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A Tie for Best Acceptance Speech
by Richard Horgan |
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9/9/2007 at 9:19:06 AM |
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The bar has been set for 2007 awards season. If there are any acceptance speeches at the upcoming Golden Globes or Academy Awards that are as rousing, memorable and genuine as the one Elaine Stritch delivered last night at the Creative Arts Prime Time Emmy Awards, we’ll be in good shape.
When the 82-year-old Detroit native hobbled up to the stage, cane in hand (she broke her foot recently at an AA meeting), she silently gazed out at the audience for a moment, sporting the same twinkle in her eye as the one she had throughout her great 2002 one-woman Broadway show At Liberty. Then she uncorked a one-liner and deadpan stare that Jack Benny would have been proud of; ‘I think it’s kind of obvious how long I’ve been in this profession,’ she observed to howls of laughter. From there, it was on to the joys of acting (‘Un-f*cking believable’), the reason she won the Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for 30 Rock (Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey and co. were so supportive they had even her believing she was that good) and her state of mind about winning (‘This is no surprise’). It’s Stritch’s third Emmy, following earlier wins for the aforementioned one-woman show and a stint on Law & Order.
Dick Wolf’s long running NBC franchise is also what scored 76-year-old French actress Leslie Caron her Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series prize. Like Stritch, the gamine from Boulogne-Billancourt came to the stage sporting an outfit at the polar opposite end from one sponsored by a designer. In the sense that these gals can whip up something from the closet that is entirely emblematic and well-worn. In Caron’s case, it was a stunning green, red and white flower print gown with matching rose headdress.
‘In 1951, I was named most promising newcomer [female],’ she explained, recalling a César honor in her home country. ‘I’m glad I finally realized my potential.’ It was of course a tongue in cheek comment; though Caron was a Best Actress runner-up at the Oscars for 1962’s The L-Shaped Room and 1953’s Lili, she won BAFTAs for both and a Golden Globe for the former. Caron segued from that comical observation to heartfelt comments about violence against women, the theme of the show she appeared in.
Kathy Griffin’s bit upon winning Outstanding Reality Program for her Bravo D List shenanigans was pretty fab too (‘Suck it Jesus. This award is my God now’), but she was no match for the classiness of Caron and the bawdiness of Stritch (host Carlos Mencia scored a nice ad lib callback when he joked that while debating backstage whether or not to use the word ’BS’ or ’bullshit’ in a riff, Stritch grabbed him by the balls and warned him not to be ’such a f*cking pussy’). All I can tell you is that if someone decided to cast Caron and Stritch in an odd couple retirement home TV Movie, they would be doing us all a favor.
Three times over the course of the Creative Arts evening, there were two winners within the same single category (including the one my wife was nominated for, Outstanding Art Direction for a Variety, Music or Non-Fiction Program). At another point, astonishingly, three different folks won for Outstanding Choreography. You haven’t lived through a long awards show (this one live ran four and a half hours) until you’ve been treated to consecutive, hierarchical thanks speeches for the same category. It’s all because on the Emmy ballots, voters could check Yes-No next to each entrant in these categories, and having pushed more than one of them over a certain threshold, turned it into a multiple winner situation.
As Elaine Stritch might say: ‘Un-f*cking believable.’
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