Oscar
voters honor Lee, Rowlands, Reynolds at gala
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[November 16, 2015] By
Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
Oscar voters on Saturday gave honorary awards to three
movie veterans, including director Spike Lee, at a gala
event that shone a spotlight on Hollywood's drive for
diversity amid its glitzy awards season.
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Along with Lee, whose films include “Malcolm X” and “Do the
Right Thing,” the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
gave its Governors Awards for film achievement to “Singing In
the Rain” actress Debbie Reynolds and Gena Rowlands, a champion
of independent film and star of “The Notebook.”
The Governors Awards annually is one of the academy’s key events
ahead of the Oscars, the film industry’s top awards given out in
February. Hollywood A-listers including Meryl Streep and Denzel
Washington turned out.
Security was tight at the dinner inside the Ray Dolby Ballroom
in Hollywood following Friday’s killings in Paris. Academy
president Cheryl Boone Isaacs took a moment at the beginning of
the ceremony to mourn those killed.
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“All of us here stand in solidarity and support with France and
the French people,” she said, noting that country’s long history
of film making and its love of cinema.
Boone Isaacs also talked of Hollywood’s need for more ethnic and
gender equality in the industry, a call that struck home with
Lee whose career is marked by movies dealing with race relations
in the United States.
Lee, who has been twice nominated for Oscars, talked about his
early career as a director and his desire to put more African
Americans in acting roles and in jobs behind the camera. He said
Hollywood still has a long way to go.
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We “need to have a serious discussion about diversity and get some
flavor up in here,” he said.
Rowlands, who like Lee received an “honorary Oscar,” is no stranger
to long days on movie sets. In a career that has spanned seven
decades and included films such as “A Woman Under the Influence,”
Rowlands has worked with many of the industry’s greats including her
husband, filmmaker John Cassavetes.
Reynolds, who was given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award for her
charitable work, was unable to attend due to recent surgery.
The Oscars will be given out in Hollywood on Feb. 28, 2016.
(Reporting and writing by Bob Tourtellotte in Los Angeles, editing
by Brendan O'Brien and Dominic Evans)
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