By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Martin Short to Receive Oscar Wilde Award

[PR] The Oscar Wilde Awards will not be short of laughter with Martin Short receiving an award at the February 23rdevent at J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot in Santa Monica.  The US-Ireland Alliance’s annual event will also honour Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard and “Outlander” star Caitriona Balfe.

US-Ireland Alliance founder Trina Vargo notes that Short’s father was from Northern Ireland and he has visited his family there often.

The celebrated comedian and actor has won fans and accolades in television, film and theater since his breakout season on “Saturday Night Live” over 30 years ago.

Short won his first Emmy in 1982 while working on Canada’s SCTV Comedy Network, which brought him to the attention of the producers of “SNL.” He became an “SNL” fan-favorite for his portrayal of characters such as Ed Grimley, lawyer Nathan Thurm and “legendary songwriter” Irving Cohen.

His popularity and exposure on “SNL” led Short to cross over quickly into feature films. He made his debut in “Three Amigos” and followed with “Innerspace,” “Three Fugitives,” “Clifford,” “Pure Luck” and “Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks.” One of Short’s most memorable roles was in the remake of “Father of the Bride” as Franck the wedding planner, a role he reprised a few years later in “Father of the Bride Part II.”  Short lent his voice to the animated film “Madagascar 3” and Tim Burton’s Oscar-nominated “Frankenweenie.”

An accomplished stage actor, Short won a Tony, Theatre World Award, and an Outer Critics Circle Award for his role in the revival of “Little Me.” He was also nominated for a Tony and took home an Outer Critics Circle Award for the musical version of Neil Simon’s “The Goodbye Girl.” Short co-wrote and starred in “Fame Becomes Me,” prompting The New York Times to describe Short as “a natural for live musicals, a limber singer and dancer who exudes a fiery energy that makes you want to reach for your sunglasses.” Short most recently appeared on Broadway in Terrence McNally’s “It’s Only a Play.”

A two-time primetime Emmy winner and multi-nominated for both primetime and daytime Emmys, Short returned to television in 1998 for the miniseries “Merlin” and host of “The Martin Short Show.” In 2001, he launched the popular comedy “Primetime Glick” and in 2010 received critical acclaim for his role in FX’s drama series “Damages.”

Short has also returned to “SNL” as host three times, and performed in the series’ landmark 40th anniversary special in February 2015. Other recent television credits include “Mulaney,” “How I Met Your Mother,” the critically acclaimed PBS series “Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That,” and most recently the weekly variety series “Maya & Marty” on NBC, co-starring with Maya Rudolph.  Last December, he starred in the televised performance of “Hairspray Live!” which aired live on NBC.

Short’s New York Times bestselling memoir, “I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend,” was published in 2014.

Lexus, Zetta Jet, and Resurgent Film Group are among the sponsors of the casual Oscars Week party.

Be Sociable, Share!

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon