New York Times
Academy Awards 25 Years Ago: Not So Different From Today
By BRUCE FRETTS
FEB. 24, 2017

From the moment the host Billy Crystal was wheeled onstage wearing a straitjacket and a face mask à la Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs,” viewers knew the 1992 Oscars were not going to be normal.

“It was a bit like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride,” Jodie Foster, the “Silence” star who won best actress that year, recalled in a telephone interview. “You were being catapulted from one surreal experience to the next.”

The circumstances surrounding the Academy Awards 25 years ago were not so different from the ceremony set for Sunday: Presidential politics served as the backdrop (in that case, Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown, whom Mr. Crystal jokingly compared to that year’s self-destructive cinematic rebels Thelma and Louise, were trying to unseat President George Bush). Major social issues played out at the podium (then it was homophobia and sexism), and black filmmakers were making inroads. But in 1992, four of the five best-picture nominees were among the year’s top 20 domestic box-office hits; this year, that’s true for only two of the nine contenders (“Hidden Figures” and “La La Land”).

“In those days, people still believed the recipe to make a popular film was to make a good film,” Ms. Foster said. “The way the economy has shaped the industry over the last 25 years, it’s ghettoized films into either big, dumbed-down mainstream movies that are trying to attract as many audience members as possible, and movies that are substantial and meaningful, which are relegated to a different sphere.”

I asked winners, nominees and one of the show’s writers about that year’s most memorable moments.

The Show Opener

A review in The New York Times described the 1992 ceremony as “uncharacteristically lively,” and that began with the first bit the writers devised for the host. “It’s a great entrance for Anthony Hopkins in the movie, so we knew it would work with Billy,” Bruce Vilanch, one of the telecast’s writers, said in a recent telephone interview. “It was kind of irresistible.”

One-Armed Push-Ups

Jack Palance doing one-armed push-ups at the Academy Awards in 1992. Credit Craig Fujii/Associated Press
The bizarre mood was struck early when best supporting actor went to Jack Palance, Mr. Crystal’s co-star in the western comedy “City Slickers.” Mr. Palance gave, as The Times put it, a “cheerfully unprintable acceptance speech.”

“It was an odd thing to say at the Academy Awards,” Mr. Vilanch said, recalling a specific line in the speech. “But that was Jack. He was a genuinely strange and scary guy.”

Then, in a display of his virility, the 73-year-old character actor dropped to the floor and did one-armed push-ups. Backstage in the writers’ room, “we looked at each other and said, ‘We have to go with this — it’s too funny.’” Thus began a run of on-the-fly jokes from Mr. Crystal (“I was just given a bulletin: Jack Palance is now on the StairMaster”) that stretched through the night.

A Family First

For supporting actress, Mercedes Ruehl won for “The Fisher King,” but it was one of her competitors, Diane Ladd, who made Oscar history. She was the first mother to be nominated along with her daughter (Laura Dern) for the same film, the Southern drama “Rambling Rose.” Ms. Dern and Ms. Ladd also presented the award for best visual effects to “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

“When I was standing on that stage, and I looked out at my peers and then over at Laura, it was a great honor,” Ms. Ladd said. “I had to fight to keep from crying.”

A Surprise From Space

More emotional moments played out as George Lucas received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from his old friend Steven Spielberg and, in a bit of technical wizardry, the crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, complete with a floating Oscar. Another satellite link allowed the acclaimed Indian director Satyajit Ray to accept his honorary Academy Award from his hospital bed in Calcutta; he died 24 days later at 70. “Gil Cates, who produced that show, loved technology,” Mr. Vilanch said. “He always had remotes.”

Gay-Rights Protesters

Many Oscar ceremonies come with some controversy, and the 1992 show had its share. Gay-rights advocates picketed over villainous characters in “Silence” as well as in “J.F.K.” (Tommy Lee Jones was nominated for best supporting actor for his turn as a gay man put on trial and acquitted for an alleged conspiracy to kill the president) and in the just-released “Basic Instinct,” which starred Sharon Stone, who was also a presenter. “It was a good discussion, but it was also very stressful,” Ms. Foster said.

The protesters could take solace in the fact that Howard Ashman — who had died a year earlier at 40 — became the first person lost to AIDS to win an Oscar: best original song for “Beauty and the Beast.” His longtime companion, Bill Lauch, accepted the award on his behalf.

A Toon Dispute

Disney’s wildly popular “Beauty and the Beast” stirred up discord when it became the first animated film nominated for best picture, which didn’t sit well with some Oscar purists. “They created the best animated feature category after that because they didn’t want more cartoons nominated for best picture,” said. Mr. Vilanch. (Only “Up” and “Toy Story 3” have managed the feat since.)

Streisand Slight

The night’s loudest contretemps surrounded Barbra Streisand, who was passed over for a best director nomination even though her drama “The Prince of Tides” snagged a best picture nomination. The group Women in Film cited sexism. “In some circles, they said I took her slot,” said John Singleton, who at 24 became the youngest and first African-American best director nominee, for his searing debut, “Boyz N The Hood.” “What people don’t know is that I’m a huge Barbra Streisand fan. She signed my application to get me into the Directors Guild.”

Mr. Crystal gracefully defused the situation with a satirical lyric during a musical number. Referring to “The Prince of Tides,” he crooned, “Seven nominations on the shelf, did this film direct itself?” The cameras quickly cut to Ms. Streisand, laughing appreciatively.

Rookie Mistake

Mr. Singleton lost best director to Jonathan Demme for “Silence,” but he had higher hopes of winning best original screenplay. Yet the award went to another first-timer, Callie Khouri, for the feminist road-trip saga “Thelma & Louise.”

“I was trying not to jinx myself, so I wrote an acceptance speech in pencil,” Ms. Khouri said. “By the time I opened it up, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it, so I just winged it. I forgot to thank the producer, so that was fairly horrifying.” (For the record, Mimi Polk Gitlin produced the film.)

A ‘Silence’ Sweep

The biggest winner, of course, turned out to be “The Silence of the Lambs,” which became only the third film in history, after “It Happened One Night” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” to sweep the top five awards: best picture, director, actor, actress and adapted screenplay (by Ted Tally, based on Thomas Harris’s novel).

“Three years earlier, I had won best actress for ‘The Accused,’ and I was the only person nominated from the film, so I was by myself,” Ms. Foster said. “But for ‘Silence,’ it was really extraordinary — we kept winning, one after the other, and we all met backstage. I remember everybody was really hot and sweaty, and we all had our arms around one another.”

Postscript

That wasn’t the only happy ending. Five months later, Mr. Crystal, Mr. Vilanch and his fellow writers Hal Kanter, Buz Kohan, Robert Wuhl and David Steinberg took home Emmys. “We won for throwing out the script and rewriting it on the spot,” Mr. Vilanch said. “That’s Hollywood.”

Hollywood Reporter
Miss Golden Globe: Past Honorees Tell All – Nepotism Has Never Been Hotter
by Seth Abramovitch
January 05, 2017, 6:15am PST

Sly’s kids join A-list offspring from Laura Dern to Dakota Johnson as alums dish on the gig their parents love: “He was so honored,” says Gia Mantegna of father Joe’s reaction to her selection in 2011. “It was the fact that your parents had a career in Hollywood that was respected.”

Scarlet, Sistine and Sophia Stallone were lounging in the living room of their family’s Beverly Hills estate when their father — that would be Sylvester — announced that he’d just been on the phone with Lorenzo Soria, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The trio, ages 14, 18 and 20 (more about them here), had been chosen to share the honor of being 2017’s Miss Golden Globe.
“We all started screaming and jumping up and down, music blasting, dogs barking,” recalls eldest sib Sophia. “We didn’t think we would get it.” Perhaps they did not, but just about anyone else could have scanned the checklist — stunning, personable, fruit of the loins of a genuine Hollywood legend (and 2016 Golden Globe winner for Creed) — and seen the Stallone girls as shoo-ins.

In truth, the competition for Miss Golden Globe — the young women (and sometimes young men) who help hand out trophies and escort the winners on and off the stage at the HFPA’s annual awards ceremony — can get hairy. It may not be a speaking part, but it’s still a gig performing onstage at one of the biggest awards shows of the year, a chance to make a first impression not just on the Hollywood elite but on millions of viewers (18.5 million in the U.S. alone in 2016). For many actresses — Anne Archer (1971), Laura Dern (1982), and Melanie Griffith (1975) and her daughter Dakota Johnson (2006) — it’s among the very first screen credits on their résumé, while for others, like Candace Savalas (1987), Lisabeth Shatner (1985) and Lily Costner (2004), it’s also the last.

To qualify for the title, candidates must be poised, polished and harbor the DNA of a bona fide A-lister, although lineage has not always been among the criteria. When the HFPA first created the title in 1963, the honor was bestowed upon a pair of more or less randomly selected up-and-coming actresses, one from the world of film and one from TV: Donna Douglas (Elly May on The Beverly Hillbillies) and Eva Six (a Hungarian actress whose career didn’t quite pan out). “It was the very first award ceremony I ever attended,” says Linda Evans, Miss Golden Globe 1964, of her memorable night schlepping shiny hardware. “It was something MGM arranged for me to do,” recalls the 74-year-old Dynasty star. “They dressed me up, sent me there, I gave out the awards — and the rest is history.”
In 1971, though, the HFPA made a change: From that time forward, the title would be granted only to the offspring of the stars, preferably those with two famous parents. The shrewd move began what’s since become a Hollywood birthright and sparked a vigorous free-market competition among the town’s co-mingling gene pools. The next big change came 24 years later, when, in 1995, the club went co-ed, naming John Clark Gable, Clark Gable’s only son, the first Mr. Golden Globe (then 34, he also was the oldest ever chosen). “Truly an honor,” says Gable of the experience. “For the first time, they asked a male heir.”

The custom is not without its fans. “I love the Miss Golden Globe tradition. So retro. So old Hollywood. So ‘A Star Is Born,’” says New York awards season event planner Peggy Siegal. As for any aroma of entitlement, longtime Oscars head writer Bruce Vilanch is quick to wave it off: “Please — nepotism has never been hotter. Just look at the Trump kids! The Golden Globes are always ahead of the curve.”

The process of selecting a Mr. or Miss Golden Globe is not chiseled in stone. Some years it’s a more grueling gantlet than others. “There were about five of them in there,” remembers 24-year-old Greer Grammer (Kelsey’s daughter) of her interview with the HFPA at its Robertson Boulevard headquarters for the 2011 awards. “They asked, ‘What are you doing? What are your career hopes?’ I remember one person telling me that Frasier was more popular in England than in the United States, which I thought was hilarious.” Grammer had just been cast in the MTV series Awkward, and was feeling pretty upbeat about her prospects. “But I didn’t get it,” she says. “I was so sad because I had done pageants before, so I thought I’d be perfect.” Gia Mantegna, daughter of Joe Mantegna, remembers her audition that same year: “[They asked me] about my life and my career and what it meant to be the daughter of someone in the industry,” recalls the actress, now 26. “To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with what Miss Golden Globe was. [My father’s publicist] just told me to show up to this building and go on this interview. It seemed silly. Like, what is this? This is not anything I’m earning on my own. This isn’t a job. I’m just doing this because my dad’s an actor.” She ended up getting the gig.

Other years, the selection process has been considerably more laid-back. 2016’s Miss Golden Globe, Corinne Foxx, the 22-year-old daughter of Jamie Foxx, received a phone call “out of the blue” informing her she’d been chosen. “I was completely shocked,” she says. The same thing happened to Grammer, who in 2014, three years after being rejected, also received a call from the HFPA finally offering her the job. “I didn’t even have to go in for an interview!” she says.

There is no Miss Golden Globe training. Instead, the anointed are thrust into a whirlwind of nomination announcements, red-carpet appearances, pre-parties and rehearsals. Foxx says she “went into complete research mode” when she got picked. “Greer Grammer was the year before me, so I watched YouTube videos of how she gave out all the trophies.” The heavily publicized Miss Golden Globe party — the Stallone daughters’ was held at Catch on Nov. 11, though their selection had been leaked a few days earlier — serves as a dry run. “You are given a welcome by the HFPA president and you deliver a speech,” says Grammer. But those who’ve held the title say nothing prepares you for the physical (and even emotional) intensity of the job itself. “I didn’t realize how involved you are onstage,” says 2010’s Miss Golden Globe, Mavis Spencer (daughter of Alfre Woodard). “You have to give the winner the award and then move them to this mark. Then you have to move everyone off the stage and behind a wall. You’re running the show a little bit — it’s not just standing there being a pretty face. It isn’t as easy as you think, especially after the actors have gotten a few drinks into them.” Mantegna says she worked closely with the stage manager, “basically corralling everyone on and off. One of the scariest moments for me was seeing how comfortable everyone was just lingering.”

Spencer discovered this the hard way after The Hangover won best comedy or musical motion picture and “like 12 or 15 of them” rushed the stage, a task she likens to “herding sheep.” One of the Hangover crew — she’s not sure who — accidentally stepped on her foot, fracturing two bones. And that was not the evening’s only indignity: “I had a 6-inch pair of Valentino stilettos on,” says Spencer, who stands 5-foot-11 in flats. “Colin Farrell was one of the presenters and just looked at me and said, ‘I’m not standing next to her. I’m not doing it.’ I was a bit taken aback. And he was like, ‘Darling, I really don’t mean that in a bad way — but you’re huge.’”

GRABBYS

Memorial Day Weekend also means your favorite adult stars are flocking to Chicago for the annual Grabby Awards, hosted by Grab Magazine. Come see some of the hottest names in the industry as they announce this year’s best top, twink and more. The 2016 Grabbys return to The Metro, 3730 N Clark, for a show hosted by ChiChi LaRue and Honey West and the sexy studs Mickey Taylor, Levi Karter, Diego Sans, JJ Knight and Dallas Stelle.

This year’s show also includes an appearance by celebrity and funnyman Bruce Vilanch and special performances by Dida Ritz, Bebe Sweetbriar and Mickey Taylor.

“I think everyone comes back to celebrate the industry every year because it’s such a loose, fun event centered around something we all love: sex,” Stacy Bridges, editor for Grab Magazine, told ChicagoPride.com. ”It’s also a change to meet and mingle with some of your favorite fantasy men.”

A host of events surrounds the Grabbys, most of them teetering with special appearances and performances from the weekend’s nominees. On Friday night Falcon Studios is taking over the Lucky Horseshoe, 3169 N Halsted, while the CockyBoys are appearing live at Sidetrack, 3349 N Halsted, for an underwear auction and more. After Saturday’s event, join your favorite stars at Debauchery, the the official Grabby’s 2016 Afterparty at Charlie’s, 3726 N Broadway. Round out your weekend at the Kink E Post Grabby Brunch at North End, 3733 N Halsted, on Saturday for interviews with the winners and nominees and to meet the stars you danced drunk with the previous night.

More information and Grabbys tickets are available online.

Business Insider
Bruce Vilanch shares what it’s really like to write jokes for the most prestigious awards show
February 29, 2016

When you hear the word “Oscars,” big stars, stunning gowns, emotional acceptance speeches, and the red carpet probably come to mind.

But much of what happens behind the curtain — the elements we don’t see, like the writing — makes the award show the prestigious and memorable event it is each year.

Comedy writer and six-time Emmy award-winner Bruce Vilanch, 67, has written jokes for the Oscars since 1989 and served as head writer for the show from 2000 to 2014.

In the book, “Poking a Dead Frog: Conversations with Today’s Top Comedy Writers,” he talks about this huge responsibility.

“Out of the hundreds [of jokes] that we write — really, hundreds — if one or two are used, it’s a big deal,” he told the books author Mike Sacks.

Vilanch told Sacks that some of the writing team’s best jokes are ones made up on the spot in the wings during the live show. But, he explains, the writers actually start coming up with jokes for the Oscars about two months in advance and keep them in a 300-page “playbook.”

This huge outline is kept just off stage so the host can flip through it during commercial breaks to refresh their memory.

The idea to make this mega-outline each year came from Billy Crystal, who has hosted the show nine times and wanted to help out future hosts with the burden that comes from having to recall so many lines and so much information.

The playbook contains a complete rundown of the show, which typically lasts between three and four hours, as well as numerous jokes. Out of the hundreds of jokes the writers come up with ahead of time, Vilanch says it’s a big deal if one or two are actually used in the show.

Vilanch says the writers are aware that certain celebrities are off limits to joke about, either because the situation is too embarrassing for them, the joke would be too cruel, they will be in the audience.

“You have to be careful to not cross the weird line,” he told Sacks.

Vilanch remembers a joke from the 2003 Oscars in which host Steve Martin would have said, “I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that my fly was open throughout the monologue. The good news is that the camera puts on ten pounds.”

Vilanch, his team, and even the network censor thought the joke was hilarious, but Martin didn’t feel comfortable delivering it at such a classy event.

Vilanch understood Martin’s dilemma though, because a joke at the Oscars will stick with you throughout your career.

“The choice you have to make is, do I, as a comedian, want to be remembered for this joke or not?” he told Sacks.

New York Post

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA (PRWEB) NOVEMBER 10, 2015

2nd Annual Voice Arts® Awards Announces 2015 Presenters

Voiceover Industry Award Ceremony Presenters Include Leading Voice Actors and Acclaimed Personalities Presenters include: Oscars ceremony writer Bruce Vilanch, Emmy Award ceremony announcer Joe Cipriano, Legendary Voice of Babe the Pig EG Daily, Iconic Television Actors John Amos and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Featured Voice in Pixar’s Inside Out and Sponge Bob Square Pants Lori Alan, Legendary voice actor from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Boxtrolls Pat Fraley, Police Academy films actor and sound master Michael Winslow and CBS Entertainment Reporter Suzanne Marques

The Society of Voice Arts and Sciences™ (SOVAS™) is delighted to announce today the talented personalities who will serve as presenters for the 2015 Voice Arts®Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday November 15th at the Pacific Design Center. The Voice Arts® Awards is an international competition showcasing the best work in professional voiceover acting, creative direction and communications for advertising, audiobook narration, movie trailers, video gaming, animation, television, radio and casting realms.

The Voice Arts®Awards Presenters are artists from around the world, who represent the best-in-class professional voiceover talents in the industry, and also media personalities who work behind the microphones and cameras. The 2015 Voice Arts®Awards presenters include:

PRESENTER NOTES:
JOE CIPRIANO: Voice of the Emmy Awards, CBS television promos and FOX television promos
JOAN BAKER: Author of Secrets of Voiceover Success, Co-founder of the Voice Arts® Awards.
SCOTT BRICK: Most respected name in Audiobook narration. Grammy finalist and Audie Award-winning narrator of In Cold Blood, Mystic River, Helter Skelter, 700 other audiobooks
CHUCK AND STACEY: She’s the host of Disney World TV and he’s the VO producer/director to the Hollywood VO stars. Together they host the nominated VO Buzz Weekly video podcast
EG DAILY: Voice of Babe the Pig in the award winning movie
ED LOH: Editor in Chief of Motor Trend Magazine
MALCOLM-JAMAL WARNER: Beloved actor from television’s Cosby show who is also an award winning voice actor and is a 2015 VAA nominee
JOHN AMOS: Acclaimed character actor in numerous films and television programs and one of the most iconic father figure characters in America on the 70’s dramedy ‘Good Times’
SUZANNE MARQUES: Entertainment reporter for KCBS in Los Angeles
BRUCE VILANCH: Award winning comedy writer who is a multiple Emmy award winning writer for multiple awards shows, and also, the former head writer for the Oscars ceremony
PAT FRALEY: Legendary voice actor and voiceover teacher known for voicing recognized characters from various films and series including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Boxtrolls
LORI ALAN: Voice of Pearl the Whale on SpongeBob Square Pants & featured in Pixar’s Inside Out: Lori Alan
MICHAEL WINSLOW: Master vocal sound maker and vocal sound effects teacher, known for voicing his special effects in the Police Academy film series

“We are tremendously excited to have the honor of welcoming many of the best voice actors from around the world to the Voice Arts®Awards stage to participate in our ceremony,” says SOVAS™ CEO Rudy Gaskins. “We are humbled.”

The 2015 Voice Arts®Awards full list of nominees, including Tim Gunn, Beyonce, Ron Perlman and Brian Blessed, are featured at sovas.org. The winners in each category will be unveiled on November 15th, along with a special award presentation of the Voice Arts® Icon Award–the jury’s highest honor—to William Shatner, for lifetime achievement. Also being presented, in partnership with Backstage® Magazine and the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences™, is the Backstage® Vanguard Award for Outstanding Casting, which will be presented to Pixar Animation casting honchos Kevin Reher and Natalie Lyon. They will receive their awards the night before at the SOVAS™ created THAT’S VOICEOVER!™ CONFERENCE and will be acknowledged at the Voice Arts®Awards ceremony. Entries were submitted from various entities including: Wendy’s, Telemundo, Discovery Channel, CNN, NBC Sports, ABC Entertainment, Comedy Central, Oxygen Network, NBA on TNT, FOX, Ovation Network and many others. For more information on the Voice Arts Awards, visit: VoiceArts.org.

• * *

About The Voice Arts® Awards
The Voice Arts® Awards is an international awards competition created by the Society Of Voice Arts And Sciences™ (SOVAS™). The open competition features a number of categories of voice arts, and is voted upon by award-winning experts from the various disciplines that constitute the entry categories. SOVAS™ honors industry visionaries and pioneers of the voice arts with a number of special awards including the Voice Arts Icon Awards for lifetime achievement. Awards are presented during a live Voice Arts® Awards Gala which is open to the public. For more information about Society Of Voice Arts And Sciences™ (SOVAS™), or for tickets to Voice Arts® Awards Gala, visit VoiceArts.org.

Purpose
The purpose of the Voice Arts® Awards is to provide international acknowledgement of the extraordinary skill and artistry of voiceover acting and associated industry professions. The Awards also encourage a best-in-class standard of achievement to which the voiceover industry can continually aspire. The Voice Arts® Awards will honor and acknowledge the voice actors, creative directors, copywriters, casting directors, talent agents, directors, producers, audio engineers, account executives, equipment manufacturers, podcasters, bloggers and others who create and sustain excellence within the voiceover industry. The Voice Arts® Award represents one of a host of programs administered by the Society Of Voice Arts And Sciences™ (SOVAS™), a non-profit 501©3 corporation, whose overall mission is to the highest levels of artistic achievement, while providing support for education, training, career advancement and gainful employment throughout all facets of the voiceover industry.

Contact    
Judi Durand, DAJDPR, 703-725-6017 (m)
Daryl Williams, DAJDPR, 646-373-6736 (m)