--- title: Talking About "Blue Balls" With Susan Sarandon description: Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon wants men to take better care of themselves canonical: https://time.com/2889568/talking-about-blue-balls-with-susan-sarandon/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-18T14:41:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:29.595Z article:section: Health og:title: Talking Men's Health, and 'Blue Balls,' with Susan Sarandon og:description: Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon wants men to take better care of themselves og:url: https://time.com/2889568/talking-about-blue-balls-with-susan-sarandon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9ea63b398713f79/698697f606f2c10feb32f820/450408874-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1997 og:image:height: 1123 og:image:alt: 13th Annual Samsung Hope For Children Gala og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Talking Men's Health, and 'Blue Balls,' with Susan Sarandon twitter:description: Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon wants men to take better care of themselves twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9ea63b398713f79/698697f606f2c10feb32f820/450408874-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Talking About "Blue Balls" With Susan Sarandon > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 18, 2014 2:41 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 10: Susan Sarandon attends the 13th Annual Samsung Hope For Children Gala at Cipriani Wall Street on June 10, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic) NEW YORK, NY - JUNE 10: Susan Sarandon attends the 13th Annual Samsung Hope For Children Gala at Cipriani Wall Street on June 10, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by D Dipasupil/FilmMagic) D Dipasupil—FilmMagic by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Jun 18, 2014 2:41 PM UTC Susan Sarandon is yelling at the TV and her hands are in fists. It’s the Stanley Cup finals, and her beloved Rangers only need one shot to win. Everyone is screaming—even me, and I don’t root for a team that’s not the Minnesota Wild. It’s only appropriate that we are watching this time-honored testosterone fest since we are at SPiN, Sarandon’s ping pong bar in New York, to chat about men—stubborn ones in particular. And Sarandon is giving out bright blue ping pong balls for charity. For the entire month of June—men’s health month—Sarandon’s club is promoting a _Rally for Men’s Health_ at all its locations (there are SPiNs in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto and Dubai). Anyone who comes in is offered the “Blue Ball Special,” which means they will play with blue paddles and balls at a blue ping pong table. For every customer who opts for the special, SPiN will donate $1 to the Testicular Cancer Society. They will also donate $1 for every photo of a blue ball posted to Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #SPiNBlueBalls. Now that Sarandon’s business is off its feet, she says she felt it was time to start doing some good with its popularity. But why men’s health? She says men are an overlooked demographic in public health campaigns. “Men don’t go to the doctor, they don’t get checked. They need someone reminding them,” she says. And humor is the best way to do tackle the issue, she says. Sarandon has two sons and daughter, and health is something she’s tried to ingrain in them. “I used to try to buy all organic food when it was so hard to find,” she remembers. Now that she is becoming a grandmother—she is also playing one in the upcoming film “Tammy” with Melissa McCarthy—family health and wellness is on her mind. “I want this to be something we do often,” she says. Sarandon says she got into ping pong because it’s fun, but also because she wanted to encourage physical and mental health by making the sport more accessible. She’s given 14 ping pong tables to schools in New York, and some have started getting kids to play before exams to blow off steam. “I like ping pong because anyone at any age and body type can play. You can play your grandmother. Everyone can have a good time. It’s good for physical activity and mental health” she says. The campaign is meant to be fun and entertaining, and encourage men to not be embarrassed by their health. And as Sarandon sips tequila and yells at the Rangers to get it together, I’m not sure who wouldn’t take her advice. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2889568/talking-about-blue-balls-with-susan-sarandon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2889568/talking-about-blue-balls-with-susan-sarandon/"},"headline":"Talking About \"Blue Balls\" With Susan Sarandon","datePublished":"2014-06-18T14:41:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:29.595Z","description":"Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon wants men to take better care of themselves","url":"https://time.com/2889568/talking-about-blue-balls-with-susan-sarandon/","keywords":["Exercise & Fitness","Living","Susan Sarandon"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9ea63b398713f79/698697f606f2c10feb32f820/450408874-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9ea63b398713f79/698697f606f2c10feb32f820/450408874-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"13th Annual Samsung Hope For Children Gala","caption":"13th Annual Samsung Hope For Children Gala","creditText":"D Dipasupil—FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/exercisefitness/","name":"Exercise & Fitness"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2889568/talking-about-blue-balls-with-susan-sarandon/","name":"Talking About \"Blue Balls\" With Susan Sarandon"}}]}] ```