Hasty Pudding Honors Curtis, Woman of the Year

Jamie Lee Curtis unleashed the scream that made her famous in the horror movie classic Halloween yesterday and accepted her brass pudding pot at the 50th annual Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman of the Year award ceremony.

Sporting leather pants and a three-quarter-length leopard print jacket, Curtis paraded through the streets of Harvard Square before her pudding pot ceremony, surrounded by the flamboyantly costumed Hasty Pudding cast--including a shiny green dragon with wings.

Llamas, sheep, a caged pig, four state troopers on horses and the Harvard University Band marched in the parade for Curtis. Ballroom dancers, the juggling club, the Harvard and Radcliffe Dance Company and a bagpipe player from the Celtic Society also turned out.

After the parade, Curtis sashayed into the theater to the tunes of the Pudding orchestra, and said to the audience, "I flew all the way here, let's hear it guys."

On the Hasty Pudding stage, Curtis was 'roasted' by Sarah A. Knight '00, president of the Pudding theatricals and Robert E. Schlesinger '00, vice president of the cast, who jokingly quizzed Curtis about the weapons she used to fend of serial killer Mike Meyers in her three Halloween horror movies.

Schlesinger--with a red rose between his teeth--then tangoed with Curtis across the stage. After the dance was over, Curtis took the rose from Schlesinger, and stuck it in the front of her shirt.

Schlesinger called Curtis a "talented comedian and action star."

But before she could get her pudding pot, Curtis had to exercise her lungs.

The theater went dark, eerie music came on, and Curtis belted out a scream that would do even the most die-hard horror film aficionados proud.

When presented with her brass pudding pot, Cutis shrieked, "Oh my god, wow, I didn't know I actually got a prize!"

As Curtis tried to give her acceptance speech, her microphone went dead and she had to hold Schlesinger's small clip on mike in front of her to be heard.

"How much does Harvard cost?" she quipped about the technical difficulties. "This is so sad."

Cutis said she was both "honored" and "disconcerted" to receive the Pudding's award and be surrounded by so many smart young people.

" This will be my millennium memory," she said.

Curtis poked fun at Schlesinger's scripted eagerness on stage, saying "you're like a mime."

Knight--the first female president of Pudding Theatricals--received a standing ovation from the audience after Curtis praised her accomplishment.

Despite its female leadership, the Pudding cast, opening next week in their 152nd show The Jewel of Denial, does not permit women to act in their shows.

After Curtis received her pudding pot, the Pudding cast staged a preview of the show, which will open next Thursday when Billy Crystal is in town to accept his Man of the Year award.

Curtis raved about the preview.

"There's discernable talent up there, I had no clue they were so great," she said.

Curtis said she was likely to put her pudding pot on her bookshelf at home, "next to my self-help books and books about mothering," she said.

The daughter of silver screen legends Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Curtis said she appreciated an award coming from Harvard, with its rich history and intellectual prestige.

"This is a place of history. I was raised by movie stars," she said. "I'm not proud I didn't go to college, and I respect education now more than ever. This [award] might even encourage me to go back to school. Who knows?"