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Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks Accept Honorary Oscars at Hollywood Gala

Angela Bassett reacts as she accepts her honorary Oscar during the 14th Governors Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, January 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Angela Bassett reacts as she accepts her honorary Oscar during the 14th Governors Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, January 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
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Angela Bassett, Mel Brooks Accept Honorary Oscars at Hollywood Gala

Angela Bassett reacts as she accepts her honorary Oscar during the 14th Governors Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, January 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Angela Bassett reacts as she accepts her honorary Oscar during the 14th Governors Awards in Los Angeles, California, US, January 9, 2024. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Actor Angela Bassett was celebrated for a lifetime of memorable roles from Tina Turner to the queen of Wakanda as Hollywood's film academy handed out honorary Oscars on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
Comedian Mel Brooks also received a golden statuette at the annual Governors Awards in front of a crowd of top stars including Leonardo DiCaprio, Bradley Cooper and Natalie Portman, it said.
On stage accepting her trophy, Bassett paid tribute to the 10 Black women who have won Academy Awards - naming each one - and said she hoped the film industry would provide more opportunities for people of color.
"My prayer is that we leave this industry more enriched, forward-thinking and inclusive than we found it," Bassett, 65, said. "At the end of the day, we all just want to have the opportunity to do great, meaningful work."
Bassett was nominated for two competitive Oscars. The first was for her breakout role as Turner in 1993's "What's Love Got to Do with It," and the second for playing Queen Ramonda in 2022's "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
Bassett and other honorees were selected by the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the group that will hand out this year's Oscars in March.
Writer, director and actor Brooks, now 97, began his career writing comedy routines for Sid Caesar's TV shows in the 1950s before making films such as "Blazing Saddles" and "Young Frankenstein."
He won an Oscar for writing the screenplay for 1967 film "The Producers," which later became a hit Broadway play.
After a musical introduction by "The Producers" stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, Brooks joked that he appreciated his new Oscar statuette because he had sold his previous trophy.
"I won't sell this one, I swear to God," he said.
The academy also honored film editor Carol Littleton and Sundance Film Festival executive Michelle Satter.

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André 3000's Alt-Jazz, ‘No Bars’ Solo Album Stunned Fans. Now, It’s up for Grammys

André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)
André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)
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André 3000's Alt-Jazz, ‘No Bars’ Solo Album Stunned Fans. Now, It’s up for Grammys

André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)
André Benjamin, also known as Andre 3000, arrives at the 30th Film Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2015. (AP)

No one was expecting it. Late last year, André 3000 released his debut solo album, "New Blue Sun," 18 years after his legendary rap group Outkast's last studio album, "Idlewild."

But "New Blue Sun" has "no bars," he jokes. It's a divergence from rap because "there was nothing I was liking enough to rap about, or I didn't feel it sounded fresh. I'm not about to serve you un-fresh (expletive.)"

Instead, he offered up a six-track instrumental album of ambient alt-jazz — with special attention paid to the flute.

"The sound, that's how I got into it," he says of the instrument. "The portability, too. You can't tote around a piano and play in Starbucks."

He's also invested in the flute's history — like learning about Mayan flutes made from clay, a design he had re-created in cedarwood. "There’s all kinds of fables and, you know, indigenous stories that go along with playing the flute — playing like the birds or playing your heart like the wind — it kind of met (me) where I was in life," he says.

"Flutes — wind instruments in general — are the closest thing you get to actually hearing a human," he continues. "You're actually hearing the breath of a person."

"New Blue Sun" is a stunning collection, one that has earned André 3000 three new Grammy Award nominations: album of the year, alternative jazz, and instrumental composition. Those arrive exactly 25 years after the 1999 Grammys, where Outkast received their first nomination — for "Rosa Parks," from their third album, "Aquemini" — and 20 years after the group won album of the year for "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below."

"It matters because we all want to be acknowledged or recognized," André 3000 says of his new Grammy nominations. "It's a type of proof of connection, in some type of way ... especially with the Grammys, because it's voted on by a committee of musicians and people in the industry."

He's a bit surprised by the attention, too, given the type of album he created. "We have no singles on the radio, not even singles that are hot in the street," he says. "When you're sitting next to Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, these are highly, hugely popular music artists, I'm satisfied just because of that ... we won just to be a part of the whole conversation."

He theorizes that it may be because popular music listening habits are broadening. "A lot of artists are just trying different things. Even, you know, the album that Beyoncé is nominated for, it’s not her normal thing," he says of her country-and-then-some record, "Cowboy Carter.We’re in this place where things are kind of shifting and moving."

For André 3000, "New Blue Sun" has allowed him to "feel like a whole new artist," but it is also an extension of who he's always been. "Being on the road with Outkast and picking up a bass clarinet at a pawn shop in New York and just sitting on the back of the bus playing with it — these things have been around," he says.

He's also always embraced "newness," as he puts it, experimenting creatively "even if it sounds non-masterful."

"Even producing for Outkast, I was just learning these instruments. If I ... put my hands down and play ‘Ms. Jackson,’ I'm not knowing what I'm playing. But I like it," he says.

As for a new Outkast album, "I never say never," he says. "But I can say that the older I get, I feel like that time has happened."