The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) announced that Courtney Simon will be honored with the Richard B. Jablow Award at the 69th annual Writers Guild Awards at New York’s Edison Ballroom on Sunday, February 19, 2017.
The Jablow award was established in 1978 to recognize devoted service to the Guild. It was created in honor of Richard B. Jablow, who helped found the WGAE, authored its constitution and served as its first counsel.
A Guild member since 1980, Simon has written for twelve different daytime dramas, including AS THE WORLD TURNS, SANTA BARBARA, GUIDING LIGHT and ALL MY CHILDREN. She has won seven Daytime Emmy Awards and seven Writers Guild Awards.
Simon has served on the WGAE Council since 2007, where she has been active in lobbying efforts to promote a diversity-based tax credit in New York state. She co-chairs the WGAE Diversity Coalition, is a member of the Awards Committee and has been chair of the Daytime Committee.
“Not only is Courtney Simon a gifted writer who has mastered the intricacies of daytime drama, she has been a dedicated member of the Writers Guild of America, East council and a hardworking contributor to a number of union committees, most recently as co-chair of our Diversity Coalition,” noted Michael Winship, President of the Writers Guild of America, East. “No one is more deserving of our Jablow Award, presented to someone who has so thoroughly devoted herself to the Writers Guild of America, East.”
In addition to Courtney Simon being honored with the Jablow Award, John Waters will be presented with the Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Career Achievement, Steve O’Donnell will be honored with the Herb Sargent Award for Comedy Excellence and Jelani Cobb will be presented with the inaugural Walter Bernstein Award.
The 2017 Writers Guild Awards ceremony in New York will be hosted by Lewis Black. The initial list of presenters includes Becky Ann Baker (“Girls”), Dylan Baker (“The Americans”), Danielle Brooks (“Orange Is The New Black”), Bill Camp (“The Night Of”), David Harbour (“Stranger Things”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Atlanta”), Jill Kargman (“Odd Mom Out”), Jane Krakowski (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”), Elizabeth Marvel (“Homeland”), Amber Ruffin (“Late Night With Seth Meyers”), David Simon (“The Deuce”), Christian Slater (“Mr. Robot”), Triumph The Insult Comic Dog (“Triumph’s Election Special’) and Steve Young (“Maya & Marty”).
The Writers Guild Awards honor outstanding writing in film, television, new media, videogames, news, radio, promotional, and graphic animation categories. The awards will be presented at concurrent ceremonies on Sunday, February 19, 2017, in New York City at the Edison Ballroom and in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton.
William Dafoe, Jonathan Bailey and Peter Dinklage join the voice cast for Starburn Industries’ “Lincoln in the Bardo”
Actors Willem Dafoe, Jonathan Bailey and Peter Dinklage have joined the voice cast of Starburns Industries’ “Lincoln in the Bardo,” based on acclaimed author George Saunders’ New York Times bestseller and 2017 Booker Prize-winner. Saunders adapted the screenplay, with Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Duke Johnson directing. It was announced earlier that Tom Hanks stars as the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, in the live action portion of the film. CAA Media Finance and WME Independent are handling sales at the upcoming TIFF: The Market.
The film employs a unique blend of stop-motion animation and live action to explore one of the most intimate moments of Lincoln’s life, centering on his relationship with his recently deceased eleven-year-old son. Blending history and imagination, the story unfolds through an unforgettable ensemble of characters – living and dead, historical and invented – to explore themes of love, empathy, and the human capacity for connection in the face of unimaginable grief.
Reverend Everly Thomas – the ghost of a minister who died believing he would go to heaven, but, to his dismay, found out otherwise – is voiced by Dafoe. Bailey is voicing Roger Bevins, the ghost of a young gay man who took his own life over a failed love affair and instantly regretted it. Dinklage is voicing Hans Vollman, a ghost obsessed with his dream of being reunited with his much-younger wife.
Four-time Academy Award nominee Dafoe’s credits include animated films “Finding Nemo,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “The Boy and the Heron,” as well as “At Eternity’s Gate,” “The Florida Project,” “Shadow of the Vampire” and seminal Vietnam movie... Read More
