Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Thursday, June 28, 2001
Release #232-01

Contact: Sunny Mindel/ Lynn Rasic
(212) 788-2958
  Julianne Cho, Film, Theatre & Broadcasting (212) 489-6710 x230


MAYOR GIULIANI HONORS FILM AND TELEVISION INDUSTRY LEADERS AT 18TH ANNUAL CRYSTAL APPLE AWARDS CEREMONY


Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today honored leaders in the film and television industry this evening, at the 18th Annual Crystal Apple Awards ceremony at Gracie Mansion. The Mayor presented Crystal Apples to Geraldine Laybourne, Anne Meara, Mary Tyler Moore, James Schamus and Ted Hope, Jerry Stiller, and Jac Venza. Commissioner Patricia Reed Scott of the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting joined the Mayor at the ceremony.

The Crystal Apple is awarded annually by the Mayor of the City of New York to industry leaders in film and television who have made distinguished careers in their chosen fields, and notable contributions to the City's production industry. The Crystal Apple is donated to the City by Tiffany & Co.

"New York City is truly the Entertainment Capital of the World -- a title secured in part through the outstanding contributions of the seven individuals honored tonight: Geraldine Laybourne, Anne Meara, Mary Tyler Moore, James Schamus, Ted Hope, Jerry Stiller, and Jac Venza," said Mayor Giuliani. "The record breaking growth of the television and film industries boosts the City's economy and has created a sense pride among New Yorkers as the entertainment industry captures the excitement of New York City for the rest of the world to see. "

Commissioner Patricia Reed Scott said, "All of today's legendary honorees have played out their careers on a vast stage, and on so many occasions, have made New York their setting of choice. Each one has originated a body of work that has enduring cultural value, and New York is very proud of them."

The following are brief biographies of this year's distinguished honorees:

Geraldine B. Laybourne
Ms. Laybourne pioneered Nickelodeon, a benchmark in innovative television programming for children, as well as Nick at Nite, the successful primetime line-up of retro sitcoms. Nickelodeon has won numerous honors, including Emmy, Peabody, Cable Ace and Parents' Choice Awards. In 1998, she became the chairman and CEO of Oxygen Media which she co-founded with Oprah Winfrey, Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach. Ms. Laybourne has received the Annenberg Public Policy Center's award for Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Children and Television, sits on the boards of the National Council for Families and Television, New York Women in Film and the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation, and serves on the board of trustees of Vassar College.

Anne Meara
Ms. Meara has built a career of entertaining audiences on stage and screen. She earned a Tony nomination for her work in the Roundabout's production of "Anna Christie" and won five Emmy nominations for her television work, including a guest-starring role on "Homicide." Opening as the female lead in "Two Gentlemen of Verona" during the first season of the New York Shakespeare Festival in the Park, Ms. Meara also starred on ABC's "All My Children" and starred in and co-wrote "The Other Woman," a CBS movie which won the Writer's Guild Award. Her script "After Play" which was produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club won the Other Critic's John Gassner Award for Playwriting and Ms. Meara eventually joined the cast when it moved to Theatre Four. Some of Ms. Meara's film credits include "The Out of Towners," "Fame," "Awakenings," and "The Daytrippers." She has also enjoyed a career as half of the comedy team, Stiller & Meara, starting with the Ed Sullivan Show. Her new play "Down the Garden Paths" was produced recently at the Minetta Lane Theatre in Manhattan and she has just finished filming "Get Well Soon" with Courtney Cox Arquette.

Mary Tyler Moore
Ms. Moore's distinguished career includes work on television, stage and in film, as well as in production through her company MTM. She earned two Emmy Awards for her work on the "Dick Van Dyke Show" and went on to produce and star in "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" which garnered more Emmys than any other television show. She was honored with a Tony award for her debut on Broadway in "Whose Life Is It Anyway?," was nominated for an Academy Award for the film "Ordinary People and gained an unprecedented seventh Emmy Award for her television performance in "Stolen Babies." Some of her television credits include the "Ozzie and Harriet Show," the NBC mini-series "Gore Vidal's Lincoln," and CBS' "Like Mother, Like Son." Notable films include "First You Made Me Cry," "Six Weeks" which was filmed in New York with Dudley Moore, and "Flirting With Disaster" also starring Ben Stiller. Ms. Moore devotes much of her time to charity, serving as the International Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and working with numerous non-profit organizations and scholarship programs for arts and academics. Earlier this week, Ms. Moore testified before Congress about the need for funding further stem-cell research.

James Schamus and Ted Hope
James Schamus and Ted Hope founded The Good Machine in 1991, the New York City-based independent production company which established supportive standards for the successful development, production and distribution of the work of vital, new film artists. Since its creation, Good Machine has produced over 40 feature and short films and nurtured the work of directors Ang Lee, Ed Burns, Todd Solondz, Hal Hartley, Todd Haynes, Tom Noonan, Nicole Holofcener, Cindy Sherman and others. Together, Hope and Schamus have served as executive producers on such films as Todd Solondz' "Happiness," Ed Burns' "The Brothers McMullen," and Ang Lee's "Pushing Hands," " Ride With the Devil," "The Ice Storm," " The Wedding Banquet," and "Eat Drink Man Woman." James Schamus also co produced "Sense & Sensibility," and adapted the Rick Moody novel into a screenplay for Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm." He also co-wrote with director Ang Lee, "Ride With the Devil," "Eat Drink Man Woman," "The Wedding Banquet," and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," for which they received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay. The Good Machine was recently honored with a 10- year retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.

Jerry Stiller
Mr. Stiller long list of credits range from Shakespeare in the Park for Joe Papp, to Frank Costanza on "Seinfeld." Mr Stiller has worked on Broadway in "HurlyBurly" for Mike Nichols; at Lincoln Center in "Prairie Du Chien"; at the Guthrie Theater in "Guys & Dolls," appeared at the Straw Hat Theater in "I Ought To Be in Pictures" and "Beau Jest." He also starred with his wife in her award winning play, "After-Play." Mr. Stiller's films include "The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3"; "Airport '75," "The Ritz" and "Hairspray". Most recently, he has appeared with Ms. Meara in the film, "The Fish in the Bathtub," and with his son, Ben Stiller, in "Zoolander." He starred opposite Robin Williams in the PBS Great Performance of Saul Bellow's "Seize the Day" and has guest starred in countless television series from American's Playhouse's "The Detective" to "Tales From The Darkside," as well as on "Murder She Wrote", "Law & Order", "L.A. Law", "In the Heat of the Night", "Homicide" and "Touched By An Angel." Mr. Stiller is currently appearing on CBS's "King of Queens." Stiller and Meara played record breaking engagements at Max Gordon's Blue Angel and The Village Vanguard, toured the country and appeared thirty-six times on the Ed Sullivan Show. The audio version of Mr. Stiller's autobiography, "Married To Laughter", was nominated for a 2001 Grammy Award in the Spoken Word Category. He was also honored by the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Friars' Club.

Jac Venza
After starting as one of the original producers for National Education Television, the Ford Foundation project that served as the precursor of public television, and as NET evolved into Channel Thirteen, WNET New York, Mr. Venza created a new framework for the performing arts in 1972 with the Great Performances series. Great Performances has received every major television honor, including nearly fifty Emmy Awards. Among the highlights of his international presentations are the "Brideshead Revisited" series; the BBC's six-year cycle of the complete works of Shakespeare; "American Visions," the eight-part series with TIME Magazine critic Robert Hughes on the history of American art; "YoYo Ma: Inspired By Bach," the Peabody Award winning "I'll Make Me a World: A Century of African-American Arts," and "Great Composers," profiling the lives and enduring work of classical music's leading composers. In honor of Great Performances 25th anniversary season in 1997, Mr. Venza was awarded the primetime Emmy's Governors Award for Lifetime Achievement, the International Emmy Founders' Award, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Ralph Lowell Award. Mr. Venza was honored in May 2000 with a personal Peabody Award.

Film Production in New York City
Film and television location production in New York City continues at record levels. Direct expenditures for location work in the City ran steady in 2000 with $2.45 billion as compared to $2.52 billion in 1999.

Among the many feature films that have wrapped or currently in production in New York City are: Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums," Sam Raimi's "Spiderman," Rob Minkoff's "Stuart Little 2" and Danny DeVito's "Death to Smoochie," Ron Howard's "A Beautiful Mind," Woody Allen's Summer Project, Steve Brill's "Deeds" and Barry Sonnenfeld's "Men in Black II."

New York City Based Prime Time Television Shows
The record number of prime time series produced in New York has accounted for $1.4 billion in 2000, compared to $1.3 billion in 1999. The newest primetime entry is "The Education of Max Bickford" starring Richard Dreyfuss, who plays a history professor in the midst of a midlife crisis at a small northeastern women's college. Marcia Gay Harden co-stars, and the series is slated to air on the CBS Television network. The series joins New York's top-flight shows, including HBO's "The Sopranos," "Sex & The City" and "Oz;" Dick Wolf's "Law & Order" and its spin-offs "Special Victims Unit" and "Criminal Intent;" "Third Watch;" Sidney Lumet's "100 Centre Street;" "Who Wants to be a Millionaire;" and Denis Leary's "The Job."


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