The authors and screenwriters behind the film “American Fiction” and the series “Slow Horses” won the 36th-annual USC Libraries Scripter Awards last night (3/2). Selection committee chair Howard Rodman announced the winners at a black-tie ceremony at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library.
The Scripter Awards recognize the year’s most accomplished adaptations of the written word for the screen, including both feature-length films and episodic series.
In a Scripter first, novelist Mick Herron and screenwriter Will Smith repeated as winners in the episodic series category. They took home the award for their contributions to the episode “Negotiating with Tigers” from season three of “Slow Horses,” which Smith adapted from Herron’s book “Real Tigers.”
Smith could not attend due to work on the next season of “Slow Horses” but relayed his sentiments through Herron.
“This award is very important to me,” Smith said, “because it also celebrates the author, without whom the show would not exist.”
In the film category, author Percival Everett and screenwriter/director Cord Jefferson won for their contributions to “American Fiction,” based on Everett’s novel “Erasure.”
Jefferson told the audience that he read Everett’s book in December 2020.
“It felt like I was reading a book written specifically for me,” he said. “It felt like I understood what was going on in these characters with the story at a molecular level.”
Everett’s win marks another Scripter milestone, as he is the first USC professor honored with the prize.
Saturday also marked USC Libraries dean Melissa Just’s first turn as host of the annual ceremony since her appointment last November. In her opening remarks, Just hailed libraries as creators of community and belonging.
“I believe libraries are great connectors of people, like all of us here tonight, with information, ideas, and the preserved record of human knowledge and experience,” she said. “We enable people to gather, to learn together, and to find common ground with each other and with the past–and in doing so, create a brighter future.”
Earlier in the evening, Linda Cassady accepted the Ex Libris Award, which honors exceptional commitment to the USC Libraries, on behalf of her late husband, George Cassady. Cassady was a longtime USC Board of Councilors member and in 2000 donated the G. Edward, M.D. and Margaret Elizabeth, R.N. Lewis Carroll collection, one of the world’s most significant collections of works by and related to the “Alice in Wonderland” author.
“Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo named Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year
Cynthia Erivo, who is starring in the hit musical "Wicked," was named Tuesday as the 2025 Woman of the Year by Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals.
The theater group, which dates to 1844 and claims to be the world's third-oldest still operating, said Erivo will receive her Pudding Pot award at a celebratory roast Feb. 5. Afterward, she will attend a performance of Hasty Pudding Theatricals' 176th production, "101 Damnations." Actor Jon Hamm, who came to fame starring as ad executive Don Draper on the AMC series "Mad Men," is the 2025 Man of the Year. He will receive his Pudding Pot Jan. 31.
"We are holding space for Cynthia Erivo's arrival," Man and Woman of the Year Events Coordinator Hannah Frazer said in a statement. "We're sweeping out our broomstick closets and prepping some wicked smart humor as we eagerly await her in February. Before she flies off with her Pudding Pot, she'll have to work a little magic to earn it."
Along with starirng in the smash hit musical, the British entertainer is a two-time Oscar nominee and an Emmy Award, Tony Award and Grammy Award winner.
Erivo burst onto the scene with her brilliant performance in the Broadway revival of "The Color Purple." winning her the 2016 Tony for best actress in a musical. She performed songs from the play on the "Today" show, earning the Daytime Emmy for outstanding music performance in a daytime program. And the show's soundtrack won best musical theater album at the 2017 Grammys.
Last year, Erivo starred in and produced "Drift," which follows a young Liberian refugee who has escaped her war-torn country to a Greek island. In 2021, Erivo was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of Aretha Franklin in the National Geographic series "Genius:... Read More