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June 12

AFI Tribute to Mike Nichols

source: CBS News
Julia Roberts hurled a four-letter word at Mike Nichols to get things rolling for the American Film Institute's life-achievement honor for the director. "Mike is one of the few people in the world who's an 'egot,'" Roberts, the star of Nichols' films "Closer" and "Charlie Wilson's War," said Thursday night to open the star-studded tribute. "It means he's won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony."

Roberts actually was shortchanging Nichols. Along with his best-director Academy Award for "The Graduate" and his Grammy for a comedy album with former partner Elaine May, Nichols is a multiple winner for the top honors on television and the stage - four Emmys, eight Tonys.

"What doesn't Mike do?" Roberts told the audience, filled with such Nichols collaborators as Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Warren Beatty, Emma Thompson, Harrison Ford, Shirley MacLaine and Natalie Portman. "Everything about Mike makes everything about everything just better."

The dinner honoring the 78-year-old Nichols, held in a Sony Pictures soundstage where part of "The Wizard of Oz" was filmed, featured clips from his movies and TV programs, a highlight from his and May's 1960s comedy act, musical numbers and speeches overflowing with hilarious anecdotes and bottomless affection from his collaborators.

Thompson - the star of Nichols' Emmy-winning "Wit" and a co-star in his film "Primary Colors" as well as "Angels in America" - and Robin Williams, who worked with the director on "The Birdcage" and "Waiting for Godot", devoted time to analyzing the filmmaker's laugh.

"That's the most wonderful thing, to get a laugh from you," Williams said. "Because it's a great laugh. It's a combination, it's like all of a sudden, a little boy erupts out of this brilliant man."

The event was recorded on June 10, 2010 and will air on TV Land on June 26th, 8/9p.