Robert Kahn: backstage at the Red Dress show

Robert Kahn | NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER

4:57 PM EST, February 1, 2008

"Right now? I'm thinking: 'What if I trip?'" Allison Janney said, just before her maiden turn as a runway model for the Heart Truth's Red Dress Collection.

Janney, who played a presidential press secretary on TV's "The West Wing," didn't stumble in her Donna Karan dress, but she did break catwalk form to exchange a wave with front-row guest Laura Bush, who waved familiarly right back -- an act of fashionable bipartisanship.

Fifteen high-voltage entertainers slipped into red dresses by top designers Friday to help raise awareness about heart disease.

"I have a history of it in my family," Janney said. "I'm here to make sure other women are aware of it, too."

The New York Public Library became an impromptu staging ground for Ashanti, Cheryl Hines and Liza Minnelli, who settled into hair and makeup chairs there before trekking across to the tents.

Sara Ramirez was making her first stroll on a runway, wearing Angel Sanchez. Ramirez plays Dr. Callie Torres on "Grey's Anatomy," and was a Tony winner for "Monty Python's Spamalot."

"In 'Spamalot,' I wore some seriously heavy gowns with trains, so if I got through that, I can get through this," she said.

Next to Ramirez was Academy Award-winner Rita Moreno, having eyeliner applied. Moreno wore a red satin jacket from San Francisco designer Lily Samii, paired with a burnt orange tulle hat. "I said to the designer, 'Let's do a little 'West Side Story,' so they added some flashes of hot pink into the dress." Her runway music? "America," of course.