After months of being asked about her refusal to campaign for an Oscar for Precious, Mo’Nique has apparently had enough, and is now referring all questions regarding her indifference to her manager/husband, Sidney Hicks. When the issue was raised in the press room at last night’s Critics’ Choice Awards after she won for Best Supporting Actress, Mo’Nique sweetly said, “Any questions you guys have pertaining to my performance I am more than happy to answer. Any questions you guys have pertaining to our business you can ask him.” Hicks joined her at the podium and said “I can understand why others would criticize that. Often people make accusations based on not having all the facts. I don’t know if you know this, but she is the first woman of African American descent to ever have a late night TV show in conjunction to being that she is a mother. She is also a wife . She would rather play a bad mother in movies than play a bad one in real life.” So there!
Some other moments from the show and backstage:
The night’s best moment came when Meryl Streep won Best Actress… and so did Sandra Bullock. “This is bullshit!” Bullock shouted as she came up to accept her award for the tie, then grabbed Streep for an open-mouthed kiss and dedicated her win “to the critics. I bet you never saw this coming.” In the press room, a typically gracious Streep said she’d actually “had a marathon this weekend watching [Sandra Bullock’s] movies, and not just these films, [The Blind Side and The Proposal], but a lot of other ones, when she was even younger than she is and just as beautiful.” We’re pretty sure she’s referring to Miss Congeniality and Miss Congeniality 2. She turned to Bullock. “You have an amazing gift you really do. There are things that look effortless and easy but they’re the hardest thing sin the world to do. Just to have that charm. This woman has it in spades…. I’m proud of you.” A reporter later asked Bullock backstage how she has managed to remain “the most amazing person ever.” “Because I’m an excellent actress!” she deadpanned.
Early in the show, Tobey Maguire spoke onstage of the earthquake tragedy in Haiti, and backstage the press took that to mean that he had deputized them to make sure celebrities were doing enough for the cause. Asked whether he was pulling his weight, Kevin Bacon (winner of the honorary Joel Siegel Award), had a long explanation of how his charity, sixdegrees.org, had immediately linked to aid organizations. Bacon was deemed appropriately charitable. They tried to prompt Sandra Bullock to brag about her $1 million donation to Doctors’ Without Borders efforts in Haiti, but she wasn’t playing: “Could you just talk about the recent tragedy in Haiti and if you’ve helped?” “I have.” “Care to elaborate?” “No.”
When the cast and director of The Hangover (winners for Best Comedy) were grilled, they at first tried to play ball, but then realized the utter absurdity of the cast and director of The Hangover speaking out on a global dilemma. Ken Jeong began respectfully enough, saying “It is a dire tragedy and our thoughts and prayers are with them. There’s been a text messaging campaign raising millions of dollars and my wife and I are supporting. It does put all this in perspective; we’re just trying to entertain and so our thoughts are definitely on helping the survivors.” He then concluded, “I’d like to talk about my tiny penis if that is possible.” Director Todd Phillips then said to the journalist who posed the question, “Really, way to take all the air out of the room, young lady.” Added Justin Bartha, “Do you want to ask anything about Darfur?”
