Zeta-Jones, Robbins Tapped for Pudding Pots

While their significant others already have Pudding Pots for their mantles, Tim Robbins and Catherine Zeta-Jones will now have their turn to parade through the Square with men dressed in drag.

The Hasty Pudding Theatricals announced yesterday that Zeta-Jones will receive the Woman of the Year award on Feb. 10 and Robbins will be honored as the Man of the Year on Feb. 17.

After both actors are roasted and presented with their pots, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals will open their 157th original musical, “Terms of Frontierment,” on Feb. 18.

The awards are given each year to honor individuals who have made a “lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment.”

Actor Michael Douglas, who is married to Zeta-Jones, received the Man of the Year Award in 1992. Four years later, actress Susan Sarandon, who has been in a relationship with Robbins since 1988, was named the Woman of the Year.

Hasty Pudding producer Romina Garber ’06 said it is likely that at least one of the significant others will make an appearance at this year’s awards.

Robbins won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar last year for his role in “Mystic River” and has starred in other films including “The Shawshank Redemption.” He also is a writer, director, and producer whose credits include “Dead Man Walking.”

“I understand that receiving the Hasty Pudding, Man of the Year Award, is a crowning achievement in one’s life, an experience of exaltation rivaled only by the birth of one’s children, being named The new Dalai Lama, or by being found not guilty on all charges,” Robbins said in a statement to The Crimson.

“I have dreamed for years of the day when I could hold the brass pot and call it my own and now at long last that day has arrived,” Robbins added.

Zeta-Jones is also a Oscar winner for her supporting role in “Chicago” in 2002. Her other feature films include “The Mask of Zorro,” “Traffic,” and “Ocean’s 12.”

“I am really looking forward to coming to Harvard next week,” she said in a statement to The Crimson. “It’s an honor to be added to the list of women who have gone before me. I can’t wait to see what the Hasty Puddings have in store for me.”

The selection of the annual Man and Woman of the Year awards is made by the Hasty Pudding’s Executive Board.

“We really wanted current people, A-list superstars,” said Garber, who is also a Crimson editor.

Producer Charles E. Worthington ’06 wrote in an e-mail that he was excited to honor Zeta-Jones and Robbins in this year’s festivities, which will be the last held in the Hasty Pudding’s Holyoke Street theater before it closes in April for renovations.

“I can’t think of two people more deserving of the Pudding Pot, and I hope the whole campus will join us in welcoming them to Harvard,” he said.

According to Vice President of the Cast Samuel Gale Rosen ’06, this year’s musical, set in the frontier, centers on the adventures of “fumbling, yet dreamy Luke N Forglory.”

Forglory meets a cast of characters including evil villains, ghosts, and railway tycoons in search of the “Oregon Grail—the spirit of the West,” Gale Rosen said.

The script was written by Margaret F. Shipstead ’06 and John P. Blickstead ’06, who is also a member of the cast.

The announcement of the Man and Woman of the Year, originally due to be revealed Tuesday on the cable television show “Nitebeat,” was delayed until last night due to scheduling and communication problems between the Pudding and the “Nitebeat” staff, Garber said.

Lean R. Lussier ’07 said she was looking forward to catching a glimpse of Zeta-Jones during the star’s visit to Cambridge, since The Mask of Zorro is her favorite movie.

“I’m so excited. I am totally going to go to the parade,” Lussier said.

—Staff writer Adam P. Schneider can be reached at aschneid@fas.harvard.edu.