Harvard students asked Sarah Jessica Parker, star of the series “Sex and the City” and this year’s Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year, to sing, dance and seduce a dragon on stage yesterday to earn her title. To the delight of fans, the obviously nervous Parker passed with flying colors.
“We’ve got Sarah Jessica Parker!” yelled the escorts as she treated them to a kiss. “She is our woman of the year! Let’s go Sarah!”
By Parker’s entrance at 2 p.m., mobs of Harvard students, Cambridge residents and other fans hung out of windows and lined the streets of Harvard Square, fighting for a glimpse of Parker. Smiling, she exited her limousine and climbed into a red Corvette convertible, escorted by 12 male students dressed in drag.
The parade traveled down Massachusetts Avenue and onto Dunster Street while crowds cheered and threw rose petals to the car.
Parker appeared thrilled, waving to the crowd and joking with those around her.
“There are no finer people than these men,” she yelled above the din. “They don’t need any fashion advice from me.”
Following the brief parade, Parker took the Hasty Pudding Theater stage to the tune of the “Sex and the City” theme song, joined by President of Theatricals Greg Padgett and Kishnan Unnikrishnan, vice president of the cast, for her roast and the presentation of the prestigious award.
Parker paced uncomfortably and fidgeted while Padgett and Unnikrishnan introduced her.
“This woman’s accomplishments make her more than qualified for this year’s Woman of the Year award,” Padgett said. “Unfortunately, we saw ‘Striking Distance,’ so we had our doubts.”
“Are you ready to earn your pudding pot?” asked Unnikrishnan.
The three staged an impromptu dance-off, during which Parker took off her shoes and moonwalked to “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” She also relived her childhood role of Annie on Broadway by pretending to scrub the floor to “It’s a Hard Knock Life,” and later danced to “Footloose.”
Parker then improvised with a student in a dragon suit as part of Sex and the Pudding, a game students prepared using the dragon suit left over from Anthony Hopkins’ roast the year before. Hopkins was asked to slay the dragon. Parker made a valiant effort to seduce him.
“You have lovely scales, and you know green is the hardest color to wear. You look dashing,” Parker said. “It suits you. Get it?”
The final challenge, singing “Tomorrow” from Annie, not as a carrot-topped child, but as sexed-up Carrie Bradshaw, the character Parker plays in “Sex and the City.”
“I want you all to know that I have not done this since 1980, but since this is as close as I’ll get to a college degree,” Parker trailed off before proceeding to sing and barely hit the high notes.
Unnikrishnan announced Parker passed the test and he and Padgett presented her with the award, a small kettle pudding pot. Relieved, Parker thanked her husband Matthew Broderick, Harvard and the Hasty Pudding cast.
Later, Parker fielded questions about her show, her clothes, her abs and her lack of a college education.
“Am I regretful that I didn’t get a college education? Yes, but I would not have been accepted by Harvard anyway,” she gushed. “But that’s depressing, and I’m not thinking about that here. This award is like my Harvard degree.”
The Woman of the Year award is presented by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals annually. The honoree enjoys a tour of Harvard and lunch with the company before the parade. Past winners include Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn, Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Meg Ryan and Drew Barrymore.
Man of the Year, Bruce Willis, will be roasted on Feb. 14, in drag, before the opening of “Snow Place Like Home.”
Hasty Pudding Theatricals is a tradition at Harvard University dating back to 1795. The group grew from a small society that mandated members provide hasty pudding at every meeting to an organization that puts on comedy drag shows yearly, satirizing life at Harvard and beyond.
There was no mention of the embezzlement charges brought against Suzanne M. Pomey and Randy J. Gomes, Harvard seniors who held top positions in the Hasty Pudding Theatricals last year. The two pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing at least $100,000 from the group. Prosecutors said that the students used the money to support a drug habit and to fund shopping sprees.
Harvard acknowledged the allegations but declined to comment on the legal matter.
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