“You guys are going to make me shake,” the reliably self-effacing Michael J.Fox told the audience after a lengthy standing ovation while receiving anhonorary Oscar Saturday night at the Motion Picture Academy’s GovernorsAwards.
Fox was honored alongside songwriter Diane Warren and filmmakers Peter Weir (Witness , Dead Poet ‘s Society) and Euzhan Palcy ( Sugar Cane Alley , ADry White Season ) during the starry event that finally seemed to markHollywood’s return to normal after years of disruption due to COVID and a 2022Oscars ceremony tainted by Will Smith attacking Chris Rock.
The tip sheet read like an A-list who’s-who: Cher. Tom Hanks. Robert DowneyJr. Jennifer Lawrence. Jordan Peele. Margaret Robbie. Adam Sandler. OliviaWilde. Kate Blanchett. Violet Davis. Priscilla Presley. Colin Farrell. JeffBridges. Jamie Lee Curtis. Keke Palmer. Florence Pugh. J. J. Abrams. RonHoward. Jessica Chatain.
They were just a fraction of the bold-faced names mingling, sipping Champagneand feasting on beet salad and cod where nary a mention of “The Slap” washeard by this reporter.
Jennifer Lawrence attends the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 13thGovernors Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on Nov. 19, 2022 in Los Angeles.(Photo: Emma McIntyre/WireImage)
Mindy Kaling emceed the evening, lightly roasting some of the lhonorees.“Where was Alex P. Keaton on Jan. 6?,” the Office and Mindy Project alumcracked about Fox’s black-sheep Republican family member from his hit ’80ssitcom Family Ties.
Foxs Doc Hollywood co-star and longtime friend Woody Harrelson introducedthe 61-year-old Back to the Future star, who received the Jean HersholtHumanitarian Award for his tireless advocacy for research into Parkinson’s, acause for which he has helped raise more than $1 billion since being diagnosedwith the disease in 1991.
Warren also received some of the night’s biggest cheers after finally(finally!) takinghome an Oscar, presented to her by longtime friend and collaborator Cher.Warren has been nominated for a competitive Academy Award 13 times, but hasnever won. Her speech was reliably candid. Warren, a regular at GovernorsAwards past, has never shed away from admitting that she really, really wantsto win an Oscar.
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Weir, a five-time nominee who is now retired after helming such films as_Picnic at Hanging Rock_ , Gallipoli , Master and Commander , Green Card_was feted by his _Fearless leading man Jeff Bridges, while the groundbreakingPalcy was celebrated by Viola Davis.
Behind the scenes, the Governors Awards functions as the unofficial kick-offto Oscar season campaigning, as studios and streamers drop hefty sums tosecure tables and tickets for their biggest awards contenders. universallyinvited The Fablemans cast members Michelle Williams, Paul Dano and JuddHirsch (director Steven Spielberg was one of the night’s most conspicuousabsentees) and She Said co-stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan. Paramount hadtalent from Babylon and Top Gun: Maverick. Kevin Feige, Ryan Coogler andDanai Gurira were in the house for Marvel’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.Netflix brought Rian Johnson and cast members from Glass Onions as well astwo-time Best Director-winning helmer Alejandro G. Iñárritu (now promoting_Bardo) and _Blonde star Ana de Armas, among others.
Adam and Jackie Sandler walk the red carpet at the Governors Awards. (Photo:Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Watching all the power players and Oscar crusaders cross streams is part ofthe fun of the Governors Awards — and all the attendees have their favorites.
Eddie Redmayne ( The Good Nurse ), fresh from being blinded by the red-carpet camera flashes (“I’m still not used to those,” he laughed), excitedlytalked about the unconventional cinema of Everything Everywhere All at Once,Blonde and Triangle of Sadness. Rian Johnson revealed how much he loved_The Banshees of Inisherin_ and The Fablemans and said he was amped to watch_Triangle_. Iñárritu revealed he has seen little this year besides HolySpider but was about to dig in on screeners.
Gabrielle Union attends the Governors Awards. (Photo: Emma McIntyre/WireImage)
Gabrielle Union, who gives a career best performance in The Inspection ,admitted she was ill-prepared for the politicking that comes with awardscampaigns. Todd Field ( Tar ) explained why hadn’t made a film until nowsince wrapping 2006’s Little Kids (in a nutshell, he was focusing on hisfamily and paying the bills with commercial work).
Elsewhere, a pumped-up Laura Dern rushed to greet Adam Sandler (there for hisunderrated Netflix sports drama Hustle an outside but deserving contender),as the man Sandler was conversing with happily informed Dern that he was oneof the financiers of her upcoming release The Son (welcome to Hollywood).Jaylyn Hall, the teenage star who plays Emmett Till in the crushing drama_Till_ couldn’t wait to meet The Sandman, either.
Taron Egerton (last seen in the miniseries Black Bird and a day before heattended rocketman inspiration Elton John’s final show at Dodger Stadium)conversed with Jennifer Lawrence ( Causeway ) across their Apple TV+ tablein what looked like a scene from any wedding where two strangers sittingtogether engage in small talk. One Night in Miami playwright screenwriterKemp Powers and co-star Aldis Hodge reunited at another table across the room,while Gurira chopped it up with future MCU villain Jonathan Majors (Devotion ), who will play Kang in Marvel’s Phase 5.
Ke Huy Quan attends Governors Awards. (Photo: Emma McIntyre/WireImage)
One of the night’s most sought-after attendees, though, had to be Ke Huy Quan,the former ’80s child star from The Goonies and Indiana Jones and theTemple of Doom whose comeback role in the mind bending Everything EverywhereAll At Once could land him a Best Supporting Oscar in March.
Jordan Peele had a long, warm chat with Quan. It has been widely speculatedthat Peele created the Nope character played by Steven Yeun — a former childstar whom Hollywood exploited for cultural stereotyping comedic relief rolesbefore abandoning him as he aged — based on Quan.
Colin Farrell also gushed to us about how much he loved seeing Quan return tothe limelight. The Banshees star was standing only a few feet from BrendanFraser, a comeback kid in his own right for his agonizing drama _The Whale_and very likely Farrell’s main Best Actor competition as both shoot for theirfirst Oscar.
Expect those two to share a lot of space in the months to come.