Jake was first diagnosed with pediatric epilepsy in 2003 after Grunberg and wife Elizabeth noticed his peculiar Staring spells. Like a jaw-dropping Alias twist, the news turned the easygoing Grunberg's life upside down. "To get a label is a scary thing," says the actor, 38, who plays CIA agent Eric Weiss on the show. "A lot of people don't want to hear it." Grunberg, however, is making sure everyone does. He's enlisted celeb pals like Garner and Jason Bateman to donate original finger paintings to the Pediatric Epilepsy Project (PEP), to be auctioned off and sold as greeting cards. "Watching Greg go through Jake's epilepsy, he's been so proactive and steady," says Garner, who contributed several creations. "You can just imagine what a calming force he is and how scared Jake must have been."
There were plenty of scary moments as doctors struggled to find Jake an effective mix of antiseizure medications. When the family—including wife Elizabeth, 37, and sons Ben, 5, and Sam, 2—was at Disneyland for an Alias promotional event last June, Jake had the most severe seizure he'd ever experienced and had to be helicoptered to the hospital. "I was on the gurney wheeling him in like, 'Jakey, you're going to be fine,' but I was crying inside," says Grunberg. "That was the worst night of my life." Finally, a doctor at the UCLA pediatric neurology division was able to regulate his seizures with two drugs, Lamictal and Keppra. The mixture, says Grunberg, "absolutely saved my son's life."
That made his next move easy. Wanting to give back to the pediatric neurology department, Grunberg discovered that the fund-raisers thrown by PEP (run by parents whose children are undergoing treatment at the department) netted no more than $3,500, and he sprang into action. The onetime casual painter decided to auction off celebrity finger paintings and approached his Alias castmates to pitch in. "It was a no-brainer," says Michael Vartan. "I would have done it even for somebody else's kid, but I love Jake and wanted to help." Many in Hollywood felt the same way. Grunberg doggedly worked the phones and signed up Teri Hatcher, David Schwimmer and Sarah Jessica Parker. He assembled more than 100 paintings, which are now sold as greeting cards online (celebritycards.com). Grunberg also is auctioning off 50 Gibson guitars finger painted by celebs like Alanis Morissette, Donald Trump and the Black Eyed Peas on guitarcenter.com.
With the money he's raising for PEP ($350,000 and counting), he hopes the UCLA division will "be fine for a long time," says Grunberg. Jake, too, is prospering with his new medication, but his dad won't stop hounding celebs to lend a hand—or at least a finger—until he raises enough research money to cure epilepsy. Stars "can run but they can't hide," he says, slipping into his Alias persona. "I can track anybody down."
Jason Lynch. Dana Meltzer in Los Angeles
- Contributors:
- Dana Meltzer.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
