CBS News vet Susan Zirinsky was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Las Vegas Tuesday night by the New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards.
The “48 Hours” senior executive producer — the inspiration for Holly Hunter’s role in “Broadcast News” — couldn’t be there to receive her award, so that honor went to “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty. “Simply put, Susan makes things happen with a scary, almost supernatural amount of energy,” Moriarty said in accepting Zirinsky’s award.
Moriarty also read a note from Hunter. “I was given carte blanche to steal all behavior, professional and otherwise from her,” Hunter wrote about Zirinsky. “I ripped off the un-self-conscious intimacy she gave to co-workers — putting her hand on the shoulder of a guy as she was making a suggestion to him — or giving someone’s arm a squeeze as she breezed by.
“I just loved that.”
Zirinsky’s award was presented during the industry’s annual NAB convention.
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It’s a busy time for actress Patricia Rae.
The Manhattan native, who grew up in Queens, will soon be appearing on the big screen opposite Robert De Niro and Diane Keaton in “The Big Wedding.” She plays Madonna Soto, the Colombian mother who gives her son up for adoption, only to visit him years later. The movie opens April 26.
Rae is best-known for her role in “Maria Full of Grace” (she played Carla) and as Bolonia Grimes in “Chuck,” the NBC series which starred Zachary Levi.
Her TV resume is impressive and extensive: she’s also appeared in “Touch,” “Blue Bloods,” “The Chicago Code” and “The Mentalist,” among her many small-screen credits (which date all the way back to “Miami Vice” — her first TV job).
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Last, but not least:
* Keri Russell in the May issue of Women’s Health on her “The Americans” character, Elizabeth Jennings: “I’m just secretly hoping she gets in a car accident or something and then has to get into a coma, then I just sleep for three episodes” . . . Alfre Woodard has joined the cast of BBC America’s “Coppers,” as former slave Hattie Lemaster. “Coppers” returns for its second season June 23 and is set in 1860s New York . . . HBO has partnered with Eleni’s New York to launch an exclusive line of cookies. First up: “Sex and the City”-themed cookies, followed by cookies inspired by “True Blood” and “Game of Thrones.”