Friday, March 7, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Well, no big surprises at this year's ShoWest Awards.
Mostly because organizers of the film industry insider event have been announcing the winners of its "Marquee" awards for the last couple of months.
Among them: Cuba Gooding Jr. was named Supporting Actor of the Year for "Jerry Maguire."
Humble beauty Claire Danes ("William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet") took home the Female Star of Tomorrow award. No wonder: "I've been married twice, I've died twice on screen ... at the tender age of 17," she said.
Still, not a single "And the nominees are ...," "The envelope, please" or "I'd like to thank the Academy ..." was uttered all evening.
Thus the star-studded show Thursday night at the MGM Grand Garden, broadcast for the first time live on TNT, lacked the nervous anticipation and bated-breath moments one comes to expect from a Hollywood awards show.
And that was OK -- refreshing even -- given how those showbiz-type awards extravaganzas seem to have become prime time television regulars in recent years.
"There seems to be a lot, doesn't there?" commented "Batman Forever" director Joel Schumacher, backstage after being presented the Director of the Year award by Arnold Schwarzenegger (who was the inaugural recipient of ShoWest's Humanitarian Award).
But the show wasn't completely devoid of spontaneity.
During Elizabeth Hurley's ("Passenger 57") acceptance speech for Supporting Actress of the Year, presenter Mike Myers ("Wayne's World") not so subtly acknowledged that the prism atop her "Marquee" had fallen off and landed at her feet.
"I thought I had my skirt trapped into my panties," she later said about Myers' goofy interruption. "Isn't it embarrassing? I smashed it as soon as I got it?"
(Don't feel bad, Liz: The same thing happened to Howie Long's New Star of Tomorrow award backstage.)
Screenwriter of the Year award winner Albert Brooks ("Mother") hit the nail on the head when he described the heavy, silver and gold statue as looking like "An Oscar with tape around it."
Guess it could have used a bit more.
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