Bullock, Downey Jr. Tapped for Pudding Award

With awards season in full force, Robert Downey, Jr. and Sandra Bullock have a distinctive prize to add to the tally. The Hasty Pudding Theatricals will honor the actors in its annual Man and Woman of the Year Awards ceremonies, the group announced yesterday.

The arrival of Downey and Bullock at Harvard later this month will jump-start the run of the Theatrical’s 156th original musical, “As the Word Turns.”

“It’s a story of three young spelling bee contestants in their pursuit of each other and the spelling bee championship, but things get complicated when the Russians and the evil industrialist Neil B. Formee enter the picture,” said co-producer Nicholas H. Ma ’05.

The Pudding pays tribute to two actors every year for their “lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment.”

The producers and the president of the theatricals present “pudding pots” to the actors, but not before “roasting” them—forcing them to reenact career moments and submit to general humiliation.

“We look for people who have well-established careers and people who have budding talent,” Ma said. “We think Robert Downey, Jr. and Sandra Bullock are a good combination of the two.”

Meanwhile, student Daniel M. Raper ’04 offered a different perspective.

“It just sounds like they choose whoever would accept them,” he said. “I mean, what’s Robert Downey, Jr. done this year?”

To kick-off the festivities, Bullock will lead a parade in her honor through Cambridge at 2:00 PM on Feb. 12.

A dozen of the troupe’s members, outfitted in drag, will accompany Bullock on a 40 minute ride that makes its final stop at the Hasty Pudding Theater on Holyoke Street, where Bullock will be roasted and then treated to a preview of the troupe’s production.

Bullock is perhaps best known for her roles in the hit movies Speed (1994) and Miss Congeniality (2000). She received a Golden Globe nomination for While You Were Sleeping (1995).

Bullock has appeared in only three films since 2000, choosing instead to try her hand behind-the-scenes. For the past three years, she has executive-produced the ABC family comedy The George Lopez Show.

Downey will receive his own Pudding Pot on Feb. 19, in a ceremony before the premiere of “As the Word Turns.”

The critically acclaimed actor has become as well known for his talent as for his drug convictions. He netted a British Academy Award and an Academy Award nomination for his work in the 1992 film Chaplin.

A Saturday Night Live alum, Downey appeared most recently in the movie in the thriller Gothika alongside Halle Berry. He won a Golden Globe award for his role on the television series Ally McBeal as the flighty lawyer’s love interest.