SPYWITNESS

By Joel Stratte-McClure
 
The May award season got underway on Thursday night with the inaugural British Comedy Festival gala at the Four Seasons Hotel and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences honors at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
 
Simon Pegg won half the awards at the expletive-rich BAFTA/LA dinner where Nigel Lythgoe, Joss Stone, Cat Deeley and late arrival Paula Abdul were on hand to see Billy Connolly pick up a lifetime achievement award.  
 
Not that all the humor was British. Jokes about Michael Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Paris Hilton and Preparation H all got laughs.
 
“I’ve had some strange nights in Hollywood,” Pegg said before Ashley Jensen accepted an award for “Extras,” the Best British Comedy Television program. “But it’s weird that the strangest is in a room full of Brits.”
 
The more sedate Television Academy Honors recognized programs that presented issues of concern to society. Andrea Bowen, Leeza Gibbons, David E. Kelley, Christopher Meloni, Diana-Maria Riva, Jason Priestly, Marisa Coughlan and Swoosie Kurtz presented and received awards for “Boston Legal,” “Law and Order,” CNN’s “God’s Warriors” and Lifetime’s “Side Order of Life” and “Girl, Positive.”
 
 “These programs moved people and touched their hearts,” said Kurtz.