If the Hollywood organization Women In Film is all about show biz femmes giving each other a helping hand in the industry, what the heck was sitcom star George Lopez, who clearly has a Y chromosome or two in his genetic makeup, doing on stage at the group’s annual Crystal and Lucy Awards gala?
“My wife gave me a kidney so that I could live,” offered Lopez. “I’m half-bitch, so don’t f*** with me.”
Actually, Lopez was on hand to pay honor to the executive producer of his series The George Lopez Show, who also just happens to be one of Hollywood’s favorite actresses, Sandra Bullock. She shared the Crystal Award with her sister and producing partner Gesine Bullock-Prado, and the theme of the evening centered on powerhouse partnerships: Will & Grace stars Debra Messing and Megan Mullally received the Lucy Award (named for Lucille Ball) for their comedic pairing, while Jamie Foxx and his behind-the-scenes producing team Jaime Rucker King and Nina Shaw also took home a Crystal Award.
An all-star line-up of some of the industry’s most in-demand female talent filled the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, including the night’s hilarious emcee Jennifer Coolidge. It turns out when the ladies gather together the talk is, well, a lot like guys, as in Coolidge‘s salty comment about cinematographer and Kodak Vision Award honoree Tami Reiker’s upcoming film Mr. Woodcock: “I don’t even want to think about the splinters!”
Guests at the gala included Eva Mendes, Mandy Moore, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jenna Elfman, Nia Vardalos, Daisy Fuentes, Joely Richardson, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, Kelly Rowan, Laura Innes, Linda Cardellini, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Elizabeth Banks, Maria Menounos and Cybill Shepherd. And they were joined by a select group of men such as Lopez, Jon Cryer and lucky me, surrounded by beautiful, talented, influential and very sassy ladies.
Never Mind the Bullocks
Prior to the show, inside the private La Grande Dame Champagne lounge where the celebs mingled and sipped the elite champagne, Bullock joked to me that she was keeping her expectations low, saying the night meant “hopefully lots of entertainment. And free chicken.”
Onstage, she and sis Gesine were appropriately gracious, but remained freewheeling in their improved acceptance speech: “I’d like to thank George, who managed to make this show about himself,” Sandra said with a purposefully phony laugh after she took the stage. “But he deserves to be here because he’s part woman now and pees sitting down. Thanks to his wife Ann who can’t be here tonight because she’s shopping at Fred Leighton for having given him the kidney.”
I chatted with Lopez about his recent health scare, amazed at how fit and healthy he looked. “I feel amazing,” said the comedian. “Just to say I feel better than I look is an understatement, because I saw the way I look. I feel incredible.” And as Bullock alluded, his wife had bounced back, too. “She’s doing too well. She’s in New York, and when they call your house saying ‘Is your credit card in New York?’ you know that the wife is going a little bit crazy, but she’s entitled. She can do whatever she wants.”
“There’s two women who are most important in my life,” Lopez explained. “One is my wife Ann, obviously, and the other is Sandra, because without her, the show wouldn’t have happened, my career wouldn’t have happened, Sharkboy and Robert Rodriguez wouldn’t have happened, so everything that I touch that comes from Sandy has turned to gold.”
From the stage Bullock also pointed out that the sitcom’s leading lady Constance Marie “was drunk.” Indeed, Lopez‘s co-star was spied swiping a second bottle of wine from a neighboring table. Before the show, Marie was in a spirited mood. “George likes it when I’m raunchy!” she exclaimed, then described working with Bullock, who she calls her “900-lb. gorilla in Hollywood.”
“She shows up on the set quite a bit,” said Marie, “and actually when she’s not there she’s on her Blackberry typing compulsively, sending really good notes to the set, which is what we love about her because she’s really talented and very smart when it comes to comedy. I’ll take her notes any day.”
Breast Friends
I asked Debra Messing what it meant to her to be honored with an award named for the queen of TV comedy. “It’s very meaningful to me,” Messing told me. “My family is here tonight, and I don’t take them to too many things, so that should tell you how much this means to me.”
“We have such a great time working on this show, and it really is a partnership and a collaboration, and that’s what we’re being honored for,” Megan Mullally told me before the show. “I think we’re both really excited about it. We have a funny speech, too, and that’s always good.” And she wasn’t kidding!
Camryn Manheim, an old college pal of La Messing, presented Debra and Megan their award, comparing them to I Love Lucy‘s legendary Lucy and Ethel. After film clips and special video greetings from Eric McCormack and Sean Hayes–Sean sang a brilliantly funny song to a Coldplay tune using Women In Film’s acronym and the vision of a nude Debra and Megan to create a song called “WIF of PIE” that brought down the house–Mullally took the stage and needled Manheim, saying that Meryl Streep was originally supposed to present the award, barely disguising their disappointment.
“We’re a team,” said Messing, “and over the course of the years on Will & Grace, we’ve learned that the most important part of being a comedic team is trust.”
“Often on the show, Debra and I are called upon to do physical comedy,” agreed Mullally, “and if we didn’t trust each other, it could be very uncomfortable for her when I have to, I don’t know, for instance, grab her breast. May I?”
“Like you have to ask,” said Messing.
Mullally then started relentlessly pawing Debra’s breasts over her gorgeous Laura Cezaro gown. “Now, if Debra and I didn’t have complete trust, this could be awkward. But you’re not uncomfortable, are you, Deb?”
Messing shook her head, stone-faced, prompting Mullally to focus even more intently on her breasts, sliding her hands into Debra’s dress, continuing to fondle her for what seemed like an eternity. Then, when Messing wanted to provide another example by touching Mullally‘s bottom, the actress flew into an indignant huff: “I hardly think that’s appropriate!” As the audience convulsed with laughter, they broke off the bit and accepted their award, walking off the stage squeeze each other’s rear ends.
Foxxy Ladies
Jamie Foxx–who adopted his female-sounding name back when he was doing stand-up because comedy clubs favored the few women comics out there when booking gigs–made no secret of why he trusted his she-centric career guiders.
“Women tell you the truth,” Foxx told me. “A lot of times I’ve dealt with situations where there’s some man involved, and none of the men around that man would tell that man that sucks, or that’s not good, and then he ends up going and making something horrible. I love the fact that I have Jaime King and Nina Shaw, who are able to look beyond that, let all that go and say ‘Hey, this is a great piece, this isn’t a great piece–I’ll give it to you straight.’ If you don’t have that in this business, you don’t make the steps that we’ve been making.”
On stage, after Foxx, Shaw and King got their Crystal Awards from Ray director Taylor Hackford–one year to the day of the death of Ray Charles–King also showed that while he had enormous respect for women, he also loved them as a ladies’ man, giving a special shout-out to Table 121, which was loaded with beauties.
Girl Power
Nia Vardalos told me she thought that despite the strides women had made in Hollywood in recent years, the cause of Women in Film was still vital and relevant. “Oh, it’s absolutely important,” the newly blonded Vardalos said. “I mean, you can’t deny we’ve come a long way, but that doesn’t mean it has to end now or we have to sit back and say ‘Eh, we’re OK.’ I think that this is a night not about being anti-male, but a night about celebrating how far we’ve come and where we want to go.”
Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon agreed. “I think the more we as women can support other women, it just elevates all of us,” Garcelle explained. “In this business it tends to be competitive: ‘Oh my gosh, she got this job; oh my gosh, she did this.’ So I think when you have an organization like this that can support women and forgot about all that competition and jealousy and be like ‘You go, girl,’ I think it’s awesome.”
