Julie Andrews 'Gobsmacked' by Hollywood Award, Six Decades after 'Mary Poppins'

English actress-singer Julie Andrews received the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award VALERIE MACON AFP
English actress-singer Julie Andrews received the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award VALERIE MACON AFP
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Julie Andrews 'Gobsmacked' by Hollywood Award, Six Decades after 'Mary Poppins'

English actress-singer Julie Andrews received the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award VALERIE MACON AFP
English actress-singer Julie Andrews received the 48th AFI Life Achievement Award VALERIE MACON AFP

Nearly 60 years after preaching virtues of patience and modesty as Mary Poppins and governess Maria, Julie Andrews declared herself "gobsmacked" to have her career honored at a glitzy Hollywood gala Thursday.

"I didn't know or think that it would ever come," the 86-year-old told AFP on the red carpet before receiving the American Film Institute's life achievement award in Los Angeles, bestowed upon one silver screen legend each year.

"But it's just as well, because you can't go around expecting awards and things like that."

In fact, Andrews won the Oscar for best actress with her very first big-screen role -- 1964's "Mary Poppins" -- having rapidly progressed from child singer touring British music halls, to Broadway starlet spotted by Walt Disney, AFP said.

A year after playing the magical and squeaky-clean nanny, and still in her twenties, Andrews sealed a permanent place among Tinseltown's elite with "The Sound of Music."

Five of the actors who played the Von Trapp children -- a wealthy Austrian family in need of governess Maria's singing lessons, and help in evading the Nazis -- attended Thursday's ceremony, along with four of Andrews' real-life offspring.

Andrews went on to star in a number of films during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, with some racy -- even topless -- scenes, which shocked audiences more used to her straight-laced characters.

In 2000 she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to acting and entertainment.

Following a personal disaster when her vocal chords were damaged in an operation, Andrews revived her career with "The Princess Diaries" (2001) and its sequel in 2004.

Her voiceover work as Queen Lillian in the "Shrek" animated film series, Gru's mother in the "Despicable Me" franchise, and Lady Whistledown in the hugely popular Netflix series "Bridgerton" earned her a new generation of young fans.

Andrews was due to receive the AFI award -- billed as "the highest honor for a career in film -- in 2020 and again in 2021, but the gala was postponed both times due to the pandemic.

"When they asked me even two-and-a-half years ago -- and Covid is what kept us from doing it then -- I was gobsmacked," she said.



Dua Lipa, Public Figures Urge UK to End Israel Arms Sales

Dua Lipa. (Getty Images/AFP)
Dua Lipa. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Dua Lipa, Public Figures Urge UK to End Israel Arms Sales

Dua Lipa. (Getty Images/AFP)
Dua Lipa. (Getty Images/AFP)

Pop star Dua Lipa joined some 300 UK celebrities in signing an open letter Thursday urging Britain to halt arms sales to Israel, after similar pleas from lawyers and writers.

Actors, musicians, activists and other public figures wrote the letter calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to "end the UK's complicity in the horrors in Gaza".

British-Albanian pop sensation Dua Lipa has been vocal about the war in Gaza and last year criticized Israel's offensive as a "genocide".

Israel has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide and says its campaign intends to crush Hamas following the deadly October 2023 attack by the Palestinian fighters.

Other signatories include actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Tilda Swinton and Riz Ahmed, and musicians Paloma Faith, Annie Lennox and Massive Attack.

"You can't call it 'intolerable' and keep sending arms," read the letter to Labour leader Starmer organized by Choose Love, a UK-based humanitarian aid and refugee advocacy charity.

Sports broadcaster Gary Lineker, who stepped down from his role at the BBC after a social media post that contained anti-Semitic imagery, also signed the letter.

Signatories urged the UK to ensure "full humanitarian access across Gaza", broker an "immediate and permanent ceasefire", and "immediately suspend" all arms sales to Israel.

"The children of Gaza cannot wait another minute. Prime Minister, what will you choose? Complicity in war crimes, or the courage to act?", the letter continued.

Earlier this month, Starmer slammed Israel's "egregious" renewed military offensive in Gaza and promised to take "further concrete actions" if it did not stop -- without detailing what the actions could be.

Last September the UK government suspended 30 out of 350 arms export licenses to Israel, saying there was a "clear risk" they could be used to breach humanitarian law.

Global outrage has grown after Israel ended a ceasefire in March and stepped up military operations this month, killing thousands of people in a span of two months according to figures by the Hamas-run health ministry.

The humanitarian situation has also sparked alarm and fears of starvation after a two-month blockade on aid entering the devastated territory.

Over 800 UK lawyers including Supreme Court justices, and some 380 British and Irish writers warned of Israel committing a "genocide" in Gaza in open letters this week.

Hamas killed 1,218 people, mostly civilians, in their October 2023 attack on Israel, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Fighters also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel's military offensive launched in response has killed 54,084, mostly civilians, in Gaza according to its health ministry, displaced nearly the entire population and ravaged swathes of the besieged strip.