Diana Ross– she’s a great singer but she’s a lot of trouble. On Sunday night she performed after the Oscars for media mogul Byron Allen at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The event raises money for the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. (Only Vanity Fair’s Oscar party is just for themselves. Elton John raises money for AIDS, etc.)
Guests included Howie Mandell, who emceed, as well as Caroline Rhea, Holly Robinson-Peete and Rodney Peete, Vivica A. Fox, Garcelle Beauvais, Tisha Campbell Martin, Yvette Nicole Brown, and the legendary Smokey Robinson.
Diana, ever difficult, didn’t let the charity take official photos or video. So we had to rely on TMZ sneaking a camera in so we could show you some of her performance. Who gives this woman advice? It’s always the worst!
TOP GUN MAVERICK and ABBOTT ELEMENTARY won the respective awards for Best Publicity Campaigns for movies and TV last Friday at the ICG Publicists Guild Awards at the Beverly Hilton. This is one of my favorite events of the season, where all the movie publicists get together and reminisce about how they drove journalists crazy all year! (Just kidding!)
Publicist of the Year went to Sarah Hull from Disney. Karen Chamberlain of Warner Bros, won the Les Mason Lifetime Achievement Award. The Press Award went to someone from “Entertainment Tonight” who didn’t show up when most everyone felt it should go to our pal, Jazz Tangcay of Variety. But that’s what awards are like!
There were terrific speeches from honorees like Quinta Brunson of “Abbott” and the famed Jerry Bruckheimer, of “Top Gun Maverick.” This year’s luncheon, held at The Beverly Hilton, was chaired by Tim Menke and Sheryl Main. “It was great to once again take time to celebrate publicists, especially this year at our 60th Annual Awards Luncheon. A big congratulations to all of today’s award nominees and recipients,” said Menke.
VARIETY reported that “Everything Everywhere” studio A24 is a mystery, its owners wouldn’t allow their pictures to be taken on the red carpet. A24 is no mystery to our readers. They start each awards season with the National Board of Review in their pocket. Exec David Laub is on the board, ensuring A24 films kick off the season with a ton of attention. (They got 7 mentions this year including Michelle Yeoh as Best Actress, which launched her Oscar campaign.) No one does anything about it no matter how often I write about it. The idiotic NBR has been exposed over and over and still gets studio attention. This should not be a mystery to Variety or any other trade paper.
