Malala,” because it offended Islam and the “ideology of Pakistan.”

Pakistan’s Dawn.com says the book has been banned and the mastermind of Malala’s attack — Mullah Fazlullah — is the new head of the Pakistani Taliban.

Reviewing Whitherspoon’s involvement with The Malal Fund, it appears to be recent. With Malala having such well-deserved support for her initiatives among women generally, we assume that Whitherspoon’s role with the Malala Fund will evolve.