By Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Robert De Niro and Morgan Freeman never worked with Mel Brooks, and the Oscar winners came to a ceremony in his honor to let him know they resent it.
Brooks received the American Film Institute’s 41st Life Achievement Award Thursday, and Freeman and De Niro were among a galaxy of stars who paid tribute to the man behind “Blazing Saddles,” ”Young Frankenstein” and “The Producers.”
Martin Short opened the program with a song-and-dance routine set to a medley of melodies from Brooks’ films.
“The word genius is used a lot in Hollywood, so I might as well call Mel one,” Short said.
Billy Crystal, Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Cloris Leachman, David Lynch, Larry David and Carl Reiner also honored the 86-year-old filmmaker at a private dinner at the Dolby Theatre that had the energy of a good-natured roast.
“We are going to miss you so much, Mel,” Kimmel said. “You were one of the greats. Rest in peace, my friend.”
David blamed Brooks for his idle years as an aspiring comedian.
“Mel Brooks didn’t get me into comedy, he kept me away from it,” David said, recalling how he was intimidated by Brooks’ talent. “I spent years doing nothing because of him.”
Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Whoopi Goldberg and Gene Wilder were among those lauding Brooks via video.
“I don’t think there’s any man anywhere who’s like you,” Wilder said. “I love you, Mel.”
Silverman and Reiner also pledged their love to Brooks.
“I hail you, king Kaminski,” Reiner said, using Brooks’ real surname.
Past recipients of the AFI honor include Elizabeth Taylor, Kirk Douglas, Eastwood, Spielberg, Lucas and Martin Scorsese, who presented Brooks with his award.
Scorsese put the Oscar- and Tony-winning talent in the same category as the Marx Brothers, Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello.
“Mel has made his own tradition of greatness, and it’s that tradition — drawing from the past, honoring it, toying with it, vamping on it, extending it to places wise men, very funny men previously feared to go — that’s what we’re celebrating here and honoring tonight,” Scorsese said. “Mel has always made his own way, and he brought us all along for the joyride.”
Brooks was almost all comedy as he claimed his prize. He directed an expletive at Kimmel, declaring, “I’m not gonna die.”
But he dropped the funny stuff to thank the institute for recognizing him and to share his lifelong love of film.
“Movies saved my life,” he said. “They rescued my soul. No matter what was bad or wrong, it could be wiped out on Saturday morning.”
TNT will broadcast highlights from the ceremony as a TV special on June 15.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More