I have the article and some pictures.......
Michael attends Palm Beach film festival
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Jackson attends Palm Beach film festival
By Thom Smith, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 6, 2003
BOCA RATON -- The Palm Beach International Film Festival has never lacked celebrity.
Previous attendees and honorees have included Michael Caine, Salma Hayek, Roger Moore, Robert Wise, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret. But at its annual black-tie gala Saturday night at the Boca Raton Resort and Club, the 8-year-old festival added a new dimension, one that finally could boost it into the big-time: notoriety.
Appearing as a surprise presenter was none other than Michael Jackson. The 44-year-old entertainer, who has acted in only one full-length feature, The Wiz, sneaked into the banquet hall through the resort's kitchen.
More than 500 guests were stunned when the soft-talking, moon-walking, baby-dangling superstar, who has been house-hunting in Palm Beach County for several weeks, arrived at the $1,000-a-plate dinner shortly after 8 p.m.
He joined legendary producer Robert Evans at the center table, where several other unannounced guests were seated: actor/comedian Chris Tucker and Brett Ratner, star and director, respectively, of the popular Rush Hour hits. Like Jackson, both were also last-minute additions to the celebrity lineup. Ratner presented the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award to Evans.
Any hopes of getting close or touching the pop star were thwarted by a trio of uniformed Boca Raton police officers.
From an artistic perspective, the gala also was a success, thanks in large part to the greatest scheduling coup in its brief history. The announcement that Adrien Brody would be honored for the Performance of the Year for his role in The Pianist was made less than a month before the angular New Yorker won his Best Actor Oscar.
"I heard it was down to (Daniel) Day-Lewis and me and I'm really grateful the votes were counted in Palm Beach County," he said as he accepted his award.
Receiving the Legend in Film Award was the legendary Fay Wray. Though hopelessly married in American minds to a giant gorilla, Wray made nearly 100 films. The "Scream Queen," as she was once known, appeared in King Kong in 1933, one of 11 films she made that year. She made 11 more in 1934.
Her later credits included Queen Bee; Dragstrip Riot, her last Hollywood movie in 1958; and the TV film Gideon's Trumpet, in 1970.
Suzanne DeLaurentiis, who recently completed filming of Shut up and Kiss Me in Palm Beach County, accepted the Commissioner Burt Aaronson Founder's Award from actor David DeLuise and announced she is so thrilled with her filmmaking experience here that she is opening a branch office.
Jackson, who heard about the festival during his house-hunting trip and said he would like to attend, was just icing on the cake.
"It's bigger, it's better, more people are going to festival films this year, and wow! What a night," said Randi Emerman, who is in her second year as the festival's executive director.
thom_smith@pbpost.com
PICS:
Hope ya'll like!! Doesn't Michael look so good!?!:amores:
Michael attends Palm Beach film festival
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jackson attends Palm Beach film festival
By Thom Smith, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 6, 2003
BOCA RATON -- The Palm Beach International Film Festival has never lacked celebrity.
Previous attendees and honorees have included Michael Caine, Salma Hayek, Roger Moore, Robert Wise, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret. But at its annual black-tie gala Saturday night at the Boca Raton Resort and Club, the 8-year-old festival added a new dimension, one that finally could boost it into the big-time: notoriety.
Appearing as a surprise presenter was none other than Michael Jackson. The 44-year-old entertainer, who has acted in only one full-length feature, The Wiz, sneaked into the banquet hall through the resort's kitchen.
More than 500 guests were stunned when the soft-talking, moon-walking, baby-dangling superstar, who has been house-hunting in Palm Beach County for several weeks, arrived at the $1,000-a-plate dinner shortly after 8 p.m.
He joined legendary producer Robert Evans at the center table, where several other unannounced guests were seated: actor/comedian Chris Tucker and Brett Ratner, star and director, respectively, of the popular Rush Hour hits. Like Jackson, both were also last-minute additions to the celebrity lineup. Ratner presented the festival's Lifetime Achievement Award to Evans.
Any hopes of getting close or touching the pop star were thwarted by a trio of uniformed Boca Raton police officers.
From an artistic perspective, the gala also was a success, thanks in large part to the greatest scheduling coup in its brief history. The announcement that Adrien Brody would be honored for the Performance of the Year for his role in The Pianist was made less than a month before the angular New Yorker won his Best Actor Oscar.
"I heard it was down to (Daniel) Day-Lewis and me and I'm really grateful the votes were counted in Palm Beach County," he said as he accepted his award.
Receiving the Legend in Film Award was the legendary Fay Wray. Though hopelessly married in American minds to a giant gorilla, Wray made nearly 100 films. The "Scream Queen," as she was once known, appeared in King Kong in 1933, one of 11 films she made that year. She made 11 more in 1934.
Her later credits included Queen Bee; Dragstrip Riot, her last Hollywood movie in 1958; and the TV film Gideon's Trumpet, in 1970.
Suzanne DeLaurentiis, who recently completed filming of Shut up and Kiss Me in Palm Beach County, accepted the Commissioner Burt Aaronson Founder's Award from actor David DeLuise and announced she is so thrilled with her filmmaking experience here that she is opening a branch office.
Jackson, who heard about the festival during his house-hunting trip and said he would like to attend, was just icing on the cake.
"It's bigger, it's better, more people are going to festival films this year, and wow! What a night," said Randi Emerman, who is in her second year as the festival's executive director.
thom_smith@pbpost.com
PICS:
Hope ya'll like!! Doesn't Michael look so good!?!:amores:
