Recently in Award Shows Category
Happy 27th birthday to the great Roger Federer! How cool is it that on this day, the tennis champ from Switzerland was chosen to carry his country's flag to lead out the delegation during the Opening Ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics at the National Stadium in Beijing, China.
"As the World Turns" on-screen couple Luke and Noah (Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann) presented Ellen DeGeneres with the Daytime Emmy Award Friday night for outstanding talk show host.
Bizarre that I did not even notice this until after the ceremony. Backstage, you have can watch the ceremony on TVs but when another winner comes backstage for a Q&A you often stop paying attention to the show for a few minutes. I think Tyra was holding court backstage when Nuke gave Ellen her award. They certainly are a dashing duo and Ellen, of course, is a goddess...
BEST SPEECH: Tyra Banks, hands down. Here is the best part: "They said "The Tyra Banks Show" would last two weeks, and we are entering our fourth season this September. And I just have a message for everybody out there. When you have a dream, there are going to be many people that tell you that you cannot do it, that you are not good enough. And I want you to tell them to kiss your dimply, flat, juicy, bootilicious, skinny, jiggly, saggy, fat ass."
MOST WINS: Anthony Geary, who has played Luke Spencer on "General Hospital" for about 30 years, showed, once again, that his performance and his character remain the best in daytime televisioin - with or without Laura! After picking up his record sixth Emmy Award for outstanding actor, Geary reflected backstage on why he was so emotional about it: "It gets more exciting. Soap operas are becoming the young persons game so at my age, I become more excited every time I'm nominated."
LONGTIME COMING: Jeanne Cooper, at last, won the Emmy for outstanding lead actress for her longtime role on "The Young and the Restless." The 79-year-old actress had a hilarious opening line to her speech: "I bet you thought I died." Then the xx-year-old reflected on how unforgiving technology can be on one's features: "Oh dear...high definition, it;s a bitch, isn't it?"
Backstage, Miss Cooper said she only made up her kind to come to the kudofest on Monday after some pressure from various higher ups on the show and the network. Her win, she said, "is totally shocking to me. So many good, performances turned in. It's always shocking (pause) When you lose...There are about three times I thought I should have (won)" "I received lifetime achievement award and that, of course, is a thrill, a big thrill. Winning was a different kind of thrill:"
HOSTS WITH THE MOST: Big kudos to Cameron Mathison and Sherri Shepard who brought so much energy and fun to their jobs and, in the process, re-invigorated the entire Daytime Emmys franchise. Producers wisely had nominees sitting at tables like the Golden Globe Awards and this allowed our completely charming hosts to mingle with the high profile guests like Barbara Walters and other nominees. ABC would be very wise to ask these two back in the future. Sherri looked sensationally slim in all three of her outfits and Cameron is so good looking that you want to slap him but don't because he also seems like a genuinely nice guy. He told us backstage that while the hosting part of his career has taken off, "All My Children" remains his top gig because it's like family and, frankly, "it pays the best." Meanwhile, Sherri thinks the two of them should headline some kind of sitcom together.
In closing, I have some thoughts about this whole Daytime Emmy Awards experience. The funny thing about daytime stars is that when you see one like Susan Lucci or one that is on a show you watch like Van Hansis, you get excited and want to talk to them. But if you don 't watch their show, you could have no idea who the heck they are. You totally blow them off on the red carpet and an hour later, they are on national television accepting an Emmy! But whoever they are, I've never seen a group more accessible to their fans and to the press. It was such a fun event because of all the good vibes in the air. I had a great time!
When it comes to the red carpet at the Daytime Emmy Awards, EllenDeGeneres is an absolute rock star.
"Ellen! Ellen! Over here!" "Ellen! Look this way!" Ellen, just one question!" That last urgent request came from me and Ellen and fiancee Portia de Rossi did pause for a quick question and I asked how badly she wanted to win.
"Sure I want to win," she said. "But if you don't win, it doesn't really matter because happy for other people to win. But of course I want to win."
So I asked Portia: "Would she really be happy for someone else?"
"Oh yeah," Portia said. "She really is happy for other people. The ladies on "The View" have been nominated 11 times and they haven't won yet."
As it turned out, Ellen could be happy for herself as she won outstanding talk show host - her fourth consecutuve triumph in the category and the co-hosts of "The View" are starting their olwn streak of Susan Lucci proportions. Lucci was famously nominated 19 times before finally winning for her role as Erica Kane on "All My Children."
Ellen and Portia were among the stars sweating under the intense afternoon heat in Hollywood as they made their way up a long red carpet leading to the Kodak Theatre.
But soap opera queen Lucci was regal and cool as a cucumber with someone from ABC keeping her shaded underneath an umbrella. I'm going to feature our interview in a seperate column next week.
Just about an hour before showtime, co-hosts Cameron Mathison and Sherri Shepard did red carpet interviews and I gabbed with both of them wanting to know how they were holding up.
Cameron said Sherri "keeps coming up with funnier and funnier stuff. I'm just her straight man. i just love working with her."
Sherri looked glamorous and slimmer than every in her blue gown and told me: "I stopped eating so I could fit into my dress, I haven't eaten in about three or four days. I'm really hungry."
My spot on the red carpet was right next to a bank of male photgraphers who kept telling the actresses how gorgeous they looked and snapping a gazilion pics of them and all but ignored Luke and Noah from "As the world Turns." Nominee Van Hansis and on-screen partner Jake Silbermann stood akwardlly for a bit then moved on as the clueless photogs did not realize that these two good looking guys are involved in one of the hottest storylines in the history of daytime TV.
I chatted up handsome as ever Tuc Watkins of "One Live to Live," Tracy Bregman, a nominee and past winner for "The Young and the Restless" and her co-star Doug Davidson, Stephen Macht of "General Hospital," Jay Kenneth Johnson of "Days of Our Lives," and John Hensley who plays Luke's dad on "ATWT." My very favorite was a chat I had with Hillary B. Smith, a past Emmy winner for her role as Nora on "One Life to Live." I'll post some of these encounters in the coming days.
...ha!
Hey, I can't help it if the guy is newsworthy. It's just been announced that NPH will join the adorable Kristin Chenoweth on July 17 to reveal the nominees for the Emmy Awards which will be marking their 60th year.
I think Neil has an awfully good chance of snagging his second supporting actor in a comedy nod for "How I Met Your Mother" and it would really be cool if Tony winner Kristin was recognized for "Pushing Daisies."
The Emmy awards will air on Sunday, Sept. 21 on ABC.
What a terrific show! I watched the telecast honoring the best of Broadway at the 12th Annual Los Angeles Tony Awards Party at the Skirball Center in LA. Florence Henderson charmingly hosted the evening where Carol Channing presented Tommy Tune with a lifetime achievement award after the Tonys were over.
I can't imagine a more fun way to watch the Tonys (except maybe actually being there at Radio City Music Hall in New York). What a crowd! At my table was Tony winning composer Jeff Marx, who co-wrote "Avenue Q," and throughout the room were such stars as Charles Durning, Betty Garrett, Carol Cooke, Anne Jeffreys, Charlotte Rae, Shari Belafonte, and William Schallart, among others.
I did a joint interview with Miss Channing and Mr. Tune that I will share with you in a post later today as well as an interview with Florence Henderson.
Here are some of my impressions from the ceremony:
HOSTESS W/THE MOSTEST: Whoopi Goldberg, God bless ya. You were perfection as you showed up for little comic bits at just the right time and held the show together wonderfully. Please host again next year.
POPULAR PATTI: The crowd, which watched the show on giant screens as well as smaller flat screen TVs, was really wild about Patti LuPone. When she finished singing "Everything's Coming Up Roses" from "Gypsy," the room burst into sustained applause. Then when she won, the crowd erupted with cheers. A very popular win for this Broadway legend who, stunningly, had not won a Tony in 28 years. She had three losses since her 1980 win for "Evita" including a few years back for "Sweeney Todd." It was Patti's night and everyone loved how she takked the orchestra down when it tried to play over her.
BEST REUNION: The original cast of "Rent" did a moving tribute to the late Jonathan Larsen who died before his ground-breaking show opened. It has now passed 5000 performances on Broadway.
NICE TOUCH: Having Jack Klugman, Broadway's original Herbie in "Gypsy," introduce LuPone's musical number.
ANNOYING PRESENTER: Julie Chen. She did a fine job, for a robot. (Her nickname is Chenbot). So why, other than the fact that she is married to CBS honcho Les Moonves, is the host of "Big Brother" on the Tony telecast? As if she's not already rammed down our throats enough already. A completely uninteresting television "personality."
SCARIEST PRESENTER: Was the the Unibomber accepting Stephen Sondheim's lifetime achievement award? No, it was Mandy Patinkin who doesn't seem to have shaved since quitting "Criminal Minds" a year ago.
HOTTEST GUYS: Hands down, Cheyene Jackson wearing those short shorts and singing a number from "Xanadu." He's so handsome, so built, so talented and so gay! The perfect man. Runners-up: Anthony Rapp and Taye Diggs from "Rent" cast and, one of the sexiest men alive: Harry Connick Jr.
LOOKING GOOD: A pair of sixtysomething actresses who are also three-time Tony winners looked as good as they ever have when they walked out to present awards: Liza Minnelli and Glenn Close. Glenn always seems to look sensational as she is clearly fit and either has the best genes on Earth or a really superb plastic surgeon. Either way, she's still hot! As for Liza, she walked out in a little black dress and she's thin again! I love Liza even when she married that creepy hair plugs dude so I'm glad to see she is in one of her healthy stretches. Still, Is it just me or did it seem like one side of her mouth was kind of paralyzed?
OK, so back at the Skirball: there was a silent auction and I bid on beautifully framed and signed posters of Bernadette Peters' "Gypsy" (bidding for LuPone's started at $250) and "The Country Girl" signed by Peter Gallagher, Morgan Freeman and Frances McDormand. I checked moments before the auction closed and had been outbid on "Gypsy" but "Country Girl" seemed to be mine. But, in the end, someone else got there under the wire and outbid me! Dammit!
Still, it was a good dinner, good wine, nice company. I asked Jeff Marx where his "Avenue Q" Tony Award is kept and he said at his parent's house in Hollywood, FL. "but it comes back to visit every once in awhile if I need it to speak at a college or something." Florence was kind enough to keep the crowd updated on the score of the Lskers-Celtics game during commercial breaks as well as Tiger Woods' US Open progress. They oughta let her host the Tonys themselves. Florence Henderson is an amazing woman and one of the real, great showbiz pros.
The year was 1980 and Patti LuPone beat out, among others, Sandy Duncan in "Peter Pan" and Ann Miller in "Sugar Babies."
It is 28 years later and again Tony Award night. Miss LuPone is the front-runner to win her second Tony, this time for "Gypsy." I'm rooting for her and will be watching the telecast live at a Tony event in LA where Tommy Tune will be honored and Carol Channing will be among the celebrity guests.
I'll have a recap later...
Here is a Tony Awards number from the mid-90s with then-host Rosie O'Donnell, Patti LuPone, Betty Buckley and Jennifer Holliday...
Whoopi Goldberg, so perfect as the moderator on "The View," seems to have done it all in showbiz. She's an Oscar winner ("Ghost"), she's headlined big box office hits ("Sister Act") and a classic ("The Color Purple"), headlined on Broadway ("Ma Rainey's Black Bottom") had her own talk show, sitcom and radio show, and hosted everything from the Academy Awards to the Grammys to Comic Relief.
But she has never hosted the Tony Awards. Until now.
Whoopi will emcee the 2008 telecast of Broadway's big night, after two years in which the award ceremony had no single host. In 2005 Hugh Jackman served as host for the third year in a row. A large group of presenters and performers served as collective hosts in 2006 and 2007. Other multiple-year hosts have included Rosie O'Donnell who did three years in a row in the 90s and Angela Lansbury.
CBS will broadcast the Tonys live from Radio City Music Hall on June 15. Nominations will be announced Tuesday.
I'm watching "The View" (Elisabeth Hasselbeck is beyond irritating today but Whoopi controls her better than Rosie could) and they are announcing the Daytime Emmy nominations. Van Hansis walked out to announce the outstanding young actress contenders and when he was finished, it was announced that he had been nominated for outstanding young male actor. I have raved about his skillful performance as gay teen Luke . He makes us believe in Luke and care about him no matter how outrageous the storylines and no matter how many months pass without him kissing his boyfriend.
Also nominated in the talk show categories: Ellen DeGeneres nominated as host and her show got a nod as did "The View" and its five co-hosts - even Hasselbeck.
Next to the Oscars, the GLAAD Awards are probably my favorite kudofest to cover all damned year. It's just so GAY and fun. Everyone there is either gay or gay-friendly. Well, I guess it really isn't very different from the Academy Awards!
I arrived at the Kodak Theatre just after 4 p.m. to make sure I got checked in and situated on the red carpet. I had both a press credential and a VIP ticket for the cocktail party, the show itself and the gala dinner following the show. Last year, I wandered back and forth from the red carpet to the cocktail party but this year, things were roped off in a very imposing way. But I spotted these bottles of some kind of vitamin water at the bar and decided to grab one. I stupidly asked the guard near me if that was cool with him. Of course it wasn't! It may have been 10 feet from us but he was not gonna let me fetch a drink despite my ticket. I remarked that it is better to say sorry than ask permission and got a fellow journalist - Japhy Grant - to toss me a bottle. He was standing in this forbidden area with Logo's Jason Belini and Itay Hod. They didn't ask permission. Smart guys.
As stars began to appear, I noticed a strange phenomenon: red carpet squatters! Some woman with booze on her breath and slurring her words planted herself next to me and said she was friends with one of the sponsors and was taking photos. I held my tongue until she interrupted my interview with Kathy Griffin. After Kathy left, I turned to her and said, "You have got to move before I turn you in." Booze breath disappeared quick! Then there was the woman on my left who said she was from KCBS/KCAL. She had a generic mic and was shooting her own video. i know there have been budget cuts but pul-eeze. She didn't interrupt my interviews so I let her stay.
The frustrating thing about red carpets is unless you are one of the first 5-6 outlets in the line, the handlers try to limit you to one or two questions before they pull the star. So you have to really try and keep the star engaged and just ignore the handler who is making that sign across their neck that means "cut it off!"
I'll be sharing the interviews throughout the week but here is a rundown of who I gabbed with and my impressions: Janet Jackson (Speak up! Can't hear ya!), Tom Ford (Hello, gorgeous!), Jackie Warner of Bravo's "Workout" (absolutely awesome and inspiring), TR Knight (Can I see your boyfriend's ID?), Christopher Gorham (having a very good hair day and a very cute face day), Lesie Jordan (A delight!), Jeff Lewis of Bravo's "Flipping Out" (just like he is on television!), Maeve Quinlan who plays the mother of a gay teen on "South of Nowhere" (Could every actress please be this articulate and thoughtful?), Billy Baldwin (You really are the cutest Baldwin brother!), Ron Rifkin of "Ugly Betty" (Do you really want to be giving this interview? You look like you'd rather have needles in your eyes), Sofia Vergara (my new girl crush!), Rufus Wainwright (fabulous in so many ways), Andrea James and Calpernia Adams (Gorgeous gals!) and Jennifer Beals (Why are you so damned serious all the time!).
By the time the show started, I was happy to be able to sit down! I sat next to a cute writer-actor named Troy who I gabbed with before the show and felt really stupid when I complained about how high up our seats were. Mine was a complimentary seat. His cost $450.
Gulp.
Will write about the show in a seperate post. So let's zip on ahead to the after-party.. First of all, I had not eaten since 10 a.m. and forgot to put a Clif bar or something in my bag which I usually do at awards shows. So by the time the show was at the half-way point, i started to imagine that everyone sitting in front of me was a drumstick and all the little people way down there on the stage were french fries!
So once the show ended, basically bolted for the escalator upstairs to the ballroom where there was suddenly a logjam. I ask a security guard what the hold-up is. He says they have not yet opened the doors to the dinner. Ugh. But I forget about my hunger when John Amaechi stepped out of an elevator near me (John, a former NBA player, is hard to miss!) and we exchanged hellos and a hug. Then the doors open and I head straight to my table, wolf down the salad that is already at my spot then go outside to briefly hunt for stars with my pal Jim Key (pictured w/me, above). We see Billy Baldwin and get a picture snapped with this tall drink of water. I head back in and the entree is waiting for me (I had asked the waiter to [place it there even if I wasn't back at my seat). It was chicken and some kind of potsticker things. I ate it fast, made minimal chit chat, plowed through the gift bag then headed back out. Worked the room and saw Wilson Cruz who I adore and got a picture with he and Mr. Amaechi and remarked that I was in the middle of an interesting sandwich. (Is that naughty? I didn't mean it that way, honest!)
But it was best running into Tuc Watkins, the handsome actor who plays one-half of the gay couple on "Desperate Housewives," has played the scheming David Vickers on "One Life to Live" on and off for more than 10 years, and played a gay TV exec on one of my favorite all-time shows: "Beggars and Choosers." As I walked up, he said, "Greg, right?" I figured he got a copy of the column I wrote on him last fall. He never got it but said, "I remember talking to you because you ask really insightful questions. I remember it was a really good interview."
I loved the compliment for sure but wanted some scoop: What about this gay commitment ceremony on the season finale. Tuc said they are just beginning to work on it and seemed unsure of just how much he could say about. Just then Marc Cherry, his boss on the show, walked up and I moved on to let them chat. Good thing Marc had earlier provided me with some info.
That was about it. Saw lots of friends and fellow journalists but I don't want to bore you with all that! I know you just want the glitz, the glamour and the celeb dish!
-- Thanks to photographer extraordinaire Brian Putman for the pics!
The GLAAD Media Awards were a pretty star-studded affair but there was no star who burned brighter than the event's big honoree Janet Jackson who got the night's only standing ovation.
She only did a few non-televised red carpet interviews and, somehow, one of them was with me. So it was quite surreal experience to be talking to her then to suddenly be surrounded by, literally, dozens of tape recorders and microphones of other reporters horning in on our chat.
Janet just kept talking like it happens all the time, which I'm sure it does! I wanted to know how she felt about being honored by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation with its Vanguard Award for her influence in increasing awareness of HIV/AIDS and LGBT equality in the mainstream media.
"I love it," Janet said. "I never expected it in a million years so when I heard they wanted to honor me, I was really taken aback. It's just for the work that I've done with AIDS and acknowledging the gay and lesbian community through my music and so on. I'm just very appreciative."
Janet, whose chart-topping single "Together Again" was a tribute to the close friends she lost to AIDS, said she grew up in a very gay-friendly household.
"Even when I was younger, when I was growing up, my mother was very religious but there were a lot of kids who were dancers that she brought into the home and now that I think about it, think back, they were gay. They all called her mother and she treated every one of them like they were her children. And that's where it kind of started I suppose and I've been around the community all my life."
Janet's award was presented Saturday night inside a sold-out Kodak Theater in Hollywood by Ellen DeGeneres. Other stars in attendance included Billy Baldwin, Wilson Cruz, Jennifer Beals, Cindy Crawford, Sharon Stone, Christopher Gorham, Sally Field, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, Leslie Jordan, Becki Newton, Michael Urie and Candis Cayne, among others.
More reports from the GLAAD Awards to come over the next several days!
I had a ringside seat for the 40th Annual Academy of Magical Arts Awards show on Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel and it was certainly worth putting on my tuxedo for. I didn't know much about this great entertainment tradition but sure learned a lot about it over the course of a very entertaining evening. There were plenty of celebrity presenters mixed in with performances of various magicians who did some amazing tricks that I couldn't even begin to wrap my head around.
You also know it's gonna be a fun awards show when among the celebs on stage are Neil Patrick Harris and Bruce Vilanch.
Neil to Bruce: "There's a lot more to show business than just doing tricks!"
Bruce: "This is not what Bette Midler told me."
Later, the famously overweight and shaggy-haired Bruce (wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Big Boned") suddenly noticed his image being projected on a large video screen and said: "That's a very scary close up. I look like Anna Nicole's mother!"
Jason Alexander performed a magic trick with Loni Anderson and also provided some comic relief by taking the stage on several occasions to poke fun at some of anything and everything including the ballroom's sound system: "I sound like I'm ground control at NASA" and the unfortunate height of the podium: "I like when I'm standing here in front of a roomful of people, to be able to rest my nipples."
I was seated at the same table near the stage as Rose Marie, the great star of "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Hollywood Squares" and scores of other TV shows. She addressed the crowd from the table, told a few stories, and described the castle as "the most wonderful place in the world...I have worked with every damned magician and that goes way back...I had a magician come over to me and say, 'You worked with my father' and he was 80 years old!
I started the evening on the red carpet chatting up the various celebs on hand including a gorgeous Loni Anderson, actor Bruce Davison who was Oscar-nominated for "Longtime Companion," Bob Barker, Julie Newmar and several others. My interviews with them will be popping up on the site in the coming days and weeks. Also there were Tippi Hedren, June Lockhart, and Hal Sparks, among others.
As the start of dinner grew closer, there was a bit of a red carpet log jam. Jason Alexander and I had been trying to connect but he kept getting pulled away then when he was finally ready, I was deep in conversation with Neil Patrick Harris. So what did this great star of "Seinfeld," the Broadway stage and films do? He casually leans against a wall and waits a good five minutes for me to finish with NHP.
While Jason was a great sport, the same cannot be said of David Krumholtz who stars in the CBS drama "Numb3rs" as a crime-solving math professor. I've never seen the show so I didn't recognize Krumholtz right off the bat but saw him being interviewed by a few people and was curious. So when he walked by, I (gasp!) asked him his name.
A star of his magnitude clearly was not pleased: "What a question," he snapped. "I'm not gonna answer that." Then he walked away shaking his head in that "Can you believe that guy?" kinda way. I was still curious so I asked the TV reporter who had just finished interviewing him before my David Spade-like "SNL" moment ("And you are???") and the TV dude said: "I don't know his name but he was in "10 Things I Hate About You." So OK, I've since looked up his credits. He's done many TV shows and feature films including playing Bernard the elf in "The Santa Clause" and its first sequel. Ironically, one of his other movie credits is 2005's "Guess Who."
The week began on such a high with all the Oscar hoopla and ended quite emotionally with layoffs in my newsrooms and having to abruptly say goodbye to 22 people. So, I want to make my final post of the day a collection of happy memories from the Academy Awards. Here are most of the other Oscar-related posts from this week in case ya missed some of them:
-- On the Red Carpet at the Academy Awards
-- Academy Awards: Backstage Moments with the winners...
-- Academy Awards: Inside the Governors Ball
-- Scott Rudin ends Oscar telecast on a queer note...
-- Academy Awards: Greg's Red Carpet Snaps...
-- Red Carpet Slight of Hand...
-- Chatting up Donny Osmond on Oscar's red carpet...
I gotta say, this was the most fun that I've ever had at the Academy Awards. It was just one of those years that was filled with good vibes. good interviews and a lot of excitement. It's days like this that make me so grateful for what I do and to be able to have the opportunities to have a front row seat to some of these big Hollywood events. I am so not over it! I wanted to share with you some of the snapshots I took while on the red carpet. Some aren't the best because I was juggling a tape recorder, cell phone and camera kinda all at once.
The Denzel Washington-directed drama "The Great Debaters" may have been ignored by Oscar voters, but the movie about a college debate team was the big winner at the 39th annual NAACP Image Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on Thursday night. I was backstage when Washington celebrated winning best picture and best actor along with the movie's Jurnee Smollett (best actress) and Denzel Whitaker (supporting actor).
"I'm happy for everybody up here," a beaming Denzel said. "I've been very fortunate to be at a lot of awards but I'm very grateful for this one and happy that some of these young people are being recognized."
Denzel, who had longer hair than usual in the film, was asked about why he was now sporting a completely bald head. He explained that he is about to start shooting a film with Tony Scott and John Travolta and "I'm fiddling around with different looks."
Actor/writer/filmmaker Tyler Perry also a big winner. His TBS series "House of Payne" won three awards including comedy series and Janet Jackson won best supporting actress for Perry's film "Why Did I Get Married?" Backstage, he said it wasn't as difficult as people think for him to juggle his different roles in each production: "It's whatever I'm doing a the time. Acting has its place, writing has its place, producing has its place."
But, Perry admitted, he is a busy man.
"This year has been crazy, it's been very, very overwhelming for me," he said. "There's a lot going on.
Herbie Hancock, fresh off his shock Grammy win for Album of the Year, talked backstage about the experience of that victory on Sunday night: "I think it's very clear that I was truly, like, stunned. But there was amazing joy that I felt. I really wanted to share that feeling with the people there that night. It was a really humbling moment for me and for jazz."
Presenter India.Arie didn't win a Grammy and had mentioned on the air that she had pointedly skipped the show despite being nominated. Backstage, she elaborated a bit: "It was a very quiet boycott but I boycotted it...I was tired of the politics. It hurts to know that you are going to be ignored. Yes, the Grammys, they annoy me... I was at home on the couch eating chocolates and laughing and crying and watching the TV and yelling. It was more authentic for me. I didn't feel I had any reason to be there and I was right. Some things are so predictable that it just makes you mad."
"CSI: NY" star Hill Harper, winner of the best actor in a drama series award, talked more
backstage about campaigning for Barack Obama than about his win: "Barack Obama and I have known each other 20 years, we went to Harvard Law School together. I've been working very hard. It's been a wonderful experience, a wonderful journey. We have a long way to go. He's running against an incredible candidate. I've known for all these years how magnificant and brilliant and caring he is as an individual."
Since special honoree Ruby Dee has been an inspiration to so many, she was asked backstage who had been her inspiration. She shared a story about Emma, the woman who raised her and her three siblings and who she considers her mother: "She turned my life in a whole different course than it might have been having come from teenaged parents...kids who were parents before they should have been. ...She was 13 years older than my father and wanted to raise us all...I had a gift for words and language and expressing myself and she recognized that. Being an educator herself, she was atuned to these kinds of things of in all four of these children. She had become the mother of us.... We have to pay attention to our chidlren, she taught me that. My mother, Emma."
Things started a little dodgy with having to park in the assigned lot that is a full city block away from The Shrine. It included having to walk under the freeway lugging a laptop and I gotta say, I was royally pissed. I've never covered these awards before and vowed to never do it again. I mean, no shuttles? Then a bottleneck at the entrance to the red carpet. The only cool part was at least I was stuck next to Chandra Wilson of "Grey's Anatomy" (pictured above).
Anyway, the red carpet at the NAACP Image Awards was kinda like watching a NASCAR race: Oh, there went Vanessa Williams. Whoosh! Taye Diggs...whoosh! Stevie Wonder...whoosh! No time to talk to do print inrerviews it seems. People to see, places to go I guess.
But some of the stars I did chat up more than made walking under the freeway well worth it. First of all, there was the divine Loretta Devine who is such a hoot! And right before they closed down the carpet, got to have a chat with Audra MacDonald, the four time Tony winner and star of ABC's "Private Practice." Also great to talk to CCH Pounder from "The Shield" and Regina Taylor of "The Unit" but to me, will always be the star of the sublime "I'll Fly away." Had a nice talk with Denzel Whittaker who was so terrific in "The Great Debaters" and "Everybody Loves Chris" star Tyler James Williams.
Then headed backstage
Well, I'm backstage at the NAACP Awards and the show is just getting started. Janet Jackson has just won the supporting actress prize for "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married" beating out Oscar nominee Ruby Dee. (huh?)
"I was really not expecting this," she said.
Me neither honey.
Host DL Hughley made a crack about Aretha Franklin, making sure to introduce her as "The Queen of Soul" to avoid getting a nasty email from her majesty, She's in the front row and being honored right now and is wearing some kinda crazy of wacky outfit. I like the wig though.
Jordin Sparks at the choir The Sounds of Blackness sing "R-E-S-P-E-C-T" and Tyler Perry introduced her as "the one and only queen of soul." Aretha is clearly having a better night than the one on Sunday when she was dethroned by Beyonce who dared to call Tina Turner the queen.
"This is the icing on the cake for me," Aretha said as she accepted the Vanguard Award. "I've had a wonderful and memorable two weeks out here in Los Angeles and I'm going home in a couple of days with wonderful memories..."
Basically spent the weekend in a tuxedo.
But I left my umbrella on the red carpet at the Palm Springs Film Festival a few weeks ago and hadn't replaced it. I was pretty much getting away with it until this weekend when I attended the Director's Guild of America Awards on Saturday and the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday. More on my umbrella-less adventures later.
I invited my fun friend Jim Key to the DGAs which he had never attended before, We had a great time at the arrivals line as I chatted up celebs like Hal Holbrook and Debra Messing and Amy Ryan. Then we sat down to dinner which was some really good fliet mignon! Then the ceremony: it was star-studded and had some wonderful moments but ultimately, dragged on too long with some of the special award recipients - while deserving - should have been advised to speak from the heart instead of reading multi-page speeches that brought the proceedings to a halt. They really sucked the life out of an audience waiting to see who would win the damned main prize and had me ready to slit my wrists since I was way past deadline!
Once it was over, Jim and I hung out in the lobby just to people watch a little and started chatting up Matthew St. Patrick who played Keith on "Six Feet Under." He has been quite busy since the series ended with the short-lived series "Reunion" and several films roles, including two coming out this year.
We headed out after a bit and when we got to the ground floor of the Century Plaza Hotel, we saw that it was pouring rain. Neither of us had an umbrella (it was not raining when we arrived) and we both had on rather nice tuxedos that we were not keen on getting wet. We had self-parked in order to avoid the massive wait at the valet line but the problem was, to get to the parking garage, you have to go ariund the hotel and cross a bridge. I remembered that the hotel had a restaurant on the ground floor and thought if it had a backdoor, it might cut down on our journey.
Bingo! There was a backdoor leading straight to the middle of the bridge. We put our programs over our heads and dashed across. Still got pretty soaked but it woulda been much worse had we taken the long way! That's Jim and I (below) at the dinner before we ventured into the rain...
My tux dried in time for me to put it on for the SAG Awards on Sunday but when I got ready to leave at around noon, i looked out the window and it was pouring rain. I had to get an umbrella. On the way to the Shrine Auditorium, I stopped by a Rite Aid. Sold out. Next, a Walgreens. Sold out.
Screw it, I'm just gonna hope for the best. And I got lucky. Got to the Shrine and there was a temporary reprieve so got to the auditorium from the parking structure nice and dry. But once I took my position on the red carpet, I discovered that I was standing under a nice, big DRIP coming through the plastic covering they had erected to keep the celebs nice and dry. Sure, keep them dry but put me under a leaky faucet.
My co-worker Sandra Bererra was next to me doing the fashion interviews and offered up her umbrella but I woulda felt silly. So, there I stood, for two hours, constantly harassed by this persistant...DRIP!
Once the show started, we dashed inside just ahead of Ryan Gosling and set up our laptops in the press room where the winners come after they are finished with all the tv interviews etc. We had the cast of "the Sopranos" come back but it was loud and confusing and I just tuned them out. But the cast from "The Office" were a riot! They were all individually funny and I gotta say, I don't watch the show but their backstage humor made me want to spend more time with these people.
A lot of the main acting winner blew us off but Daniel Day-Lewis and Julie Christie came on back so that was cool. After it wrapped up, Sandra offered to walk with me to the garage since she had an umbrella. She was being helpful and went to unplug my laptop and accidentally unplugged the computer of a radiop reporter! He cursed and huffed and was so steamed. Sandra was mortified but for some reason, the whole episode gave me the church giggles. He was muttering and I was ready to burst.
We got out of the building and...no rain!
Still, I gotta get myself an umbrella...
I'm backstage right now and Julie Christie - a winner tonight best actress in a movie ("Away From Her") has just left. What a fantastic-looking woman.
We were expecting Ruby Dee (above) who won for supporting actress but some girl just got on the mic and said: "No one else is coming back, please exit out the Jefferson gate...and, it's raining outside."
What a bad news bear.
Anyway, Daniel Day-Lewis was back here earlier and he was so moving in talking about Heath Ledger who he dedicated his best actor award to. This is what he said during his acceptance speech: "It's always been the work of other actors, and there are many actors in this room tonight, including my fellow nominees who have given that sense of regeneration and... Heath Ledger gave it to me. [applause] In "Monster's Ball," that character that he created, it seemed to be almost like an unformed being, retreating from themselves, retreating from his father, from his life, even retreating from us, and yet we wanted to follow him, and yet we're scared to follow him almost. It was unique. And then, of course, in "Brokeback Mountain," he was unique, he was perfect. [applause] And that scene in the trailer at the end of the film is as moving as anything that I think I've ever seen. And I'd like to dedicate this to Heath Ledger. So, thank you very much. Thank you so much."
Here is video of the speech:
It was a beautiful tribute and so from the heart. Backstage, Daniel said that even though he had never met Heath, he had been thinking of little else since the young actor's death on Tuesday at the age of 28: "I thought he was beautiful. I just had a very strong feeling I would have liked him very much as a man," he said. "I admired him very much. I'm absolutely certain he would have done many wonderful things in his life. We should leave him alone and we should leave his family alone to suffer their unimaginable grief in private, and it's not going to happen," Day-Lewis said backstage. "We should just stop encouraging people to have greater and greater interest in raking over every detail, which is none of our business anyhow."
Sorry, I didn't get to talk to Brad and Angelina but I did see them walk by. I saw a lot of movie stars walk by, or blow by I should say. Once they do the television interviews, we print and online reporters sometimes don't get to gab with the likes of Cate Blanchett or Josh Brolin or Daniel Day-Lewis or even Zac Efron. But we get to see them wave and seeming to say under their breath: "Sorry suckers!"
But I'll tell ya, just seeing the great Ruby Dee walk by is better than talking to just about anyone and how great that once she got inside, she won the best supporting actress prize for "American Gangster." Will an Oscar follow?
Anyway, it was tough to tell whether the red carpet at the Shrine Auditorium was the site of the arrivals for the Screen Actors Guild Awards or the site of a giant family reunion - make that a reunion under a plastic tent to keep the rain out.
The ongoing writers strike meant that many of the actors who star in such shows as "Desperate Housewives," "Ugly Betty," "Mad Men" "Grey's Anatomy" and "The Office" had not seen each other since production shut down in December, or in some cases even earlier.
"It's exciting to be here and see all of our teammates," said Nicollette Sheridan of "Housewives." "It's nice to see a higher morale because the strike has been devastating for so many."
A nominee for "Samantha Who?," Christina Applegate started our chat by coughing. She was fighting a cold but being a showbiz trouper, she was there on the red carpet looking like a million bucks.
She lamented on how the strike put a halt to what is a hot new show.
"It's been a great ride and it's been hard to kind of just stop," she said. "It's like a just treadmill turning off when you're on like, nine. It's caused some damage, to everyone I think creatively but we had to support our writers, I agree with them. But it's time to get back to work because a lot of us are going looney."
Even though Tina Fey ended up winning the award for comedy actress, Christina said she was thrilled to be attending her first SAG award show as a nominee: "You don't do your work for that but when it does happen, it's so nice. I'm always surprised and I'm always so humbled and so grateful. It's huge to me to be recognized by my peers."
John Slattery was one of the few double nominees on the red carpet with the casts of both "Mad Men" and "Desperate Housewives" up for ensemble awards. But he would be sitting with the "Mad Men" gang.
"This is the first time I've been here and it's a zoo!" he told me. "It's a little overwhelming but it's good, it's fun."
What about being so in demand these days?
"It's good to be working, I've been lucky," he said. "I wish the strike would work itself out so we can all really get back to work. "
It was really fun to meet John Krazinski of "The Office" whose cast won the SAG award for best ensemble in a comedy series for the second consecutive year. Prior to the show, John wasn't too confident of another win.
"It's really hard," he said. "Not to sound political but all the shows this year, they're fantastic and I watch all of them. But this is probably one of the most fun shows to be a part of."
John is making a nice career for himself in the movies too with a starring role in the comedy "License to Wed" and will next appear opposite George Clooney in "Leatherheads."
"This guy George Clooney, he's gonna be a big star," John joked. "Mark my words."
It was so great to see the classy Hal Holbrook and his wife, Dixie Carter.
I asked Dixie how it feels to have her husband of nearly 25 years nominated for both the SAG award and an Oscar for his performance in "Into the Wild."
"I am dizziy with delight," said Dixie, best known as Julia Sugarbaker on "Designing Women." "It's dreamy and unforeseen and glorious turn of events as you can imagine. So I'm smiling all the time."
I gotta get ready for the SAG Awards in a bit but wanted to share some of my red carpet interviews from last night's Director's Guild of America Awards. I had such great chats with Lorainne Bracco, Debra Messing and Kristen Chenoweth that I'm going to save those for columns later this week. But here are some of the others...
Amy Ryan, Oscar nominated for her performance in "Gone Baby Gone," was one of the presenters and I asked her how she was coping with the awards season hoopla. She has already won many critics prizes and will compete for the SAG Award tonight: "I'm hanging in there, a lot of Airborne, a lot of vitamins. I'm really enjoying it. It was surreal in the beginning but I'm more in the moment now. The nice thing is, you get used to it out there from show to show. It's a great party to be at."
So, how badly does she want to win that Oscar?
"I thought about it in the beginning and then it just dawned on me that it doesn't really matter because everyone's winner. If you don't win, look at the company you're with who also didn't win. That's really good company to be in. It's not like you get demoted back to the end of the line. You get to stay arms-length with four amazing actresses and I'd be proud to be there."
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It was fun to talk to first-time DGA nominee Tony Gilroy who was nominated for his feature fiolm directorial debut "Michael Clayton." He also wrote the script and is a double Oscar nominee. We spoke on Oscar morning nominations morning earlier in the week and I wondered if it had sunk in yet.
"Maybe it will around Memorial Day," he said.
And he isn't sweating over whether he will win: "You know what? I would have quit in October and it would have felt like I'd already won. I have the great luxury of not expecting very much going forward - honestly not expecting very much. There's no huge expectation. I don't have that burden."
He is getting used to the awards show scene now: "We started in Venice and that was sort of like stepping into a hurricane and I'm getting a little bit better at it. I've watched George [Clooney] do this and I've seen what a real pro looks like."
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My favorite interview of the night came when chatting up the great Hal Holbrook (pictured presenting with Emile Hirsch), Oscar nominated for "Into the Wild." We had done a telephone interview last month and he told me he had read my column on him and that he was greatly moved by it. He had meant to write a note. Who needs a note? To have him say that meant the world.
Hal has won four Emmys and a Tony Award during his long and distinguished career. To get his first Oscar nod at the age of 82 have been icing in the cake: "Well, you know there isn't any award in the whole embrace of show business that could top the Academy Award. Just getting a nomination is such a wonderful, wonderful reward - especially after you've been at this job for 65 years."
I found it shocking that Holbrook's director, Sean Penn, and co-star Emile Hirsch were not nominated for Oscars. So was Hal: "That is, that is, that is, that is unbelievable that Sean did not get nominated or the picture. And Emile! Anybody who thinks the role that Emile Hirsch had was a simple easy one, doesn't understand acting. That young man had to go through more dimensions in that role than most people ever have and they were subtle dimensions."
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I wrote earlier about a heckler during Julian Schnabel's acceptance speech. I just read in USAToday.com that the heckler was none other than Sean Young! That girl will do anything to get back into the headlines. But this not the kind of publicity that is good publcity. Here is the report: Apparently Sean Young had endured one acceptance speech too many.
At Saturday's DGA Awards, where each of the five nominated feature film directors gets to make a speech before the winner is announced, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" director Julian Schnabel was the last to deliver his words. Shortly after he took the podium, Young, seated near the stage, cut him off by shouting out, "Oh come on -- get to it!"
A shocked Schnabel searched the crowd to ask who was scolding him. When the actress repeated "get to it!" Schnabel quickly wrapped up his speech, instructing Young to finish it. But upon the audience's insistence, Schnabel finished, and Young, stumbling in her white fur coat, was escorted out of the ballroom by two security guards, and at one point fell to the floor.
Oh my.
The Directors Guild of America Awards ceremony ended about 90 minutes ago with Joel Coen and Ethan Coen winning the feature film directing award for "No Country for Old Men." They were presented the award by last year's winner, Martin Scorsese, who brought a glass of champagne with him to the podium and toasted all the nominees before announcing the winner,
It was a star-studded affair at the Century Plaza Hotel with presenters that included 2008 Oscar nominees Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Hal Holbrook, Amy Ryan, Daniel-Day Lewis, Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page as well as Josh Brolin, Vanessa Williams, Emile Hirsch, Debra Messing, Chi McBride, Kristin Chenoweth, Anna Paquin, John Larroquett