hilarious (President's Awardee Larry King dissed his lovely wife and - on film - kissed the lovely Marlon Brando)
and, uh, shameless (Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa failed to persuade hundreds of journalists that he was really kidding when he said loved addressing them "because I need to kiss up" - and then completely botched the name of the next photo-op for which he was about to flee the room) ...
More thoughts later on all of it when I've had some shuteye, but again - congrats, everyone. Your news, opinions and passions - your love of and vigorous, visceral participation in this open forum - really earned this honor.
King's self- and wife-deprecating remarks (she took it all in what must be fathomless good humor) and his admission that while Brando is the only man who's ever kissed him on the lips, "I can't stop thinkin' about it"
A marvelous bit of early writing by slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl from a piece for which he dressed in drag to blend in with the women-only crowd at a male strip club - read by his father
the montage of Kevin Sites' completely fearless reportage from the world's many war fronts
Clips of the KCBS/KCAL camera crews getting flipped off and cussed out by a female MTA bus driver whom they had just ambushed with the evidence from hard-won DMV records that she was driving a 15-ton city bus with multiple DUI convictions on her record
Francine Orr's searing portraits of children and families in war-torn Uganda
The phrase "toad nookie" and the accompanying sound bites of a male toad refusing it, in a clip from the KPCC story on the Arroyo toad - (It won "Radio Use of Sound")
Low points:
A weird "Swedish" schtick pulled by former Bond film actress Maud Adams and co-presenter Doug Krieger
An inexplicably long and irrelevant passage by same on the Bond Films, the title of the upcoming film, and a pointedly commercial mention of the brand of car in the film (was Aston-Martin paying???)
Mayor Villaraigosa's parody of a pandering speech - "You all like to fill column inches and I like to get my picture in the paper" (words to that effect) - which basically devolved into a pandering speech at two points - when he said twice that he was there "because I gotta kiss up" and then when he touted the supposed value of his photo-op mayoralty by rattling off his events for the day (including playing the Hollywood Stars game at Dodger Stadium) and then excused himself to rush off to appear at the opening of "Al Gore's new movie, Truth and Consequence ... is that what it is?"
