Grammy Award-winning music group Green Day and writer Nora Ephron are among those being honored with the USA Network's second annual Character Approved Awards, a multimedia campaign honoring individuals who are changing the face of American culture. A cocktail party for the honorees, sponsored by USA and Vanity Fair, will be held in New York City on Thursday, February 25.

Green Day are the writers of the upcoming Broadway musical, American Idiot, which is based on the group's award-winning CD. Ephron is currently represented as the co-author of the Off-Broadway play Love, Loss, and What I Wore. She is also the writer and director of the Oscar-nominated film, Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep.

Other honorees included film director Kathryn Bigelow, who is nominated for an Oscar for her work on The Hurt Locker, fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez, and chef Dan Barber.