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PEOPLE & ARTSFriday 29 January 2016
SAG honoree Burnett’s achievements loom larger than TV
MIKE LENNOX Carol Burnett poses for a portrait in Burbank, Calif. Burnett says was small screen and mov- Matthau.
AP Entertainment Writer her upcoming Life Achievement Award from the Screen Actors ie stars were big screen. He soon invited her to
BURBANK, Calif. (AP) — Guild on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016, is special because it comes And, also, I missed an au- lunch, and shortly after
Carol Burnett is so glad not only from fellow TV performers, but also from movie stars. The dience and having that they sat down, Matthau
she’s had some six de- awards show will be simulcast live on Saturday on TNT and TBS at feedback.” asked, “Why do you do all
cades together with televi- 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT from Los Angeles. She marked her feature- of this television crap?’”
sion viewers. film debut in the 1963 Dean That got her goat. So, she
After all, it was on the small (Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP) Martin-Elizabeth Montgom- asked how long it took
screen where Burnett argu- ery farce “Who’s Been him to make a movie, how
ably reached her artistic Huston among them. variety series “The Gary Sleeping in My Bed?” ‘’A many movies he made per
and popularity peaks, most By the early ‘60s, Burnett Moore Show”). terrible movie,” recalled year, and if any of them
notably with the variety was already a star of stage So film offers were inevi- Burnett, adding it was still were “crap.”
series, “The Carol Burnett (a Tony nomination for the table. “I was very nervous a fun shoot and that she He replied about 10 weeks
Show” (1967-78). 1959 musical “Once Upon (about) making movies,” loved both Martin and a film, about two a year,
So, little wonder that Bur- a Mattress”) and TV (a 1962 Burnett said in a recent in- Montgomery. Burnett’s star- and, yes, some were awful.
nett was a bit surprised Emmy for her work on the terview. “I always felt that I ring debut wouldn’t come “And I said, ‘Well, it takes
when, out of the gate, the for another decade. With you, Walter, 10 weeks to
conversation turned to an- the “Burnett Show” flying make crap,’” Burnett re-
other aspect of her screen high, she spent her summer membered. ‘”It takes
career, to which the Screen vacation working with di- me five days.’” Matthau
Actors Guild will pay tribute rector Ritt (“Hud,” ‘’Norma howled with laughter, and
with its top honor, for Life Rae”) portraying one of the both a solid professional
Achievement, at the SAG two leads in “Pete ‘n’ Tillie” and lifelong personal re-
Awards on Saturday. (1972), about a 40-ish virgin lationship were born. “He
In addition to all that TV, who gets fixed up with a did that to get a rise out
Burnett also made an im- confirmed bachelor, por- of me,” Burnett recalled.
pressive number of fea- trayed by Walter Matthau. “And it worked.”
ture films with some of the Burnett remembered that Sadly, that small-screen
industry’s most highly re- she was so “tight” the first insecurity would return to
garded directors: Martin few days of filming, be- Burnett’s big-screen work.
Ritt, Peter Bogdanovich, cause she was so over- But at least it made for a
Robert Altman and John whelmed by movie star funny story.q
