[#1 Leading Lady]

Playwright and actor Tyler Perry had planned to start work this week on a new house for his parents in New Orleans. But that was before Hurricane Katrina hit.

The "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" star grew up in New Orleans, where his parents have a home in the Garden District. Their home was undamaged, and his family was safe at their second house in Greensburg, La., when the hurricane hit.

Though his mother had to wait 12 hours at a local hospital for dialysis, they were among the lucky ones, says Perry. "My mother has a lot of friends she hasn't been able to reach."


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Perry booked 40 rooms for 10 days in a Comfort Inn in Atlanta, where he lives, for people who have been displaced.

"I only did what I could do," he says. "I'm only mentioning it publicly because if one man can do that, then maybe the corporations can step up and help out."