Campus & Community

Stiller, Johansson named Hasty Pudding’s Man and Woman of Year

5 min read

Venerable Harvard theatrical group to stage 159th production

The Hasty Pudding Theatricals of Harvard University has announced that Ben Stiller and Scarlett Johansson are the recipients of the 2007 Man and Woman of the Year awards.

The Woman of the Year festivities will be held on Feb. 15 at 2:30 p.m., when the Woman of the Year will lead a parade through the streets of Cambridge. Following the parade, the president of the theatricals, Joshua Brener ’07, and the vice president of the cast, Justin Rodriguez ’07, will roast the celebrity and present her with her Pudding Pot at 3:15 p.m. in the Agassiz Theatre. After the roast, several numbers from the Hasty Pudding Theatrical’s 159th production “The Tent Commandments” will be previewed at 3:40 p.m. and a press conference will be held at 4:10 p.m.

On Feb. 23, the Man of the Year event will take place. The producers of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, Evan Eachus ’08 and Scott Wilmore ’08, will roast the honoree and present him with his Pudding Pot at 8:10 p.m. in the Zero Arrow Street Theatre, prior to the start of the opening night performance of “The Tent Commandments.” A press conference will be held immediately after the roast at 8:30 p.m.

The Man and Woman of the Year awards are presented annually to performers who have made a “lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment.” Established in 1951, the Woman of the Year award has been granted to many notable and talented entertainers, including Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn, Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Meg Ryan, and, most recently, Halle Berry. The Man of the Year award was established in 1963. Its past recipients include Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Anthony Hopkins, Bruce Willis, and, last year, Richard Gere.

With more than a decade of work under her belt, four-time Golden Globe nominee and British Academy of Film and Television Arts winner Scarlett Johansson has proven to be one of Hollywood’s most talented young actresses. Johansson received rave reviews and a best actress award at the Venice Film Festival for her starring role opposite Bill Murray in Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation.” Johansson portrayed the title character in “Girl With a Pearl Earring,” a film adapted from the novel of the same name about the painter Johannes Vermeer. Other film credits include “The Horse Whisperer,” “Ghost World,” “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” “The Island,” “North,” “Just Cause,” “Manny & Lo,” and “In Good Company.” She appeared opposite John Travolta in “A Love Song for Bobby Long,” which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination (her third in two years.) Recently she was seen in Woody Allen’s “Match Point,” for which Johansson received her fourth Golden Globe nomination in three years. A New York native, Johansson made her professional acting debut at the age of 8 in the Off-Broadway production of “Sophistry,” with Ethan Hawke, at New York’s Playwright’s Horizons.

Ben Stiller is an actor, director, producer, and writer who continues to imprint his unique comedic and dramatic perspective on film, television, and stage. Stiller can currently be seen in Shawn Levy’s box office hit “Night at the Museum,” co-starring Robin Williams and Owen Wilson. Stiller has starred in numerous major motion pictures including “Meet the Parents” and its sequel “Meet the Fockers,” “Dodgeball,” “Along Came Polly,” “Starsky and Hutch,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Keeping The Faith,” “There’s Something About Mary,” “Permanent Midnight,” “Mystery Men,” “Your Friends and Neighbors,” “Zero Effect,” and “Flirting With Disaster.” Stiller directed, co-wrote, starred in, and produced “Zoolander.” Stiller made his feature-length motion picture directorial debut in 1994 with the critically acclaimed “Reality Bites,” in which he also co-starred. He also directed Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick in “The Cable Guy.” In the spring of 2005, Stiller completed a successful run Off-Broadway in Neil LeBute’s play, “This Is How It Goes,” at New York’s Public Theatre. Stiller will next be seen in the upcoming untitled Farrelly brothers comedy, which re-teams Stiller with the writing-directing team of Peter and Bobby Farrelly, due in theaters Oct. 5.

For more information about the event, please contact Hasty Pudding Theatricals (HPT) press and publicity manager Joshua Lachter. He can be reached by phone at (917) 664-6758 or e-mail at jlachter@fas.harvard.edu.

To purchase tickets to “The Tent Commandments,” which will be performed at the Zero Arrow Street Theatre, contact the HPT box office at (617) 495-5205 or buy them online at http://www.hastypudding.org. The show opens on Feb. 23 at the Man of the Year ceremony and continues in Cambridge until March 18. The show performs Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 4 and 8 p.m. Sunday matinees are at 1 and 5 p.m. on Feb. 25 and March 4, 11, and 18. The company then travels to New York to perform at Hunter College’s Kaye Playhouse on March 23 and 24 at 8 p.m. The tour continues to the Hamilton City Hall in Bermuda for performances on March 28-31 at 8 p.m.

Because of the current renovations of the Hasty Pudding Theatre, this year’s ceremonies will be held in different venues. The Woman of the Year event will be at the Agassiz Theatre at 14 Mason St. in Cambridge, while the Man of the Year event will be at the Zero Arrow Street Theatre at 0 Arrow St. in Cambridge. The Woman of the Year parade route will be different from previous years. Specific details will follow in future media advisories from the Harvard News Office.