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Hollywood actress ELLEN BARKIN has walked away with her very first Tony Award after she was honoured for her Broadway debut in THE NORMAL HEART.
The Ocean’s Thirteen star became the first winner of Sunday’s (12Jun11) ceremony in New York, claiming victory over Edie Falco (The House of Blue Leaves), Judith Light (Lombardi), Joanna Lumley (La Bete) and Elizabeth Rodriguez (The Motherf**ker with the Hat) for her role as a frustrated doctor in the fight against AIDS in a revival of the Larry Kramer play.
Taking to the stage at The Beacon Theatre, Barkin hailed her win as the "proudest moment in my career" and paid tribute to her theatre colleagues.
She told the crowd, "Thank you for the way you’ve embraced me and welcomed me into your community. I am so grateful and so humbled to be in your company." South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were also early winners at the 65th Annual Tony Awards, which celebrates the best of Broadway, earning the prize for Best Original Score for their work on The Book of Mormon. The musical is nominated for a total of 14 Tonys.
Host Neil Patrick Harris opened the awards show with a comical song and dance routine titled It’s Not Just For Gays Anymore, and stepped into the audience to share the microphone with the likes of TV funnyman Stephen Colbert and model/actress Brooke Shields, although the beauty flubbed her lines three times and had to refer to a cue card to remember her lyrics.
Daniel Radcliffe and Tony nominee John Larroquette performed Brotherhood of Man from their musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, while John Leguizamo also took to the stage to share a sketch from his one-man show Ghetto Klown.
Guests in the star-studded audience included Al Pacino, Whoopi Goldberg, Hugh Jackman, James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave.

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Rapper NICKI MINAJ has shot down rumours she’s taking her touring gig with BRITNEY SPEARS worldwide, insisting she will only be supporting the pop superstar on her upcoming North American trek.
The Toxic hitmaker will kick off her Femme Fatale concerts in the U.S. in Sacramento, California on Thursday (16Jun11), with Minaj set to open for her on the 33-date tour.
Spears recently announced the schedule for the European leg of the roadshow and fans were sent into a spin when reports suggested the Moment 4 Life star would be entertaining crowds outside North America too.
But Minaj has moved quickly to dismiss the claims, taking to her Facebook.com page to write, "Sorry barbz (fans), contrary to the recent reports, I will NOT be supporting Britney outside of the US on this tour." Spears will head to Europe in September (11).

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SIR PAUL McCARTNEY has asked his little brother MICHAEL to be his best man when he marries his fiancee, NANCY SHEVELL.
The Beatles legend, who announced his engagement to the New York socialite last month (May11), has asked Michael to stand at his side at the forthcoming ceremony.
McCartney’s spokesperson has confirmed the news to Britain’s Daily Express, insisting, "Mike is Paul’s right-hand man. They go everywhere together. They know what makes each other laugh and share the exact same sense of humour." The singer will be hoping the third time is the charm when he ties the knot with Shevell - since Michael was also best man at his weddings to late wife Linda in 1969 and Heather Mills in 2002.
McCartney’s rep adds, "They do joke about Mike being a bad omen. But that’s just messing about, it isn’t a genuine sentiment on either side."

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BOYZONE are hunting for a new manager after music mogul LOUIS WALSH dropped the Irish boyband, according to a U.K. report.
Walsh, a judge on Britain’s The X Factor, created the band in the early 1990s and they have sold more than 20 million records worldwide, despite a lengthy hiatus in the 2000s.
They made a comeback in 2007, but the band was hit by tragedy just two years later (09) when bandmember Stephen Gately died suddenly at his home in Majorca, Spain.
The band embarked on a tour, named Brother, earlier this year (11) but the trek was marred by low sales - and as a result, along with frontman Ronan Keating’s affair with a dancer hitting headlines, Walsh has decided to drop the group from his roster, according to Britain’s News of the World.
A source tells the publication, "Louis has told Boyzone they’re finished. Ronan doesn’t want to accept it but without Louis they have no chance. The affair changed everything for many fans. It destroyed the family-friendly image that made the band popular.
"They kept a diehard fanbase but the ‘Brother’ tour earlier this year wasn’t a big success. Louis didn’t bother seeing a single show. (They) just couldn’t compete with the Take That comeback and lots of tickets weren’t sold. So Louis decided it was the right time for the band to finish."

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Irish pop stars WESTLIFE are planning to take a break from the band and spend 2012 working on "other projects".
The four-piece is set to release a second greatest hits album this Christmas (11) and singer Kian Egan admits it’ll be the last group venture for a while.
He tells Britain’s Sunday Star, "We’ll be taking a good while away from the spotlight from next year. We’ve all got other projects on the go and I don’t want people to get sick of hearing us.
"I want us to go back to having tour hits from an album - we only had one from the last record." But Egan’s keen to reassure fans the band will be back together before long, insisting, "That doesn’t mean we’re splitting."

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British rockers KASABIAN have vowed to ban drugs from all their future studio sessions after discovering how fresh their sound is when they don’t smoke pot.
The band, which released its self-titled debut in 2004, recently wrapped work on its fourth record, Velociraptor!, and frontman Tom Meighan admits there is a clear difference in the songs on the upcoming release compared to their previous discs, which were all recorded while high.
He tells Britain’s News of the World newspaper, "For the first couple of albums we were really young and all we did was lie around and get stoned. That’s why the records were so trippy and really psychedelic and electronic." The star insists the band shunned drugs while creating their latest album - and have vowed never to allow narcotics in the studio ever again.
Meighan adds, "We’ve grown up now though and we still have the freshness and the bite. We were in the studio and there were no narcotics and we never will have them in there."

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Model RACHEL HUNTER has spoken for the first time since she was diagnosed with a heart problem, calling the health scare a necessary "wake-up call".
Rod Stewart’s ex-wife, 41, was recently struck down with myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, after a virus spread to her heart wall.
But the blonde beauty admits the incident helped remind her to scale back her hectic work schedule and take better care of herself.
She tells Women’s Day magazine, "It’s a good wake-up call. What I learned through all these medical issues was that I was fortunate enough to catch them in time. During six months, it was like, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ But I had a lot of time to realise I needed to slow down.
"It’s a very scary thing to go through. Now when I get a cold, I get worried. It can be dangerous, but they caught it in time. It took me a couple of months to recover."

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GLENN CLOSE is turning her upcoming performance at the home of her beloved New York Mets baseball team into a TV wrap party by inviting the cast and crew of her hit legal drama DAMAGES to join her for a night out at Citi Field.
The Hollywood veteran has been asked to sing the U.S. National Anthem at the stadium in Flushing, Queens next Saturday (18Jun11), when the Mets face off against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
And Close, who has a long history with the Mets, is praying she pulls off a great rendition of the patriotic song to give her team the extra boost they need to secure victory in the second of three games against the Angels.
She explains, "Twenty years ago I was dared to sing the anthem… it’s terrifying. It’s a very hard song to sing, to begin with. (If you forget the words) that’s embarrassing.
"I’ve sung for them for 20 years and I was the last person actually to sing at the old Shea Stadium, God Bless America. I think it’s my responsibility to sing it right, ’cause then they’ll win. So I think that maybe, come June 18th, if I sing it really well, maybe the tide will turn." Close’s performance will help to raise money for her mental health charity and she will be cheered on at the event by her Damages co-workers.
She says, "We’re doing it for a great cause, Bring Change 2 Mind, an organisation I helped to co-found to stop stigma against mental illness.
"A lot of the crew and cast of Damages are going to be there, it’s kinda gonna be our wrap party. June 18, an evening show at the Mets." Shooting on the fourth season of Damages, which also stars Rose Byrne, Ted Danson and John Goodman, was recently completed and it will premiere in the U.S. in July (11).

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Pregnant actress TIA MOWRY was joined by a group of close friends and family on Saturday (11Jun11) to celebrate the upcoming birth of her first child at a baby shower.
The former Sister, Sister star invited her best pals, including her newlywed twin Tamara, to party with her at the London Hotel in West Hollywood in the run-up to her 3 July (11) due date.
Guests were treated to mini cupcakes and other sweet treats as they played games and mingled at the relaxed bash.
A source tells People.com, "Tia looked gorgeous and very happy at her shower celebration. She was very excited about how things turned out." Mowry, who is expecting a baby boy with her husband Cory Hardict, later took to her Twitter.com blog, writing, "Going to bed and had an amazing day. Thanks again to all who came out for the shower love you all xoxo."

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Controversial Venezuelan president HUGO CHAVEZ is recovering after undergoing pelvic surgery in Cuba on Friday (10Jun11).
The leader, who recently battled a knee injury, was receiving a medical check-up in Havana at the end of a political tour when doctors highlighted an abscess on his pelvis.
He went under the knife to remove the pus-filled area and is now "well and in the process of recuperation", according to Venezuela’s Vice President Rafael Ramirez.

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Scenes of a train crash in STEVEN SPIELBERG’s new film SUPER 8 are of extreme significance in the movie mogul’s life - because the first thing he shot on camera was his model trains colliding.
The filmmaker acts as producer on the movie and he admits it was a caboose collision that first got him interested in the art of making movies as a kid.
He tells Entertainment Weekly magazine, "I was denied a chance to break my trains for the 20th time. My dad said, ‘You break your trains one more time, I’m taking the set away.’ "So I took my dad’s movie camera and staged the final train wreck… I shot one train going left to right, and the other train going right to left, and then shot both running into each other.
"After that, I was able to enjoy watching the trains collide without having to risk breaking them."

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