Matthew Broderick presented the Carol Burnett Award to his wife, Sarah Jessica Parker, at the Golden Eve ceremony, recalling a moment when he questioned her decision to take on the role of Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. “Do you really want to do TV?” the actor remembered asking Parker when she was first offered the script for her career-defining role in the 1990s. Parker went on to secure six Golden Globes and two Emmys for her portrayal.
Accepting the accolade, Parker stated: “It has been a privilege and a dream to call myself an actor.” The ceremony included an emotional tribute from her long-time Sex and the City co-star Kristin Davis, and a toast with cosmopolitans – Bradshaw’s signature drink, which the show popularised – led by Colman Domingo. Carol Burnett herself, aged 92, welcomed Parker to the exclusive club, saying: “My darling Sarah… Welcome to the club.”
Parker reflected on the moment creator Darren Star offered her Sex and the City and the profound impact it would have. “I met Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, Samantha Jones, and Miranda Hobbes,” Parker said, “and I spent 25 years with the most glorious ensemble of women and actors, where we treated all of New York like CBS Television City and the streets like Studio 33.”
Helen Mirren, aged 80, was also honoured with the Cecil B DeMille Award for her remarkable career in film and television. An Oscar winner for her 2006 portrayal of Elizabeth II in The Queen, Mirren has earned three Golden Globes and is nominated for a fourth this year for her role in the series MobLand. She was appointed a Dame of the British Empire in 2003.
With a career spanning over 50 years, Parker, 60, began acting as a child, notably playing the title role in Annie on Broadway. She cited a pivotal moment of inspiration watching her mother and future stepfather in an Ohio production of Once Upon a Mattress, a show that had been Burnett’s major Broadway debut and in which Parker later starred in a revival. “I thought, oh my gosh, yes, that is what I most want,” she recalled.
