The AWARDS will air this Thursday @ 8:00PM EST on FOX. . .
Denzel Washington Sweeps NAACP Image Awards
Sun Mar 9, 2:22 AM ET Add Entertainment - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Gina Keating
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Denzel Washington (news) swept the 34th annual NAACP's Image Awards on Saturday with a trifecta for his acting and directing prowess, while the top nominee, "Brown Sugar," was shut out of the awards.
Washington, describing his awards as "an embarrassment of riches," won statuettes for best actor for playing a desperate father in "John Q" and for best supporting actor for his role as a Navy psychiatrist in "Antwone Fisher."
"Antwone Fisher," the film Washington guided from script to screen in his directing debut, captured the show's top prize for best picture. As producer and director, Washington collected the award.
The film "Brown Sugar" garnered eight nominations -- the most for any film -- but ended up empty-handed. The controversial "Barbershop," whose digs at civil rights icons Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. prompted an outcry from some African American groups, also failed to win any of its six nominations.
Parks announced the day before the taping that she would not attend the awards ceremony to protest the film's joke about her famous bus ride by Cedric "The Entertainer," who served as master of ceremonies.
Washington, who last year became the first African American to win an Academy Award for best actor since Sidney Poitier (news) in 1963, and Halle Berry (news), the first black best actress Oscar winner ever, got standing ovations when they appeared to induct director Spike Lee (news) into the Image Award's Hall of Fame.
Lee, whose 16 films include "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X," thanked his late mother for "dragging me to movies and Broadway plays" and his 96-year-old grandmother, a teacher who put him through film school and helped fund his first movie.
"This is a very wonderful moment ... from the very beginning I wanted to build up a body of work ... that's how you judge an artist," Lee said.
Berry picked up a best supporting actress award for her role as sexy secret agent Jinx in the James Bond thriller, "Die Another Day."
"With a movie like 'Bond,' I never thought I could win an award," Berry said. "But I did it (for) black women so people could see past our color and see the women that we are."
TWO AWARDS FOR ANGELA BASSETT
Backstage, Berry said a spin-off movie starring Jinx was in development. "If (the script) is any good, we'll see," she said to questions about reprising the role.
Angela Bassett (news) took home two best actress statuettes for the film "Sunshine State," and for CBS's "The Rosa Parks Story." The other nominees in the film category included Jennifer Lopez (news) in "Maid in Manhattan," Thandie Newton (news) in "The Truth About Charlie," Vivica A. Fox (news) in "Juwanna Man," and Sanaa Lathan (news) in "Brown Sugar."
Tennis champion sisters Venus and Serena Williams (news - web sites) received the President's Award for their sporting accomplishments, joining such previous winners as President Bill Clinton and national security adviser Condoleeza Rice.
"Lethal Weapon" actor Danny Glover (news) received the Chairman's Award for his work to broaden human rights internationally and to abolish the death penalty. In his acceptance speech, Glover admonished the audience "to question, to dissent, to speak truth when the call to patriotism and nationalism are used as barriers to detain us."
"We are in the face of some real dangerous villainy ... that is getting ready to take our rights and set up a system of tyranny and intimidation," Glover said backstage.
Glover was among several actors who used their time at the microphone to voice their opposition to the looming U.S. war with Iraq (news - web sites).
The two-hour telecast of the show airs on March 13 on Fox.
**Singing: You need to pick yo afro daddy cuz it's flat on one siiiiiide**
BLONDE NO MORE 
