[StBernard] Actor Taye Diggs goes caroling in hurricane-stricken community

[Westley Annis]

Actor Taye Diggs goes caroling in hurricane-stricken community 

The Associated Press 
Tuesday, December 18, 2007 
VIOLET, Louisiana: Actor Taye Diggs spent time singing carols Monday night
in a place where the Christmas spirit is coming back: hard-hit St. Bernard
Parish.

Diggs joined a gospel choir and New Orleans singer Irma Thomas in a Violet
neighborhood where many people are still living in trailers 27 months after
Hurricane Katrina flooded the town with water up to the roofs of homes.

"It's quite eye-opening. As much as you hear on the news, it's completely
different when you see it firsthand," Diggs said about the destruction
caused by Katrina.

He said he was impressed and moved by the "strength, the kind of tenacity,
the strong sense of faith and hope that these people have."

Breanna Bienemy, an 18-year-old studying to be a nurse, said she was
grateful that Diggs came to St. Bernard, a mostly rural parish southeast of
New Orleans.

"They make such a big deal about New Orleans. It's just nice to see people
acknowledging us," she said.

Diggs plays Dr. Sam Bennett in the "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff "Private
Practice," which co-stars Kate Walsh, Tim Daly and Amy Brenneman. He has
also appeared on the hit television shows "The West Wing," "Ally McBeal,"
"Law and Order" and "The Guiding Light."

Diggs is probably best known for his role as Winston Shakespeare in the hit
1998 romantic drama "How Stella Got Her Groove Back."