Actor and playwright Tim Robbins and "Chicago" Academy Award winner Catherine Zeta-Jones are this year's honorees. Zeta-Jones will be part of the annual Hasty Pudding Parade Feb. 10 in Cambridge, MA, which is followed by a roast and the presentation of a Pudding Pot. Robbins will be honored Feb. 17.
Born in Wales, Catherine Zeta-Jones starred in the West End production of 42nd Street before landing a role in the hit Yorkshire TV program "The Darling Buds of May." She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in "Traffic," and her other screen credits include roles in "America's Sweethearts," "The Mask of Zorro" and "Entrapment." Zeta-Jones was awarded an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her work as Velma Kelly in the Rob Marshall-directed “Chicago.”
Tim Robbins wrote (and later starred in) Embedded at the Public Theater. He has been seen in such films as "Bull Durham," "The Hudsucker Proxy," "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Player." Robbins also appeared Off-Broadway in two rotating-cast shows: The Guys and The Exonerated. Also a screenwriter-director, Robbins penned and helmed the film versions of "Cradle Will Rock," "Bob Roberts" and "Dead Man Walking."
Since 1951, Hasty Pudding has chosen an entertainer for Woman of the Year, with Man of the Year added in 1967. Among the theatre actors who have been honored are Gertrude Lawrence, Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters, Glenn Close, Dustin Hoffman and Alan Alda.
The Hasty Pudding Club was begun in 1795 as a kind of fraternity, its name taken from a tasty mixture of cornmeal, milk and molasses. The members began putting on mock trials, which eventually grew into full scale musical spoofs.