Hollywood kicks off long awards season
Jenny Peters

LOS ANGELES—The biggest guns in Tinseltown came out in force on Monday, at the first big night of the 2005 Hollywood awards season. A warm-up to the big ones – Golden Globes, SAG, Critics Choice, and the mother of them all, the Academy Awards – the Hollywood Awards are handed out in conjunction with the Hollywood Film Festival, and it seems everyone on the “A” list just had to be there.
Look one way in the packed Beverly Hilton ballroom, and there was a table full of the “Crash” stars, the winners of the “Ensemble Acting of the Year Award.” There were Sandra Bullock and Thandie Newton, both beautiful in short black dresses, Jennifer Esposito in short and strapless brilliant blue, Bakar Soomekh in full-length green, and their guy cohorts, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle (what was up with that preppy vest, Don?), Larenz Tate, and sharp-dressed Shaun Toub in a custom-made Italian suit. They, along with “Breakthrough Director” winner Paul Haggis, made “Crash” one of the films to beat as the races heat up.
Even Halle Berry got onto the “Crash” cart, racing onto the stage to present Lions Gate head (and the guy who gave “Crash” the green light) Tom Ortenberg the “Leadership” award, but she did it in the wrong clothes. “My dress broke as I left the house,” Berry exclaimed, still looking well turned out in a black pinstripe pantsuit. “That’s never happened to me before!”
Susan Sarandon’s black dress held up fine as she accepted her “Supporting Actress of the Year” award from her “Elizabethtown” director Cameron Crowe, but Quentin Tarantino proved that being a big-name Hollywood guy doesn’t mean a fashion sense goes along with the acclaim and the wealth that brings. He wore a black hoodie sweatshirt to the black-tie event, looking like a forty-year-old teenager who wandered in accidentally.
Up next was pretty and elegant Jodie Foster, who could give Tarantino one word of advice – “Armani.” It just isn’t that complicated to look good, as she well knows. Just pick a classic designer, buy the clothes in black, and you’re good to go. It’s worked just fine for the two-time Oscar winner for the past twenty years, after all. She presented the “Casting Director Award” to pal Avy Kaufman, then “Memoirs of a Geisha” director Rob Marshall (he of “Chicago” fame) handed the “Costume Designer Award” to Colleen Atwood, his collaborator on that much-anticipated film due out in December.
Charming presenter Dermot Mulroney seemed very cozy with “Breakthrough Actress” winner Rachel McAdams (who is looking very blonde these days; we hope the rumours of the demise of his marriage to the wonderful Catherine Keener aren’t true.)
Speaking of rumours, Jennifer Aniston, 36, turned up without secret boyfriend Vince Vaughn to give Jake Gyllenhaal, 24, the “Breakthrough Actor” award, and referred to their 2002 film “The Good Girl” by saying, “I like to think of myself as his Mrs. Robinson.”
Keanu Reeves made the scene, too, to present to screenwriting Akiva Goldsman, not to his reported sweetheart Diane Keaton, who instead accepted her “Career Achievement Award” from a giggly Goldie Hawn. Charlize Theron left boyfriend Stuart Townsend home, accepting her “Actress of the Year Award” from her “North Country” co-star Jeremy Renner, and looking gorgeous all the while in a salmon-hued evening gown, while Joaquin Phoenix seemed nervous (as usual) as he picked up what may be the first of many best actor awards for his turn as Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line.”