Sofia Vergara may be known as an A-list charmer, but she’s using her powers for good as she participates in the Stand Up to Cancer telethon, which will be aired in a commercial-free, hour-long special this Friday.
Vergara will be joining fellow celebrities Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow, Justin Timberlake and Olympians Gabrielle Douglas and Missy Franklin in the third-annual fundraiser, which will take place in Los Angeles. Blockbuster musicians – namely Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys, Coldplay and Tim McGraw – are also getting in on the act and will perform during the special.
The celebrity phone bank event has raised more than $180 million for cancer awareness and research since being established in 2009. And the event will have personal significance for Vergara, who has been public about her own struggle with cancer. She revealed last year that when she was just 28 years old, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
“It was pretty scary,” Vergara said on an episode of ABC’s Nightline. “You always think ‘death’; that’s all you think when they tell you.”
Cancer free for over a decade, the recently engaged actress has thrown herself into a successful career and some of the perks of being on the job. She told PEOPLE that she’s looking forward to dressing up for the Emmys – an event for which “Modern Family” has received a whopping 14 nominations.
“I’m already doing [dress] fittings,” the “Modern Family” star shared with the magazine. “I don’t know yet what I’m going to wear, but I’m going to try to find something special that when I see it, I know that’s it.”
And when it comes to the award ceremony on Sept. 23, there’s one thing fans can almost certainly look forward to seeing on the star: lots of glitzy, glamorous jewelry.
“For me, the bigger the better,” said Vergara. “I love big earrings … you can make any outfit that is not so interesting very interesting [with] just a pair of fantastic earrings.”
