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Publicists Awards Celebrate
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More than 1,000 publicity and marketing executives, producers, studio and network executives, celebrities and press helped the ICG celebrate the 41st Annual Publicists Awards on Feb. 27 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel emceed the lively luncheon.
Unit Publicist Larry Kaplan took home the Les Mason Award, which recognizes publicists whose work reflects the highest professional standards. The publicity team for Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl claimed the Maxwell Weinberg showmanship award, which recognizes outstanding publicity campaigns for film.
Other nominees in the movie category were Sony’s Big Fish, Universal’s Seabiscuit, 20th Century Fox’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and Paramount’s School of Rock.
The Weinberg award for top TV publicity campaign went to Fox’s The OC. Other nominees in the TV category included Showtime’s Dead Like Me, ABC’s 8 Simple Rules, CBS’ Joan of Arcadia and Fox’s 24.
Patty Duke presented the Bob Yeager Award, which recognizes outstanding community service, to Publicist Gail Cottman for creating an art garden in the Hollywood Hills designed to nurture the hearts and minds of children.
Elliott Marks was posthumously awarded the first ever Still Photographer Award. Marks devoted 25 years of his life to capturing some of the best images from an array of classic Hollywood films. His credits include Pirates of the Caribbean, The Horse Whisperer, Clueless, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Annie and Rocky. Marks passed away on July 9, 2003. He is survived by his wife Deborah Klar and their son, Harrison.
IATSE International President Thomas A. Short dedicated the 2004 Publicists Directory of Members to longtime publicists business agent Marlene Mattaschiam, who was unable to attend because she was recovering from surgery. “Marlene Mattaschiam has dedicated her life to publicists for almost a quarter of a century,” said Short. “She was instrumental in the smooth merger of the Publicists Guild with the International Cinematographers Guild and last year took a well-deserved retirement.”
Oscar nominee Marcia Gay Harden presented Clint Eastwood with his Lifetime Achievement Award. “Publicists have a terrifically underrated job,” Eastwood said, thanking Warner publicists for their work on Mystic River. “They did everything right, except getting me on Jimmy Kimmel’s show,” he quipped.
Eastwood stands as an iconic filmmaker – having starred in 45 films, appeared in 56, directed 24 and produced 19. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and owns two Oscar statuettes: one for directing Unforgiven and another as the recipient of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. His exceptional filmography includes Mystic River, The Bridges of Madison County, In the Line of Fire, Unforgiven, Escape from Alcatraz, Play Misty for Me, Dirty Harry, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars.
On the eve of the 80th Anniversary of the Walt Disney Studios, studio chief Dick Cook accepted the motion picture showmanship award from Julie Andrews. “I’m fortunate to work at one of the best companies in the world,” he said.
Among Cook’s greatest achievements are 101Dalmatians, George of the Jungle, Mulan, Armageddon, A Bug’s Life, The Sixth Sense, Tarzan, Toy Story 2, Remember the Titans, Pearl Harbor, The Princess Diaries, Monster’s, Inc., The Rookie, Lilo & Stitch, Signs, Sweet Home Alabama, The Santa Clause 2, and Bringing Down the House.
Former Fox Television Entertainment Group Chairman Sandy Grushow was presented with the Television Showmanship Award by Kiefer Sutherland, “in recognition of his leadership during which the studio rose from the eighth place to become a leader in network television production with 19 shows on the air this season.”
Grushow’s impressive resume includes returning series 24, Angel, The Bernie Mac Show, Boston Public, Judging Amy, King of the Hill, Oliver Beene, The Practice, Reba, The Simpsons, Still Standing and Yes, Dear and new series Arrested Development, Married to the Kellys, Cracking Up, Miss Match, Tru Calling and Wonderfalls.
Press and International Media Awards – which honor outstanding journalists who cover the entertainment industry – went to Patrick Goldstein of The Los Angles Times and Italian journalist Alessandra Venezia, respectively.
