Matthew Broderick presented his wife of nearly 30 years Sarah Jessica Parker with the Golden Globes’ Carol Burnett Award for a life of achievement in television at Golden Eve, a ceremony that also added Helen Mirren to the list of legends that have won the Cecil B. DeMille Award.
Broderick suggested if she’d listened to him, it might not have happened.
“Do you really want to do TV?” the actor recalled asking Parker when she was first presented with the script for her career-making role as Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City” in the 1990s. She would go on to win six Golden Globes and two Emmys.
Accepting the award, Parker said, “It has been a privilege and a dream to call myself an actor.”
Golden Eve, a new separate ceremony for honorary career awards during the run-up to Sunday’s Golden Globes, was held on Tuesday night at the Beverly Hilton hotel and aired on Thursday night on CBS. Both women will also be acknowledged on the main show, airing live on CBS.
“The DeMille Award was described to me as a career recognition,” Mirren said from the stage. “But I prefer to think of it as a life lived, a life survived, a life enjoyed, a life sweated, and a life carried on, hopefully. And given that hope, I prefer to think of this as an ongoing reflection of my career rather than a eulogy.”
Harrison Ford and Viola Davis heap praise on Helen Mirren
Harrison Ford, who won the DeMille Award in 2002, presented this year’s edition to Mirren, his co-star in 1985’s “The Mosquito Coast” and on the current “1923.”
He called her “an undeniable screen presence who brings to every scene a powerful commitment to narrative and character. And when she goes full badass, it’s awesome to watch.”
Mirren, 80, an Oscar winner for her 2006 portrayal of Elizabeth II in “The Queen,” has also won three Golden Globes and is up for a fourth this year for her role in the series “MobLand.” She was named a Dame of the British Empire in 2003.
Mirren read off long lists of people her heroes and cherished collaborators. With her dramatic delivery, they were riveting.
“There are the women who have and always will inspire me: Monica Vitti, Anna Magnani, Jane Fonda, Bette Davis, Judy Garland,” she said. “And those whose first names are all that are needed. Madonna, Barbra, Cher, Sarah Jessica, Meryl, Kate with a K and Cate with a C, and, of course, ultimate goddess, Viola.”
She looked out in the audience at her close friend Viola Davis, who won the DeMille Award last year and was among her presenters at this ceremony. Davis recalled her awe at seeing Mirren for the first time, in the 1989 black comedy “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.”
“It was the door kicking in moment, the thunderbolt, the sermon on the mount, the burning bush,” Davis said. “Whatever I was in search of, right there I saw.”
Garland, Fonda, Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand, are also winners of the DeMille Award, along with Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey, Eddie Murphy and Tom Hanks. It dates to 1952, when it was given to its namesake filmmaker.
Mirren’s own husband of nearly 30 years, director Taylor Hackford, also spoke to honor her.
Parker gets emotional and boozy tributes
Parker got a tearful tribute from longtime “Sex and the City” co-star Kristin Davis and a toast with cosmopolitans — Bradshaw’s favorite drink that the show turned into a craze — led by Colman Domingo.
The Carol Burnett Award is given for “outstanding contributions to television on or off screen.”
The most recent winner — Ted Danson — and its namesake and 2019 first winner — Burnett — opened the night of kudos.
“My darling Sarah,” Burnett, age 92, said on a mic from her table. “Welcome to the club.”
Parker also talked about the time creator Darren Star offered her “Sex and the City,” and what it would mean to take it. The original HBO show became a cultural phenomenon. It ran for six seasons, spawning two feature films and the recent reboot series “And Just Like That….”
“I met Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, Samantha Jones, and Miranda Hobbes,” Parker said, “and I spent 25 years with the most glorious ensemble of women and actors, where we treated all of New York like CBS Television City and the streets like Studio 33.”
Broderick also talked about the way “Sex and the City” changed their lives.
“The president,” he said, “came to our house.”
Parker reflects on a life in acting
Parker is 60 but has been acting for more than 50 years, including playing the title role in “Annie” on Broadway as a child. She said her big moment of inspiration came while watching her mother and future stepfather in an Ohio production of “Once Upon a Mattress.” The show had been Burnett’s big break on Broadway, and Parker later starred in a Broadway revival.
“I thought, oh my gosh, yes, that is what I most want,” she said.
Broderick tends to appear tentative in the fairly rare public appearances when he has to play himself, and seemed extra edgy about his central role Tuesday night. When he took the stage, he muttered “Hi, Harrison,” to acknowledge the star power in front of him.
When Ford took the stage, he opened with, “Hi, Matthew.”
