HOLLYWOOD - If there's ever a prize given to the
low-profile awards dinner garnering the most major names,
Monday's Hollywood Film Festival Awards gala would be the
hands-down winner.
The parade included Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Leonardo
DiCaprio, Warren Beatty, Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz,
Harrison Ford, Jodie Foster, Mike Myers, Billy Crystal, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Drew Barrymore and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
As Hollywood's biggest stars kept appearing on the Beverly
Hilton stage, one incredulous question kept rippling through
the audience: "How did they ever get these people to show up?"
There were a few keys to the drawing power: the honorees
knew in advance they were winning (nine of 21 kudos were life
achievement-style awards); each honoree secured his own
mega-name presenter; and, even though it's early October,
awards-campaign season has shifted into gear.
On such simple formulas do major events grow.
That's not to say that all the attendees were in a festive
mood. Several were seen to be grumbling about the whole thing,
and the acceptance speeches were sassy. When Spielberg accepted
the movie of the year award for "Minority Report," he said: "A
lot of unusual things happened this year. 'My Big Fat Greek
Wedding' outgrossed my big fat Tom Cruise movie."
And Naomi Watts, saluted with the Breakthrough Acting
Award, sighed that it was the latest newcomer award she'd
received for a movie that was released a year ago ("Mulholland
Drive") and wondered "Do I ever get to arrive?"
But other awards shows can only envy the star power. The
A-List turnout is especially impressive considering that the
sixth annual dinner was put on by the non-profit Hollywood Film
Foundation (founded by Carlos de Abreu), which according to its
most recently available tax records had $399 in net assets. (By
comparison, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has
roughly $53 million more than that).
Certainly the dinner didn't have the production values of
the Oscars. After presenter Matthew McConaughey was flummoxed
by tech mishaps, one studio exec gasped, "It's like watching
'Waiting for Guffman.'"
Still, there were times when the presentation schedule
seemed to be juggled (deftly by director Lionel Pasamonte) to
accommodate whichever heavyweight presenter arrived next at the
Beverly Hilton's backdoor. This must have been what a mid-1950s
Golden Globes was like.
But the stars turned out. "It's about loyalty and
friendship," one publicist said. Thus you had Robert Towne
accepting a screenwriting award from Beatty; Schwarzenegger
saluting Jack Valenti's leadership (he accepted with a
mercifully short speech, at least by Valentian standards); and
Janusz Kaminski taking the cinematography award from longtime
collaborator Spielberg.
Though the loyalty and friendship extended to presenting
the awards, it usually didn't stretch to sticking around
afterward. Stars would appear from behind the black curtain
adjacent to the podium, give a heartfelt speech, present the
award and skedaddle through the curtain to the Santa Monica
Boulevard exit.
And as with most kudos dinners, self-absorbed gratitude was
the norm for most of the acceptance speeches; however, there
were a few stellar moments.
Towne led the crowd into a thoughtful pause when he said:
"Until a screenwriter does his job, no one else has one."
And Hanks, pulled from his table to present a screenwriting
award to Carole Bayer Sager in place of a no-show Elizabeth
Taylor, stood at the podium with a cell phone and ad-libbed:
"Yes, you have a sore throat, and a head cold and a vicious
bloody nose ... OK, yes, thank you Mrs. Burton."