{blackbabes} Crash taught Halle Berry meaning of charity

If Halle Berry hadn't split her head open in a car accident in 1997, she might not have found her calling. When the actress isn't busy emoting, she works at the Jenesse Center, an LA charity that helps battered women and their children make a fresh start. At a lunch Sunday at the East Hampton house of Revlon mogul Ronald Perelman, Berry told guests she started to work at the center 13 years ago after she was sentenced to 250 hours of community service for leaving the scene of the accident -- even though she had amnesia and needed 17 stitches in her forehead. "It changed my life. I hadn't been doing enough. It was time," Berry told Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Tamara Mellon, Amanda Cutter, Dave Zinczenko and Ed Lewis. When Perelman announced Revlon will donate half the $500,000 the center needs for a new facility, Berry ran a lap around the tables and high-fived the crowd.