Palm Springs WIFT Stages Smashing Broken Glass Awards Event

[Gordon Parr]

Text by Jorie Parr. Photos by Gordon Parr.

A capacity crowd celebrated the second annual Broken Glass Awards dinner at the LaQuinta Resort. It was the night before the Oscars and members of the Palm Springs Women in Film & Television had some trophies of their own at the ready.

The primary award went to multiple Oscar nominee producer Gale Anne Hurd, on whose slender shoulders rested such projects as the Terminator trilogy and the Incredible Hulk.The Gena award to actress Lindsay Wagner, with the distinguished thespian, Gena Rowlands, cheering from the audience. The Jackie Lee (Houston) humanitarian award honored Barbara Sinatra, founder and mainstay of the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center. And the Desert Diva accolade to Denise DuBarry Hay, actress, producer, business (Thane industries) tycoon.

Also on board was the prominent journalist, Patt Morrison, columnist for the L.A. Times and KPCV radio interviewer. That morning her Times full-page subject had been Gloria Steinem, feminist extraordinaire –“76 years old and still doing it,” Patt said. I always think of the writer warmly as Patt the Hatt because of her trademark chapeaux. How many does she have? “Not enough.”

A Coachella Valley girl, Gale Anne Hurd graduated from Palm Springs High School in 1973. One had to bring up the fact that she was married to Directors James Cameron and Brian de Palma. “They were married to me,” she underlined. Her husband of the last 15 years, writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh, was home in Pasadena helping daughter Lolita with her homework.

Lindsay Wagner, the original Bionic Woman, nowadays participates in the local charity, Pegasus Riding Academy for the Handicapped. Yes, she does ride horses. Way more earthy, she indicated, than her former transportation on TV.

Jackie Lee Houston and her award recipient Barbara Sinatra chatted in the green room, one philanthropist to another. Denise DuBarry Hay looked radiant. After all, it was her birthday.

Gena Rowlands said that having an award named after her felt “Peculiar.” While she was having her picture taken, I sneaked a conversation with her husband, Robert Forrest, a man of strong presence. “I’ve known Gena since 1963. I was a friend of John’s (Cassavetes, her late husband). The Forrests, who live in New York, L.A. and Indian Wells, have been wed for 17 Years. “I don’t care if people call me Mr. Rowlands. I’m just glad to be married to Gena.

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