Variety Wins Seven National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards

Variety won seven top prizes, including best entertainment publication, at the Los Angeles Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards Sunday evening at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

In addition to best publication, which singled out the Oct. 17, 2017 “Game Over” issue devoted to the downfall of Harvey Weinstein, Variety‘s awards included best portrait photo, to Robert Festino, Michelle Hauf and Art Streiber, for portrait of Cate Blanchett on the cover of the Cannes Film Festival issue.

Ramin Setoodeh and Elizabeth Wagmeister won best celebrity investigative report for “Matt Lauer Accused of Sexual Harassment by Multiple Women.” The impactful report led to the news anchor’s termination from NBC.

Chief film critic Owen Gleiberman won for film commentary/analysis for a package of his columns, including “It’s Time the Myth of the Fanboy to Fade.” In the obituary/in appreciation category, Chris Willman won for his appreciation of Tom Petty.

Deputy design director Jennie Chang won the page layout award for “Bob Iger v. Brian Roberts: Gloves Are Off.” In the best best journalistic use of social media by an individual category, the team of Jem Aswad, Alex Stedman, Meredith Woerner and Maane Khatchatourian won for “Live from Kanye West’s #ProjectWyoming.”

The publication had garnered 44 nominations, the most of any publication, for the annual awards.

The 2018 awards honored Carol Burnett with the Legend Award, Michael Connelly with the Distinguished Storyteller Award, George Pennacchio with the Luminary Award and late food writer Jonathan Gold with the Impact Award.

At the end of the evening, Burnett brought down the house when Pennacchio asked the legendary comedienne, “Is there anything left you haven’t gotten to do, that you’d still like to do in life?”

Without missing a beat, she dead-panned, “George Clooney.”