TV-news anchor Katie Couric and actress Halle Berry were among the powerful women to brave a chilly early morning and walk the media gauntlet at "The Hollywood Reporter's" 19th-annual Women in Entertainment breakfast.
"I think everybody brings a different experience, a different perspective, a different sensibility to their success -- and whether you're a woman or a man, different things affect you," said Couric, who served at the event's keynote speaker. "But, certainly, when I started out in the business, women weren't in many prominent positions of authority. Oh, look! (Couric turns to actress Halle Berry, posing for photos on the arrivals line.) She's so cute. She's so pretty. What are you doing talking to me? You should be shooting Halle Berry."
Berry was there to present actress Helen Mirren with the event's Sherry Lansing Leadership Award, which Berry herself received last year. The red-carpet walk marked the third major media event in less than 24 hours for Mirren, following a string of Monday press interviews for her new film "The Tempest," and then Monday night's premiere.
At 65, Mirren may be at her Hollywood peak, with a half-dozen releases recent or coming soon.
Would she have appreciated this sort of success in the same way at the start of her career?
"You mean, 'What's an old broad like me doing here?'"
"No, but yes. Yes," she continued, laughing. "I think it's great. Obviously, I mean, it's great for me, personally. But I do think times are changing. And I do think the attitude to women is changing massively. And that's part of what I'm going to talk about a little bit tonight. The great advantage of being as old as I am, although I never, in my head I can't believe I'm that old, but I kind of know that I am. And the way that I know that I am is by perceiving by the world has changed. And it's so different now to when I was 24. I wouldn't want to be who I am now at the age of 24. Let's put it that way. I much prefer being who I am at this age."
For the second year in a row, No. 1 on "The Hollywood Reporter's" Women in Entertainment power list was Disney/ABC Television Group president Anne Sweeney.
"I have to tell you, it is lovely," Sweeney said. "I think it's a celebration of the Disney/ABC Television Group, hands down. This is a terrific group that really hit it out of the park this year."
Of course, the downside of being No. 1 is that there's nowhere to go but down.
"No," Sweeney corrected. "It's never downhill. There's always another hill to climb." AP
