The Center for American Progress was packed with so many heartthrobs last night I thought I was at the Teen Choice Awards. “There’s Ryan Gosling!” I squealed as the Academy Award-nominated hottie from The Notebook walked by.

Ryan Gosling talks about his recent trip to Uganda at the Center for American Progress Monday.

I nearly fainted when I saw Ben Mackenzie from The O.C. to my right and Melissa Fitzgerald from The West Wing to my left. But the stars weren’t there to accept awards and pose for pictures (although we did get some pretty good shots). They came to hear Gosling and a panel of experts and activists discuss ways to support the peace process in Northern Uganda at “The Way Forward in Northern Uganda.”

The O.C.'s Ben Mackenzie listens to the panel discuss what the international community can do to aid the fragile situation in Northern Uganda.

The event, sponsored by Campus Progress and ENOUGH, an initiative founded by the International Crisis Group and the Center for American Progress to confront genocide and crimes against humanity worldwide, was moderated by John Prendergast, whom a certain Campus Progress intern described as “dreamy” and “ruggedly handsome” after Prendergast stopped by the office yesterday.

John Prendergast introduces the panelists.

Joining Prendergast and Gosling were Laren Poole, a young filmmaker whose documentary Invisible Children focused on the plight of children in Northern Uganda; Jimmie Briggs, author of Innocents Lost: When Child Soldiers Go to War; Michael Poffenberger, co-founder and executive director of Resolve Uganda; and Betty Bigombe, a former Uganda government minister who has been involved in peace negotiations to end the insurgency of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) of Uganda since 1994. Bigombe seemed to steal the show as many college students who showed up to see Gosling and previously knew little about the conflict sat rapt by what she had to say and crowded to speak to her after the event.

Jimmie Briggs (second from right) urges the audience to action while (from left to right) Laren Poole, Betty Bigombe, Ryan Gosling and Michael Poffenberger look on.