Donna Rice
Encyclopedia
Donna Rice Hughes is the president and chair of Enough Is Enough
, an American non-profit organization
in the anti-pornography movement
that seeks to make the Internet
safer for families and children. Earlier, she was the key figure in a widely-publicized 1987 political scandal
that ended the second campaign for the Democratic Party
nomination for President of the United States
of Gary Hart
amid allegations of marital infidelity, after the pair were photographed aboard the yacht "Monkey Business" which was owned by prominent Miami businesswoman/socialite Lillian Briggs
, "The Queen of Rock & Roll" in the 1950's. Since the mid-1990s, Rice has worked as an anti-pornography
activist.
, Georgia
(in Atlanta), and South Carolina
. She began a modeling
career at age 13 and maintained a high grade point average in high school while also attending church services and working part-time as a clothing store sales clerk.
Rice graduated from the University of South Carolina
in 1980, where she was both an honors student
and cheerleader. Of her senior year, she said: "I began to compromise my Christian values — partying and dating guys who weren't Christians." After she graduated from the university, Rice stopped attending church services.
Rice has stated that she was a victim of rape
(by an older man she had been dating), and also of having been too ashamed to report the incident. She says the rape was "the turning point in my life, the catalyst that propelled me further into an unhealthy lifestyle". She entered and won the Miss South Carolina World beauty pageant, and went on to New York City
to compete in the national pageant. While she did not win, she remained in New York to pursue an acting and modeling career.
After a relative lack of success in New York City, Rice moved to Miami, where she worked as a television commercial actress for a pharmaceutical company and a small marketing business, as well as appearing in an episode of the TV series Miami Vice
. In March 1987, she met former Senator Gary Hart at a Miami fundraiser.
Soon after meeting Rice, Hart announced that he would run for nomination as the Democratic candidate for President. Having enjoyed a surprisingly strong campaign in 1984
against the eventual nominee, former Vice President
Walter Mondale
, he was widely perceived as a front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 1988. However, rumors shortly thereafter began circulating about his having an extra-marital affair, leading the candidate to challenge the media to surveil him, and to also claim that anybody who did so would "be very bored." The day before Hart's dare to the media was to appear in The New York Times
, however, two reporters for the Miami Herald observed Rice coming out of Hart's Washington, D.C.
townhouse, and their story was published on the same day that his challenge appeared in the Times. While Hart contended that the reporters could have no knowledge of exactly when Rice arrived or why she was there, his popular appeal nevertheless suffered a major blow, and polls taken almost immediately afterward found him to be 10 points behind Massachusetts
governor Michael Dukakis
. Two days after their initial story, the Herald obtained a photograph of Rice sitting on Hart's lap in Bimini
aboard a luxury motor yacht named Monkey Business
lent by socialite, Lillian Briggs
. The celebrity tabloid National Enquirer immediately published the photograph, and within five days, Hart had decided to drop out of the Democratic Presidential nomination race.
As a result of the scandal, Rice lost her job as a marketing representative for a pharmaceutical company in South Florida. The enormous publicity generated by the Hart scandal resulted in numerous other offers, however, and while she refused most – including one for an appearance in Playboy
magazine – she did work as a national spokesmodel for No Excuses jeans until Hart's unsuccessful re-entry into the presidential race in December 1987.
and other partners. She is also the executive producer, host, and instructor of the Internet Safety 101SM DVD series.
Hughes has been on national broadcasts including "Dateline
", "The Today Show
", "The O’Reilly Factor", "The Oprah Winfrey Show
", and "20/20".
She co-wrote the story for the May 2000 season finale episode of "Touched by an Angel
" that brought the message of Internet dangers and online safety to prime time television and won the Nielsen ratings for its time slot during the May sweeps period. She has a book, "Kids Online: Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace" (Revell, September 1998).
Hughes was appointed by Senator Trent Lott
to serve on the Child Online Protection Act
(COPA, 1998) Commission and served as co-chair of the COPA Hearings on filtering/ratings/labeling technologies. She also serves on various Internet safety advisory boards and task forces including the 2006 Virginia Attorney General’s Youth Internet Safety Task Force and the 2008 Internet Safety Technical Task Force, formed with MySpace and the U.S. Attorneys General.
Enough Is Enough (organization)
Enough Is Enough is an American non-profit organization whose stated purpose is to make the Internet safer for families and children. It carries out lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C., and played a role in the passage of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 , the Child Online Protection Act...
, an American non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
in the anti-pornography movement
Anti-pornography movement in the United States
The anti-pornography movement in the United States has existed ever since a 1969 Supreme Court decision which held that people could view whatever they wished in the privacy of their own homes. This caused President Lyndon B...
that seeks to make the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
safer for families and children. Earlier, she was the key figure in a widely-publicized 1987 political scandal
Political scandal
A political scandal is a kind of political corruption that is exposed and becomes a scandal, in which politicians or government officials are accused of engaging in various illegal, corrupt, or unethical practices...
that ended the second campaign for the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
nomination for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
of Gary Hart
Gary Hart
Gary Hart is an American politician, lawyer, author, professor and commentator. He served as a Democratic Senator representing Colorado , and ran in the U.S...
amid allegations of marital infidelity, after the pair were photographed aboard the yacht "Monkey Business" which was owned by prominent Miami businesswoman/socialite Lillian Briggs
Lillian Briggs
Lillian Briggs was an American rock 'n roll performer and musician.Lillian Briggs was the first woman to achieve super-star status at the dawn of rock 'n roll in the early 1950's, as evidenced by the fact that soon after embarking upon her career, she was named "The Queen of Rock & Roll" by The...
, "The Queen of Rock & Roll" in the 1950's. Since the mid-1990s, Rice has worked as an anti-pornography
Anti-pornography movement
The term anti-pornography movement is used to describe those who argue that pornography has a variety of harmful effects, such as encouragement of human trafficking, desensitization, pedophilia, dehumanization, sexual exploitation, sexual dysfunction, and inability to maintain healthy sexual...
activist.
Early years
The daughter of a highway engineer and secretary, Donna Rice spent her childhood in FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
(in Atlanta), and South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
. She began a modeling
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
career at age 13 and maintained a high grade point average in high school while also attending church services and working part-time as a clothing store sales clerk.
Rice graduated from the University of South Carolina
University of South Carolina
The University of South Carolina is a public, co-educational research university located in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, with 7 surrounding satellite campuses. Its historic campus covers over in downtown Columbia not far from the South Carolina State House...
in 1980, where she was both an honors student
Honors student
An honors student is a person recognized for achieving high grades or high marks in their course work.Honors students may refer to# Students recognized for their academic achievement on lists published periodically throughout the school year, known as honor rolls, varying from school to school, and...
and cheerleader. Of her senior year, she said: "I began to compromise my Christian values — partying and dating guys who weren't Christians." After she graduated from the university, Rice stopped attending church services.
Rice has stated that she was a victim of rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
(by an older man she had been dating), and also of having been too ashamed to report the incident. She says the rape was "the turning point in my life, the catalyst that propelled me further into an unhealthy lifestyle". She entered and won the Miss South Carolina World beauty pageant, and went on to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to compete in the national pageant. While she did not win, she remained in New York to pursue an acting and modeling career.
After a relative lack of success in New York City, Rice moved to Miami, where she worked as a television commercial actress for a pharmaceutical company and a small marketing business, as well as appearing in an episode of the TV series Miami Vice
Miami Vice
Miami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
. In March 1987, she met former Senator Gary Hart at a Miami fundraiser.
Gary Hart scandal
United States presidential election, 1984
The United States presidential election of 1984 was a contest between the incumbent President Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate. Reagan was helped by a strong economic recovery from the deep recession of 1981–1982...
against the eventual nominee, former Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
, he was widely perceived as a front-runner for the Democratic nomination in 1988. However, rumors shortly thereafter began circulating about his having an extra-marital affair, leading the candidate to challenge the media to surveil him, and to also claim that anybody who did so would "be very bored." The day before Hart's dare to the media was to appear in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, however, two reporters for the Miami Herald observed Rice coming out of Hart's Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
townhouse, and their story was published on the same day that his challenge appeared in the Times. While Hart contended that the reporters could have no knowledge of exactly when Rice arrived or why she was there, his popular appeal nevertheless suffered a major blow, and polls taken almost immediately afterward found him to be 10 points behind Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
governor Michael Dukakis
Michael Dukakis
Michael Stanley Dukakis served as the 65th and 67th Governor of Massachusetts from 1975–1979 and from 1983–1991, and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. He was born to Greek immigrants in Brookline, Massachusetts, also the birthplace of John F. Kennedy, and was the longest serving...
. Two days after their initial story, the Herald obtained a photograph of Rice sitting on Hart's lap in Bimini
Bimini
Bimini is the westernmost district of the Bahamas composed of a chain of islands located about 53 miles due east of Miami, Florida. Bimini is the closest point in the Bahamas to the mainland United States and approximately 137 miles west-northwest of Nassau...
aboard a luxury motor yacht named Monkey Business
Monkey Business Yacht
Monkey Business is a yacht frequently docked in South Florida at the Turnberry Isle Resort Marina. Monkey Business was an 83-foot Broward motor yacht custom built and owned by the developers of the luxury resort. Famous guests included Elton John, Elizabeth Taylor, Jack Nicholson, Julio...
lent by socialite, Lillian Briggs
Lillian Briggs
Lillian Briggs was an American rock 'n roll performer and musician.Lillian Briggs was the first woman to achieve super-star status at the dawn of rock 'n roll in the early 1950's, as evidenced by the fact that soon after embarking upon her career, she was named "The Queen of Rock & Roll" by The...
. The celebrity tabloid National Enquirer immediately published the photograph, and within five days, Hart had decided to drop out of the Democratic Presidential nomination race.
As a result of the scandal, Rice lost her job as a marketing representative for a pharmaceutical company in South Florida. The enormous publicity generated by the Hart scandal resulted in numerous other offers, however, and while she refused most – including one for an appearance in Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
magazine – she did work as a national spokesmodel for No Excuses jeans until Hart's unsuccessful re-entry into the presidential race in December 1987.
Internet safety
Hughes, President and CEO of Enough Is Enough (EIE), is an author and speaker on Internet safety. Since 1994, EIE created the Internet Safety 101SM program with the Department of JusticeUnited States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
and other partners. She is also the executive producer, host, and instructor of the Internet Safety 101SM DVD series.
Hughes has been on national broadcasts including "Dateline
Dateline
A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story occurred, or was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services, the distributing organization is also included...
", "The Today Show
The Today Show
Today is an iconic American morning news and talk show airing every morning on NBC. Debuting on January 14, 1952, it was the first of its genre on American television and in the world. The show is also the fourth-longest running American television series...
", "The O’Reilly Factor", "The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show
The Oprah Winfrey Show is an American syndicated talk show hosted and produced by its namesake Oprah Winfrey. It ran nationally for 25 seasons beginning in 1986, before concluding in 2011. It is the highest-rated talk show in American television history....
", and "20/20".
She co-wrote the story for the May 2000 season finale episode of "Touched by an Angel
Touched by an Angel
Touched by an Angel is an American drama series that premiered on CBS on September 21, 1994 and ran for 211 episodes and nine seasons until its conclusion on April 27, 2003. Created by John Masius and produced by Martha Williamson, the series stars Roma Downey, as an angel named Monica, and Della...
" that brought the message of Internet dangers and online safety to prime time television and won the Nielsen ratings for its time slot during the May sweeps period. She has a book, "Kids Online: Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace" (Revell, September 1998).
Hughes was appointed by Senator Trent Lott
Trent Lott
Chester Trent Lott, Sr. , is a former United States Senator from Mississippi and has served in numerous leadership positions in the House of Representatives and the Senate....
to serve on the Child Online Protection Act
Child Online Protection Act
The Child Online Protection Act was a law in the United States of America, passed in 1998 with the declared purpose of restricting access by minors to any material defined as harmful to such minors on the Internet...
(COPA, 1998) Commission and served as co-chair of the COPA Hearings on filtering/ratings/labeling technologies. She also serves on various Internet safety advisory boards and task forces including the 2006 Virginia Attorney General’s Youth Internet Safety Task Force and the 2008 Internet Safety Technical Task Force, formed with MySpace and the U.S. Attorneys General.