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Angelina Jolie Getting A Special Oscar For Her Humanitarian Work
Angelina Jolie last year (Getty Images)
When Angelina Jolie won her first Oscar, she was dressed like Morticia and scandalized viewers by kissing her brother on the lips. Fourteen years later, she'll be returning to the Oscar stage as a widely recognized humanitarian who's just as likely to be photographed at refugee camps as on a red carpet.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that they'll be handing out honorary Oscars to Angela Lansbury, Steve Martin and Italian costume designer Piero Tosi, and that Jolie will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The statues will be handed out at the Governors Awards ceremony that precedes the 2014 Oscars.
Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs tells The Hollywood Reporter, "her humanitarian efforts, and how she lives her life and how her support of humanitarian causes are really to be greatly admired."
The award was given to Oprah Winfrey two years ago, with many arguing she didn't have the body of film work to warrant such recognition, even if her long list of good deeds is legendary. (This year, she'll be sure to be in attendance in some form, thanks to The Butler.)
Jolie won her competitive Oscar for 1999's Girl Interrupted and was nominated again for her role in 2009's Changeling. There was also that time she and her leg presented at the Oscars, inspiring more memes than Grumpy Cat.
Lansbury, who is now 87, has been nominated three times for Best Supporting Actress in her long career, including for her most memorable role of the manipulative mother in 1962's The Manchurian Candidate. Although you could argue that her most beloved role is that of singing and voicing Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast.
Funnyman Martin has been nominated for many awards, including Golden Globes and MTV Movie Awards, but he's never been recognized by the Academy except as a host. That EGOT could still be his, since he's already got an Emmy (for writing for "The Smothers Brothers" in 1969) and Grammys for his breakout "Wild and Crazy Guy" album of 1978 and his actually quite serious banjo playing.
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