Harvard Kicks Off Scorsese's Honors

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday February 14, 2003 10:20 AM EST

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Director and "Gangs of New York" Oscar contender Martin Scorsese followed in the high-heeled footsteps of previous winners Anjelica Huston, Sarah Jessica Parker and Bruce Willis on Thursday when he donned a curly blonde wig and red-sequined bra to be named Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year.

The Associated Press reports that the quintessential filmmaker, 60, got caught up in the excitement of the opening night of "It's a Wonderful Afterlife," a production by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the undergraduate dramatic troupe that sponsors the traditional showbiz event on the Cambridge, Mass., campus.

"I kind of had inside information that I was going to get the prize tonight so I went along with everything," said Scorsese, who was named best director for "Gangs" at last month's Golden Globes.

The filmmaker, whose hard-hitting films include "GoodFellas," "Mean Streets," "Raging Bull" and "Taxi Driver" -- which included leading man Robert De Niro's memorable phrase, "You talking to me?" -- stood on the stage next to a blackboard with those very words on it.

A schoolmarm (actually, a Harvard student in drag) then made Scorsese repeat the grammatically correct phrase, "To whom are you speaking?"

In other awards coming Scorsese's way, the Directors Guild of America is slated to honor him with its lifetime achievement award on March 1, and both Miramax honcho Harvey Weinstein and Steven Spielberg have been quoted in the press as saying they have made it their personal missions to see that Scorsese, finally, is named Best Director at the Oscars March 23.