She won for being naughty on the subject of muffins, and he won – twice – for singing and dancing.
Betty White's Facebook-generated Saturday Night Live hosting gig and Neil Patrick Harris's turns as Tonys host and special guest star on Glee landed both veteran TV stars in the winners' circle at Saturday night's Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles.
Though White, 88, was not at the Nokia Theater to collect her prize (her Snickers ad was also up for TV's highest honor), presenters John Lithgow and Clyde Phillips accepted on her behalf.
Meanwhile, Harris, 37, was present and accounted for – and he gave a special shout-out to Los Angeles Times forums moderator Chris "Boomer" Beachum, the newspaper reports. It was Boomer who revealed that the actor was missing from the list of nominees in the category of best special class, as host of the 63rd annual Tony Awards.
Accepting his gold statuette, Harris said, "I just want to thank Boomer from The Envelope, or I wouldn't have gotten this."
Harris, who also thanked his partner and (co-parent-to-be) David Burtka, is up for a best supporting actor in a series, for How I Met Your Mother, at next Sunday's Primetime Emmy Awards.
Saturday's other winners also included Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution (best reality series), previous Emmy-winning Survivor host Jeff Probst (best reality-show host) and Ann-Margret, for her guest -starring role on Law and Order: SVU.
The ad firm Weiden + Kennedy also received a Creative Arts Emmy for its Old Spice commercial, whose star, Isaiah Mustafa, told the Hollywood Reporter before the ceremony, "This is my first awards show, and I get to be nominated alongside Betty White!"
The 'Great White Way' went Red on Sunday night when John Logan's Broadway hit landed the lion's share of honours at the 64th annual Tony Awards, including Best Play and Best Director.
The hit show, starring Brits Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne, picked up five awards at New York's Radio City Music Hall.
Bon Jovi star David Bryan's Memphis was also the toast of Broadway, picking up four awards - including the night's Best Musical honour. Fela! and La Cage aux Folles claimed only three of their 11 nominations each.
Onstage husband and wife Denzel Washington and Viola Davis were big winners, claiming the night's Best Actor and Actress prizes for a Play for Fences, which was also named Best Revival. Scarlett Johansson was a first-time Tony Awards winner for her Broadway debut in A View From The Bridge and Catherine Zeta-Jones was named Best Actress in a Musical.
Green Day's American Idiot was a double winner.
There were also special awards for British playwright Alan Ayckbourn and actors Marian Seldes and David Hyde Pierce.
The show was a true celebration of all things musical and theatrical with highlights including a show-stopping performance by Glee stars Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele, a dramatic rendition of Send in the Clowns by Zeta-Jones and stunning segments from hit musicals Fela! and La Cage aux Folles.
Green Day helped give the big show a rocking start as they performed two songs from their American Idiot musical.
It was couple's night in the audience with Johansson joined by husband Ryan Reynolds, Michael Douglas supporting his wife Zeta-Jones and Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith and Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith turning out.
Even Jay-z, who had performed at the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee on Saturday, and his wife Beyonce dressed it up for a night at the theatre awards.
Host Sean Hayes was perfect, cracking jokes at the expense of some of his movie star audience members and dressing up as both Annie and Spider-Man for added laughs.
The 2010 Tony Award winners are:
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play - Scarlett Johansson (A View From The Bridge)
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play - Eddie Redmayne (Red)
Best Direction of a Play - Michael Grandage (Red)
Best Direction of a Musical - Terry Johnson (La Cage aux Folles)
Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical - Katie Finneran (Promises, Promises)
Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Musical - Levi Kreis (Million Dollar Quartet)
Best Costume Design of a Play - Catherine Zuber (The Royal Family)
Best Costume Design of a Musical - Marina Draghici (Fela!)
Best Lighting Design of a Musical - Kevin Adams (American Idiot)
Best Scenic Design of a Play - Christopher Oram (Red)
Best Scenic Design of a Musical - Christine Jones (American Idiot)
Best Lighting Design of a Play - Adam Cork (Red)
Best Sound Design of a Musical - Robert Kaplowitz (Fela!)
Best Performance by a Leading Lady in a Play - Viola Davis (Fences)
Best Performance by a Leading Man in a Play - Denzel Washington (Fences)
Lifetime Achievement Award - Alan Ayckbourn
Lifetime Achievement Award - Marian Seldes
Isabelle Stephenson Award - David Hyde Pierce
Best Orchestrations - David Bryan & Daryl Waters (Memphis)
Best Original Score - David Bryan & Joe Dipietro (Memphis)
Best Book of a Musical - Joe Dipietro (Memphis)
Best Choreography - Bill T. Jones (Fela!)
Best Revival of a Play - Fences
Best Play - Red
Best Revival of a Musical - La Cage aux Folles
Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical - Catherine Zeta-Jones (A Little Night Music)
Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical - Douglas Hodge (La Cage aux Folles)
Best Musical - Memphis
Current Promises, Promises Tony nominee and past Will & Grace Emmy winner Sean Hayes will host June 13's 64th annual Tony Awards ceremony, CBS – which will broadcast the show live from Radio City Music Hall – announced Monday.
The Tonys honor Broadway's best. This year's top nominees include the musicals Fela!" and La Cage aux Folles, with 11 nods each, and the revival of the drama Fences, starring Denzel Washington, with 10.
"I am absolutely thrilled to be hosting the Tony Awards," Hayes, 39, said in a statement. "As the new guy on Broadway, it's an honor to be included in the established alumni."
Hayes was also the subject of a controversial Newsweek essay on April 26, in which journalist Ramin Setoodeh suggested that gay actors (Hayes has recently come out) could not be believed in straight roles. The reaction was swift and severe.
Hayes's Promises costar, Kristin Chenoweth, led the charge, labeling Setoodeh's position "moronic."
All-Star Roster
Besides Hayes and Washington, other familiar names nominated for Tonys this season include Jude Law in Hamlet; Alfred Molina, in Red; Liev Schreiber in A View from the Bridge; Christopher Walken in A Behanding in Spokane; Kelsey Grammer in La Cage; Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury in A Little Night Music; Linda Lavin in Collected Stories; and Valerie Harper in Looped.
For a complete list of nominees, visit the Tonys website.
One thing not lacking on Broadway this season was star power – with such marquee names as Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Scarlett Johansson, Liev Schreiber, Denzel Washington, Justin Bartha, Alicia Silverstone, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Christopher Walken, Jude Law, Sienna Miller Sean Hayes, Kelsey Grammer, Laura Linney and even Uncle Fester from The Addams Family packing in the crowds.
As for who among them will take home the Tony, the selection process narrowed Tuesday morning with the announcement of nominations by the American Theatre Wing, with the stirring musical Fela!, about Nigerian Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti, and the moving revival of La Cage Aux Folles, featuring pitch-perfect performances from Kelsey Grammer and British actor Douglas Hodge, outdistancing all other shows – with 11 nominations each.
Hot on their heels was the revival of August Wilson's Fences, starring nominees Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. It received 10 nominations.
In the field of leading actor in a play, besides Washington, are Jude Law in Hamlet; Alfred Molina, as the artist Mark Rothko, in Red,
Liev Schreiber in the revival of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge and Christopher Walken in Martin McDonaugh's A Behanding in Spokane.
In addition to Viola Davis, the nominated leading actresses in a play are Valerie Harper as the late legend Tallulah Bankhead in Looped; Linda Lavin as a New York author in Donald Margulies's Collected Stories;
Laura Linney as a disillusioned journalist in Time Stands Still and Jan Maxwell as a member of a theatrical dynasty in the classic The Royal Family
Best play nominations went to In the Next Room, Next Fall, Red and Time Stands Still.
Sorry, Morticia and Gomez
In the best musical category, while the critically wounded The Addams Family managed to gain two nods, for supporting actor Kevin Chamberlain (who plays Fester) and for its score, it was basically shut out, with its stars, Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth, ignored.
Also glaringly overlooked, in the straight play category, was Hugh Jackman in A Steady Rain, despite the box office – and sexual heat – both he and costar Daniel Craig generated during its limited run.
On happier notes, the best musical nominees are Green Day's American Idiot, Fela!, Memphis and Million Dollar Quartet, about a 1956 jam session starring Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley.
Lead actor in a musical nods went to Kelsey Grammer, La Cage Aux Folles; Sean Hayes, Promises, Promises;
Douglas Hodge, La Cage Aux Folles;
Chad Kimball, Memphis; and Sahr Ngaujah, Fela!
Lead actress in a musical nominees: Kate Baldwin, Finian's Rainbow;
Montego Glover, Memphis;
Christiane Noll, Ragtime;
Sherie Rene Scott, Everyday Rapture; and
Catherine Zeta-Jones, A Little Night Music.
Other nominations worth noting are Scarlett Johansson's for featured actress in A View from the Bridge and two nominated musical featured actresses who long ago earned the stars on their dressing room doors (and already have Tonys on their mantles): Barbara Cook, the original Marian the Librarian in 1957's The Music Man, now in the running for her contribution to the new musical compendium Sondheim on Sondheim, and everybody's favorite, Angela Lansbury, who plays Catherine Zeta-Jones's mother in the revival of Sondheim's A Little Night Music.
For a complete list of nominations, go to the Tony Awards website.
The 64th annual Tony Awards will be telecast on CBS, live from Radio City Music Hall, on Sunday, June 13th, in a three-hour show beginning at 8 p.m. ET. No host has been announced as yet, though past emcees have included Jackman, Lansbury and Neil Patrick Harris.
The Broadway League and American Theatre Wing announced that out actor Neil Patrick Harris will host this year’s Tony Awards live from Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 7.
Harris is a TV icon for his role on Doogie Howser, M.D. early in his career and later took a hilarious turn playing himself in Harold and Kumar Go To WhiteCastle. The out actor currently stars on the hit CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. N.P.H. also starred in Joss Whedon’s Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
Harris has won rave reviews for his work in theater on both coasts, starring in Cabaret and Proof on Broadway, and All My Sons and Rent in California productions.
The L.A.Times nominated Harris for the hosting gig, noting the theater aficionado is “currently producing the theatrical mystery show, Accomplice,” which allows participants to experience a live Hollywood mystery, somewhat similar to premise of the film the Game, and he’s, “served multiple times as the host of the Ovation Awards, which honor achievements in Los Angeles theater,” in the past.
Sir Elton John, get out your tutu. The Rocket Man's musical Billy Elliot, about a British working-class boy's desire to dance, scored an impressive 15 Tony nominations, including best musical, it was announced Tuesday morning.
Billy will compete in the top category with Next to Normal, a brash musical about a mother's nervous breakdown; the pop compendium Rock of Ages; and Shrek the Musical.
Dolly Parton's just-opened 9 to 5 was among those overlooked in the best musical category, though one of its stars, Allison Janney, received a nod in the leading actress race. The lively revival of the '60s tribal rock musical Hair received eight nominations, including best revival.
Among dramas and comedies, the best play nominees are Horton Foote's sly Dividing the Estate, about a money-strapped Texas family; the brittle God of Carnage, starring four Tony nominees (James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis); Neal LaBute's romantic drama Reasons To Be Pretty, and 33 Variations, which stars the nominated Jane Fonda as a dying musicologist.
Winners will be announced Sunday, June 7th, during a three-hour CBS telecast from Radio City Music Hall.
She won for being naughty on the subject of muffins, and he won – twice – for singing and dancing.
