Woody Allen won his fifth Writers Guild Award Sunday night for originals screenplay, this time for “Midnight in Paris.” Best Adapted Screenplay went to Alexander Payne and co. for “The Descendants.” No one adapts a novel like Payne. For Woody, it’s well deserved. But at the Oscars it may be a different story since “The Artist” was not eligible for the WGA. Woody previously won for “Broadway Danny Rose,” “Crimes and Misdemeanors,” “Annie Hall,” and “Hannah and Her Sisters.” Other winners included “Modern Family” and “Breaking Bad in TV, and “Cinema Verite” and “Too Big to Fail” for HBO in Best Movie and Mini-series. PS Really, the whole thing about “Midnight in Paris” still gets me. Woody told me at the Cannes Film Festival premiere that he put the story together over a weekend.
He had no idea it would catch on the way it did. But it was genius.
From our LEAH SYDNEY:
Zooey Deschanel, (‘New Girl,’) and Joel Mchale (‘Community’) hosted the WGAW Writers Guild Award West Awards last night in Hollywood. This clever, witty event is one of the most enjoyable in Hollywood, with each of the writers trying to out funny each other on stage. Joel and Zooey were the perfect hosts, adorable Zooey started off with, “I think you writers are hot because of your minds and plaid shirts. Please, don’t be shy, hit on me. Mama wants her dance card to be full.”
The evening had plenty of celebrity presenters, including Tom Selleck, Lisa Kudrow and Bryan Cranston. But perhaps the presenter that got the biggest
laugh was thirteen year old Kiernan Shipka, who plays Sally Draper on AMC’s hit, ‘Mad Men.’Â Kiernan was presenting along with Men’s Creative/Executive
Producer Matthew Weiner, when she complained that she wasn’t be given enough “juicy” work to do on the show, to which Matt quipped, ‘you’re not ready.’
Kiernan then went on to do an imitation of Faye Dunaway’s famous ranting about wire hangers from ‘Mommie Dearest.’ The jaded crowd roared. Amy
Poehler also quipped when ‘The Colbert Report,’ won over ‘Saturday Night Live,’ her old stomping ground. “Hey, be cool,” she implored the crowd,
“I’m going to tweet now that SNL won, so just pretend we did.” Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer presented an award to their ‘Help’ writer Tate Taylor,
who talked about his 15 year quest for his ‘overnight success.’
