Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
From Tony to Oscar and back?
Has Tony really turned into Oscar? True, last night’s Tony Awards didn’t feel that far from the Oscars. There were the hoards of screaming fans outside, the red carpet filled with stars like Scarlett Johansson and Will Smith. And the backstage media room where winners are wheeled in breathless and smiling for an impromptu press conference.
But for all the talk that the Tony’s are going all Hollywood, perhaps they are not. For starters, some of Hollywood’s A-List don’t take America’s highest theater honors as seriously as the Oscars. Some, like best actor nominated Jude Law who was a long shot to win, was nowhere to be seen. Others, like first-time Tony Award winners Scarlett Johansson and Catherine Zeta-Jones, did not bother going backstage to speak to the press afterwards.
And if any Tony organizers thought the presence of more stars than ever at the awards would guarantee better ratings, it wasn’t to be. The Tony’s broke a streak of award shows improving on their ratings this year by dropping 8 per cent in viewership from last year. The show’s roughly 7 million viewers fell far short of the number of basketball fans watching the Los Angeles Lakers lose to the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association’s championship series.
And, as yet there are no confirmed, big-name Hollywood actors announced for Broadway shows for the rest if this year (Unless you count T.R. Knight, we don’t. ‘Harry Potter’ star Daniel Radcliffe is confirmed to return to the Great White Way — next year.)
Mila Kunis to parents: Retire already!
Actress Mila Kunis has enjoyed a lot of success in her career. She starred in TV hit “That ’70s Show” and has voiced the character Meg Griffin in “The Family Guy.” In her latest role, she appears opposite Oscar winner Denzel Washington in action movie “The Book of Eli,” which opens on Jan. 15.
But there’s one area where all of Kunis’ efforts seem to end in frustration for her — and that’s getting her immigrant parents from Ukraine to take advantage of her own financial good fortune and retire, which means that her dad would have to quit driving a taxi and her mom would have to hang it up at the drug store she manages.
