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Bullies Back Off!

New York Entertainment Exec Jeff Gomez Speaks Out
Teaches Kids How to 'Deal' with New DVD and "Never Surrender" Seminars

New York, NY - March 8, 2006 - More than 100,000 children stay home from school each day in the United States because of bullying-related fears and anxieties, according to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center. Bullying is a prime cause of low self-esteem and poor grades.

But Starlight Runner Entertainment president and CEO Jeff Gomez is on a mission to change that. Teaming with national education and advocacy organization Operation Respect, he conceived and produced a new music video, Don't Laugh at Me. The video will be on its way to New York City public schools next month. National distribution of the free DVD will follow.

Don't Laugh at Me features rising Houston-based hip-hop star Baby Jay and is based on the song written by Steve Seskin and Alan Shamblin. The song was previously a hit for country singer Mark Wills, and in recent years has become a signature in performances by Peter, Paul & Mary. Independent filmmaker Kenn Bell co-conceived and directed the video, with Tom Schnaidt (The Wire, CSI Miami) as director of photography. The video was shot in Manhattan's Lower East Side, Times Square, Hoboken, New Jersey, and at Gomez's alma mater, Rachel L. Carson Intermediate School 237 in Queens, NY. Gomez will host the video's in-school premiere at I.S. 237 in April.

The video can be seen online at: http://www.operationrespect.org/test/videos/babyj.mov

"My goal is to cultivate personal leadership skills, so that kids can more easily deal with physical and emotional assaults in the classroom, the playground and the Internet, where bullying is rampant," Gomez says from his office in Union Square. Gomez is also helping to write an accompanying lesson plan for the Don't Laugh at Me DVD.

Gomez's own "Never Surrender" seminars teach tweens, teens and even corporate audiences how to address bullying, while keeping positive values intact. Every Starlight Runner creative project-clients include The Walt Disney Company, Hasbro, Mattel and many others-infuses and communicates the values that Gomez came to embrace the hard way growing up on the mean streets of Manhattan's Lower East Side and in Flushing, Queens.

Since 1991, Gomez has traveled the country presenting "Never Surrender" to more than 100,000 students, teachers and professionals. He has been featured and quoted in Variety, Investors Business Daily, New York Newsday, Publishers Weekly, Wizard and Animation and been profiled on such television shows as American Latino, Good Morning Las Vegas, and El Show de Cristina.

The Don't Laugh at Me DVD and lesson plan is free to anyone by emailing info@starlightrunner.com, or by calling +1-212-337-0900.

For more information or to schedule an interview with Jeff Gomez, please contact Christi Cassidy at 505-986-1142 or christi@mantrapublicrelations.com.

Never Surrender!

About Starlight Runner Entertainment

Starlight Runner Entertainment, Inc. is a leading creator of highly successful fantasy and science fiction worlds, maximizing intellectual property value by across media platforms. Starlight Runner creates and expands fictional universes in the form of elaborate property Bibles and Story & Style Guides. This allows for multiple franchise extensions into traditional, interactive and advanced media. Starlight Runner also produces animated and live-action feature films, shorts and advanced media content, packages books, comics and graphic novels, and develops video games with world-renowned partners and clients.

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