[IMG:L]Denzel Washington and Kate Winslet both knew they’d be taking home the big prizes when they arrived at the 16th Annual British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles Cunard Britannia Awards on Thursday night.
“There’s no pressure because I’m definitely going home with a trophy tonight,” said Washington, who picked up the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film. “It’s so unlike the Academy Award show for Cry Freedom when I was so nervous that I had an attack and was sick all night.”
“It’s soooo nice to attend an award ceremony and know that you’re absolutely going to win!” added Winslet, a five-time Oscar nominee and recipient of the Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year.
Everyone else at the gala at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel was in an equally relaxed mode. “There were no nominations for these awards so no one will go home tonight a loser who didn’t come here a loser,” joked emcee Michael Sheen (The Queen, Frost/Nixon). “Imagine us going on a sea voyage tonight on the good ship Britannia with me as your captain and us in our Jimmy Choo waders and our Hugo Boss oilskins to protect us from all of the celebrity juice on the water.”
[IMG:R]The waders-and-oilskins image obviously inspired many presenters – including Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Kathy Bates, Reese Witherspoon, Pierce Brosnan, Famke Janssen, Helen Fielding, Bill Nighy, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany – to wag their tongues.
“When I first started out in this business I dreamed of being a European movie star wearing giant sunglasses and elaborate neck scarves, smoking hand-rolled cigarettes,” Witherspoon said as she introduced Winslet. “Having immense qualities like savoir faire and things that people call gravitas, though I still don’t really know what that means. But if I couldn’t make it as a big European movie star I simply had to be very good friends with one. And that’s why I’m so glad that Kate Winslet moved into my neighborhood.”
“Kate works with depth and subtlety and always has a cigarette,” added Bates. “Tonight’s the longest I’ve ever seen her without one.”
Roberts was equally candid when she arrived at 11 pm to present the award to Washington.
“I know it’s late and you want me to keep this short,” said Roberts, who walked on stage to the tune of Pretty Woman.
“You’re right!” Washington shouted from his table.
But that didn’t stop her. “First of all, I love you so much,” Roberts began. “And that’s the only reason that I’m awake right now.”
[IMG:L]Foster recalled that she and Washington shared “something intimate” when they shot a scene in Inside Man with no rehearsal. “Something magic made us become one with each other,” Foster recalled. “There’s nothing better than standing next to Denzel and saying ‘You’re mine.’ It was just like a great one-night stand.”
Last year’s Stanley Kubrick winner Helen Mirren gave producer Brian Grazer a kiss when she showed up with husband Taylor Hackford, and Nighy even had some tongue action with Handsome, the Cunard bulldog mascot. “I did a bad thing but it wasn’t entirely my fault,” Nighy explained. “I was talking with my mouth wide open when I got down to pet Handsome and he stuck his tongue in it.”
Writer/director Richard Curtis gave the funniest acceptance speech when he picked up the inaugural BAFTA/LA Humanitarian Award. “Thank you very much to all the really poor people in the world without whom I wouldn’t be here to receive this award,” deadpanned Curtis, whose British Comic Relief and other efforts have raised over $1 billion for charities feeding the starving in Africa. “I think the award is for people who’ve been irresponsible and not done as much work as they should and wasted their time raising money. But people who are cynical about humanitarian efforts like mine should, unless they’ve got a better idea, get the fuck out of the way.”
A billion bucks?
[IMG:R]“Richard has worked ceaselessly, and quite discreetly, for years and is responsible for literally saving millions of people’s lives,” said Nighy. “He’s never recovered from the fact that so many people are dying so quickly in Africa and he made a decision a long time ago to dedicate a large part of his to try to do something about it. And with his other hand he writes some of the best romantic comedies of our era.”
Other winners were director Martin Campbell, who picked up the John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Artistic Excellence in Directing, and New Line execs Bob Shaye & Michael Lynne who nabbed the Cunard Britannia Award for Lifetime Contributions to International Film. “I’d like to start by thanking Brian Grazer tonight because he stopped by the table and asked me to thank him,” said Shaye. “So thank you Brian.”
Washington, who told Hollywood.com he looked forward to Sunday when he’d learn how the prevalence of bootleg copies of American Gangster impacts the film’s take on opening weekend, ended the night with an apology when he joined Roberts and Foster.
[IMG:L]“I want to apologize to the late great Stanley Kubrick,” Washington said. “In 1968 I took a girl named Roslyn Blunt to a movie, which I knew would be my great opportunity, to prove how much I loved her. We went to see 2001: A Space Odyssey and I want to apologize to the Stanley Kubrick because I never saw the movie.”
Things went so well that Sheen expects to be asked back.
“We’re in negotiations now,” Sheen confided to Hollywood.com. “Next year I will not only be host but will also win all the awards.”
