Harvard Honors For Stiller, Johansson
Ben Stiller and Scarlett Johansson have been named this year's recipients of the annual Hasty Pudding awards, given by a student drama group at Harvard University.
The awards, announced Monday, are given by Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the nation's oldest college undergraduate drama troupe to performers deemed to have made a "lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment."
Johansson, 22, will lead a parade through Cambridge on Feb. 15th, then attend a roast in her honor and receive the "Pudding Pot." The actress has appeared in such films as "Lost in Translation," "The Girl with a Pearl Earring," "Match Point," and "The Black Dahlia."
Stiller, 41, will be roasted on Feb. 23rd, when he will receive his "Pudding Pot." The roast will be before the opening night performance of the theater group's production of "The Tent Commandments?"
Stiller currently stars in "Night at the Museum" and has appeared in "Meet the Parents," "Meet the Fockers," "Dodgeball" and "The Royal Tenenbaums." He directed "Zoolander," "Reality Bites" and "The Cable Guy" and is the son of legendary comic actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara (who has a minor role in "Museum").
Harvard's Hasty Pudding Club traces its history back to 1795, when the 21 students who organized it as a secret society decreed that one student - according to alphabetical order - would provide "a pot of hasty pudding" at each meeting.
In the 19th century, the club held mock trials of various political figures and institutions - often resulting in convictions - spectacles which grew in popularity and eventually morphed into full costumed productions and comic opera.
In a nod to Harvard's long - but now defunct - tradition as an all-male school, the roles in the annual play are still played by men today, regardless of the gender of the character.
Women are involved, however, in other aspects of the production, which has been staged every year since 1891, except during World War I and World War II.