Clooney, Pitt launch 2012 award season
George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and other red-carpet veterans joined some Hollywood newcomers in the Southern California desert this past weekend to kick off the two-month-long movie award season at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
“When you’re of age: drink,” Clooney noted to the newbies at Saturday night’s gala awards ceremony. “That’s good advice to pretty much anybody.”
Among those relative newcomers were Clooney’s co-stars from the drama “The Descendants.” “It is the first time we have dressed up all season,” said actor Matthew Lillard. “We have a couple months to put on nice dresses and suits.”
“Don’t forget the shoes,” injected actress Judy Greer. “Oh man, am I going to need a massage when the next two months are over.”
Clooney, star of both “Descendants” and the drama “The Ides of March,” was given the festival’s “Chairman’s Award” for acting, directing, producing and writing. “They gave me a gavel on the way in,” he joked. “And I’m feeling like I might actually get protested now.”
Among other honorees: actresses Michelle Williams (“My Week with Marilyn”), Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer (“The Help”) and Glenn Close (“Albert Nobbs”).
Pitt was given the Desert Palm Achievement Award for his performances in “Moneyball” and “The Tree of Life.” Gary Oldman (“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”) was dubbed International Star of the Year.
Sutherland set to shoot ‘24’ film
Fans of Jack Bauer have something to look forward to. A movie based on the old Fox series “24” is scheduled to begin shooting this spring.
Actor Kiefer Sutherland said Sunday that he expects to go to work on the movie in late April or May. Sutherland played Bauer, the centerpiece on the pulse-quickening series that ended its television run in 2010.
Even with the movie ahead of him, Sutherland is already working on a new Fox series. “Touch” features him as the father of a super-intelligent son able to understand odd connections in the world and even predict the future.
The birthday bunch
Author Judith Krantz is 84. Folk singer Joan Baez is 71. Rock musician Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) is 68. Singer David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) is 62. Singer Crystal Gayle is 61. Actor J.K. Simmons is 57. Actress Joely Richardson is 47. Rock singer Steve Harwell (Smash Mouth) is 45. Rock singer-musician Dave Matthews is 45. Actress-director Joey Lauren Adams is 44. Singer A.J. McLean (Backstreet Boys) is 34. Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is 30. Pop-rock musician Drew Brown (OneRepublic) is 28.