Jamie Lee Curtis At Palm Springs Awards: Jamie Lee Curtis and Cate Blanchett traveled by car to the Palm Springs Film Festival Gala, where Curtis gave Blanchett the Desert Palm Achievement Award for her role in “Tár.” At the same time, the two entertained the crowd with jokes about who was the better driver. But when Blanchett reported that Curtis had changed her suitcase before their trip and arrived “out in her bra and panties,” she ratcheted the tension up to a fever pitch.
“We had this lengthy conversation,” Blanchett recalled at the top of her speech. “A discussion about whether I should get into pajamas before driving back tonight. Meanwhile, she’s telling me what I should wear, and she comes out with her bra and knickers. This is why we nearly missed tonight’s event.”
Together, they worked on the upcoming Eli Roth film “Borderlands,” which Blanchett filmed before starting Todd Field’s psychological thriller. While doing double duty, Blanchett gave producer and star of “The Woman King” Viola Davis the Chairman’s Award Actress.
Curtis recalled Blanchett asking her in her dressing room during Variety’s Actors on an Actors photo shoot if she would give her the award. Sam Rockwell, who also starred in “Seven Psychopaths,” paired up Curtis with actor Colin Farrell from “The Banshees of Inisherin,” who received the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor at the gala. Blanchett starred alongside Michelle Yeoh, who won the International Star Actress Award, in Curtis’ “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
Other notable moments from the ceremony included Austin Butler receiving the breakthrough performance award from “Elvis” director Baz Luhrmann. Tom Hanks’ COVID infection caused the movie to be halted at the start of the pandemic, and Luhrmann recalled that Butler’s casting caused him to become “estranged” from Priscilla Presley, Elvis’ ex-wife.
Additionally, “The Fabelmans” director and producer Steven Spielberg, producer Kristie Macosko Krieger, and actors Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Gabriel LaBelle, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch all received the prestigious Vanguard Award from two-time Oscar winner Sally Field.
The penultimate speech of the evening was delivered by Davis, who expressed optimism for a better future for Black actors in Hollywood. Davis stated, “I don’t want people to prosper despite the business. “Because of the business, I want them to prosper.”
Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”), Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”), Bill Nighy (“Living”), and author-director Sarah Polley (“Women Talking”) were among the other recipients.
From January 5 to 16, there is the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
