It was an eclectic mix of celebs at this weekend’s VH1’s Big In ’06 awards, running the gamut of the fame spectrum from honorees Justin Timberlake, Paris Hilton and Kiefer Sutherland to a large contingent of reality TV flashes-in-the pan, who crowded the green carpet as the likes of Hilton and Fergie (who performed “London Bridge” and Fergalicious” on the show) breezed by.
Others skipped the media gantlet entirely, including Dominic Monaghan, Megan Mullally, Dancing with the Stars’ Mario Lopez and Joey Lawrence, host D.L. Hughley, and Eva Longoria, sporting a curve-hugging Yves Klein dress and her new engagement ring from Tony Parker. Absentee winners Dane Cook and Stephen Colbert accepted on tape in two of the show’s best bits.
View the VH1 Big In ’06 Photo Gallery
We caught up some of the winners and presenters before the ceremony.
Pausing to take off her uncomfortable high heels, American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee cited “singing for Whitney Houston and getting an apology from Simon Cowell” as her 2006 highlights. The Big “It” Girl winner hopes 2007 will be just as if not more memorable since her debut record drops Jan. 30. Look for her to make at least one appearance on Idol, which has its sixth season premiere on Fox Jan. 16.
CSI: Miami star Emily Procter’s ’06 highlight has been playing Auntie Em. “A lot of my friends had babies. I’ve been on nighttime duty for the last couple of months. I’m tired,” she sighed “Not as tired as they are, but I’m pretty tired!” We don’t blame her, especially considering her long days on the set and fitting in gigs with her ’80s cover band White Lighting in between. She’ll be even busier in ’07, producing and starring in—playing a double role, no less—an independent movie called Dollars. “It’s a country music noir movie. It’s about two sisters called the Dollarhydes,” she explains. “It’s about ambition and talent and lack of talent and greed and lack of greed. I play both sisters.” Procter will wisely rest up for the holidays, taking off for the tropics after a Christmas visit home to North Carolina. “On New Year’s Eve at midnight I’ll have on my bathing suit and will be sitting in the warm water,” she confided. “I don’t want to say where, for fear of people catching me in that moment!”
Trading her cheerleader gear for a form-fitting Randi Rahm dress, 17-year-old Hayden Panettiere fended off advances from rocker Tommy Lee, 44, before presenting the Big Music Artist award to Justin Timberlake. Not surprisingly, her highlight is the breakout success of Heroes. “It’s amazing. I don’t think anyone ever expected that kind of success,” she said. Striking while the iron is hot, she’ll release her debut album this spring.
For Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus, the highlight of ’06 wasn’t having her show’s soundtrack album go to No.1. Believe it or not, she awards that distinction to meeting reality TV rapper/romeo Flavor Flav, the event’s backstage host. “It was bigger than the show, bigger than anything. Just seeing him show off his grill was awesome,” raved the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, who got a challenge from dad about her No. 1 sales milestone: “’All right Miley, just 16 more weeks and you beat me.’ I know that’s not gonna happen,” laughed the 14 year old, who’s currently shooting Hannah Montana episodes and plans to tour in the summer
To anyone not living in a Tibetan monastery, Lance Bass’s big moment of ’06 was obvious: his announcement in July that he’s gay. Now, says the former ‘N Sync-er, “I can be 100 percent myself. I hope I opened the doors—that would be nice,” he added, noting that he has received “the most positive feedback. The fans are my biggest supporters. Just to know they’re like, ‘We don’t care,’ it was music to my ears.” Single since his split with Reichen Lemkuhl, Bass is concentrating on acting at the moment, with a role in the upcoming Adam Sandler comedy I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry and a pilot for the CW, to star in and produce. It’s a loosely autobiographical improvised comedy co-starring ex-bandmate Joey Fatone. They’d play “caricatures of ourselves, like Curb Your Enthusiam,” he notes.
“I had no idea it would be this big, with all the Web hits,” said David Hasselhoff, who rode the so-out-it’s-in nostalgia wave to a Big Comeback win thanks to “Jump in My Car.” It’s led to a role in The Producers in Las Vegas at the Paris Hotel starting Feb. 8, playing flamboyant director Roger DeBris. “I went from the Knight Rider car to girls on the beach to wearing a dress,” quipped the Hoff.
