Thousands of spectators gathered in Harvard Square on Thursday afternoon to watch starlet Halle Berry and student drag queens roll by in the annual parade as part of the Harvard University 56th annual Woman of the Year Hasty Pudding awards celebration.
Harvard’s Crimson Band led the parade that included such entertainment spectacles as a pair of llamas, a waving Miss Massachusetts and Berry herself riding in a silver Bentley with Harvard boys wearing drag, while the crowd chanted “We love Halle.”
Berry, who was the first African American to win an Academy Award for Best Actress for 2002’s Monster’s Ball, beamed and laughed as she was escorted into the Zero Arrow Street Theater for the annual black-tie roast that follows the parade.
Student hosts, Harvard juniors John Blickstead, president of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals group, and Peter Dodd, vice president of the Cast of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, mocked bombs from Berry’s film career, such as Catwoman and B.A.P.S. (Black American Princess).
Berry, who also boogied across the stage to the song Baby Got Back, howled like a wolf while Dodd and Blickstead debated whether Berry is an “action superstar” or a “drama superstar.”
To solve their dilemmas, Berry performed scenes inspired from her movies, including a mimic of her seductive performance in Monster’s Ball, where she kissed a student performer, in place of her film co-star Billy Bob Thornton, and later rode on his lap.
The hosts continued poking fun at several of Berry’s film characters and asked her “who was a better kisser, Warren Beatty or Pierce Brosnan,” to which Berry answered Brosnan, whom she locked lips with on the set of Die Another Day.
The roast ended with Berry whipping a picture of Michelle Pfeiffer, a former Catwoman as well.
Following the roast, Berry was presented with the traditional golden pudding pot.
In a press conference following the awards, Berry said she vaguely knew what the Hasty Pudding Awards were before attending the event, and had far more fun than she imagined while in Cambridge.
“I just feel really honored that they would choose me to give the beautiful pudding pot to,” Berry said. “One of the things I love most is laughing at myself and laughing at this crazy industry that I’ve been so blessed to be a part of. Any time you laugh at yourself, I think that’s a memorable moment, and I did that. I take this Hasty Pudding Pot very seriously and I’m going to put it right next to my Oscar.”
When asked about winning her Academy Award and her emotional acceptance speech, Berry said it was a moment in time etched in her memory.
“I think it was a shift in the industry for the people of color,” Berry said of winning her Oscar.
Berry added that winning the Hasty Pudding Award is also one of the highlights of her career.
“I think that every three months or so I get to meet a new set of characters. It’s just a joy. Work feels like a party,” Berry said.
According to members of the student business team, who helped organize the event for both the Woman and Man of the Year, the Hasty Pudding theatrical group is comprised of Harvard undergraduates who are assisted by a professional staff for the choreography and technical aspects of the performance.
According to Sarah Slavin, the business manager on the business team, the executive board tries to pick someone who has made a lasting contribution to the arts every year.
“We are very excited that Halle is here,” Slavin said.
The theatrical company originated in 1795 and Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals is the oldest collegiate theatre group in the United States.
Although the modern burlesque productions, with a cast of undergraduate drag queens, has a flare far beyond anything its originators imagined, Hollywood actresses began receiving the golden pudding pots in 1951 and actors in 1967, according to the company’s website.
Berry has also won an Emmy, Golden Globe, SAG Award and an NAACP Image Award.
The Hasty Pudding Theatricals will present the Man of the Year Award to Richard Gere on Feb. 24, where he will be received with a traditional roast.