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  Newsmakers   23 Nov 2016  Emmys trashes Donald Trump ‘bigotry’

Emmys trashes Donald Trump ‘bigotry’

AP
Published : Nov 23, 2016, 1:23 am IST
Updated : Nov 23, 2016, 2:38 am IST

Anxiety over where US might be headed once Don takes office marks TV awards.

Shonda Rhimes, winner of the Founders Award, appears in the press room for the 44th International Emmy Awards at the New York Hilton
 Shonda Rhimes, winner of the Founders Award, appears in the press room for the 44th International Emmy Awards at the New York Hilton

New York: TV hit-maker Shonda Rhimes vowed to be a voice for those who feel scared about being marginalised following Donald Trump’s election victory as she accepted an honorary International Emmy award on Monday night.

British and German TV productions each won three International Emmys, including acting honours for Dustin Hoffman and Christiane Paul. But the usually festive atmosphere at the gathering of international broadcasters was temper-ed by anxiety over where the United States might be headed once Trump takes office in January. Host Alan Cumming opened the ceremony by wryly noting that the Hilton New York ballroom was the same site used for Trump’s election night victory party.

“I feel it’s my moral obligation to inform you that on November 8 this hall was the venue for one of the darkest, most negative and utterly destructive moments in the history of this country, The Good Wife star observed. He went on to say that the awards ceremony honouring excellence “is about extinguishing the bad energy and bigotry”.
Tony Goldwyn, who stars as President Fitzger-ald Grant in Scandal, presented the honorary Inter-national Emmy Founders Award to Rhimes, whom he described as a “groundbreaker” for diversity on television by creating, wr-iting and producing such shows as Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, and How to Get Away with Murder.

“With our political dialogue sadly exclusively focused on what divides us, the world of Shonda-land is a constant remin-der of Maya Angelou’s oft-quoted phrase: ‘We are more alike my friends than we are unalike’.”

Rhimes herself acknowledged the changed political climate as she spoke about the many people who feel scared about their future — people of colour, women, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, Muslims and people with disabilities.

“They are afraid that their voices will no longer be heard and they believe that they are going to be silenced,” she said. But television “is the most powerful source of communication in the world ... Words have power. TV has power. My pen has power. I have been thinking about that.”

Hoffman received the award for best performance by an actor for the BBC One TV movie Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot, in which he portrayed a lonely retired bachelor who hatches an audacious plan to woo the widow in the flat below who is overly fond of her pet tortoise. Hoffman was not present to accept the award.

Germany’s Paul garner-ed the best actress award for her performance in Untern Radar (Under the Radar) as a judge whose life is upended when her daughter is suspected of being responsible for a bombing in Berlin.

“We have to remember what we are — that we’re human beings and please don’t have fear and don’t be afraid from terrorism attacks,” she said. “You must remember that we all belong together and have to fight against the real problems of the world.”

A total of 40 nominees from 15 countries competed in 10 categories for International Emmys, which honour excellence in TV programming outside the US. Britain’s Hoff the Record, with former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff playing a fictionalised, over-the-top version of himself, won in the comedy category. Capital, about residents of a South London suburb whose lives are impacted when their homes become valued at several million pounds in a soaring property market, won the award for TV movie/mini-series.   

Tags: donald trump, international emmy award, shonda rhimes