The Hollywood Reporter‘s Women in Entertainment event, presented by Lifetime, returned on Thursday for its annual celebration of Hollywood’s leading ladies.
This year, the star-studded event – which coincided with the publication honored Adele with the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award, highlighting a woman who is a pioneer in her field. Kerry Washington was also recognized with the Equity in Entertainment Award, honoring her work amplifying the voices of underrepresented communities in the entertainment industry.
Inside the breakfast – this year held at the Beverly Hills Hotel – Will Ferrell kicked off the event, declaring right off the bat, “Isn’t it just time for women to run the planet? I’m serious, I’m not just trying to placate you I swear, but I don’t know what else to do because we, men, have run the show since what, 10,000 BC, and we’re not doing so good.”
He went on to shout out his producing partner Jessica Elbaum and the long list of female-led hits they’ve worked on together – including current awards contender May December – and teased that Adele was also a past collaborator, as he sang backup vocals on “Rolling in the Deep” – and proceeded to give the crowd a musical taste. “Now do you remember me? You had me fired and now you’re probably feeling pretty stupid, so enjoy your award, Adele!” Ferrell deadpanned.
THR co-editor-in-chief Nekesa Mumbi Moody then took the stage alongside THR president of business operations Joe Shields and executive VPs/co-publishers Beth Deutschman Rabishaw and Victoria Gold, as they congratulated this year’s honorees and thanked its event sponsors. The group then brought up Ariana DeBose.
DeBose, who worked with Washington on 2020’s The Prom, told the crowd, “Kerry has squashed the traditional stereotypes of being a Black woman in Hollywood, I would say just being a woman in Hollywood. She has expanded our minds of what we can be” and recalled her support when DeBose expressed she was nervous that her half-Puerto Rican heritage would come into question when taking on West Side Story.
“At that time she imparted this sentiment to me that was sort of this essence: To share in a world that doesn’t necessarily want to truly understand its people is an act of courage. To choose to see the good and the possibility of the world and its people is also an act of courage. You are enough, you are more than enough,” DeBose recalled.
She also noted that she recently spoke to Washington’s Little Fires Everywhere co-stars Lexi Underwood and Tiffany Boone, “and it became very clear we all hold the same feelings about Queen KW. She is an inspiration to women around the world, the epitome of grace, class and leadership – she is a trailblazer. She has shown us what is possible not just in our industry, but in the world. She is the model of hard work and hustle, again, by unapologetically taking up space, without observing the compromise of palatability. That’s my favorite part of you. She has created the space for all of us. The three of us, we’re just a small representation of the equity that she is still creating in real time.”
