Last night the Oscars came early to Hollywood - about three months to be exact. Not the nine-hour televised extravaganza we all love to hate but the first of the honorary awards that, as of this year, were ousted from the upcoming 2010 broadcast of the show.
The Governors Awards, normally given out somewhere at the mid-point of the Oscars ceremony, were bestowed upon three legends of cinema: acclaimed actress Lauren Bacall, prolific B-movie producer Roger Corman, and the esteemed cinematographer Gordon Willis, whose work includes all three "Godfather" films and "All the President's Men."
The festivities also included the other honorary award that most Oscar watchers use as a signal to take a bathroom break or refill their nacho bowl: the Irving G. Thalberg Award. Though Bacall, Corman and Willis were on hand to receive tributes and their awards in person, Calley was too ill to attend.
Accepting on the former producer turned studio chief's behalf were Tom Hanks and seven previous Thalberg recipients: Dino De Laurentis, Norman Jewison, Warren Beatty, Walter Mirsch, Saul Zaentz, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.
Lucas received his Thalberg Award in 1992 in recognition of his body of work (note: "The Phantom Menace" had yet to be released.) To this day, Lucas, unlike contemporaries Spielberg, Coppola, and Scorsese, has yet to receive an actual Oscar statuette for any of his films.
Variety reports that the non-televised event got a thumbs-up from attendees and tribute-givers alike, who included Ron Howard, Anjelica Huston, Quentin Tarantino, Annette Bening, and Kirk Douglas. The "Spartacus" actor publicly confessed to trying to bed Bacall earlier in her career but with no success.
By all accounts the evening leisurely pace was a welcome relief to the usual bum's-rush many of the recipients are given during the regularly televised proceedings. Whether this will, in fact, make for a leaner, faster-paced ceremony come Oscar Sunday, remains to be seen until March 7, 2010 when the golden boys are handed out live on ABC.
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