Steven Spielberg skips Gotham Awards after 'The Fabelmans' helmer is diagnosed with Covid-19
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: ‘The Fabelmans’ director Steven Spielberg decided to skip this year’s Gotham Awards after contracting Covid-19 right before the red carpet rolled out for the prestigious ceremony. The legendary filmmaker was set to attend this year’s event and present Michelle Williams with the Performer Tribute at Monday’s awards ceremony, but people were shocked when they saw Paul Dano taking the stage and giving the speech while presenting the award to his co-star.
Dano and Williams star in Spielberg’s latest movie ‘The Fabelmans’, which is a semi-autobiographical story loosely based on his adolescence and his initial years as a director. The movie chronicles the journey of a fictional young man named Sammy Fabelman, an aspiring filmmaker who learns how movies help him see the truth about his dysfunctional family and the people around him. Williams plays the role of Sammy’s mother while Dano portrays the character of Sammy’s father in the movie. Williams was set to receive the Performer Tribute for her epic performances over the years, but Spielberg couldn’t be the one to present her with that special prize.
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According to Variety, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker tested positive right before the red carpet of the Gotham Awards. The news was confirmed when Dano took the stage and replaced the director for the Williams tribute. The report also suggested that he was going to attend a Directors Guild of America (DGA) screening of ‘The Fabelmans’ in New York and was also scheduled to talk about his career and the movie with another legendary filmmaker, Martin Scorsese. However, it is being reported that the screening and the discussion between two iconic filmmakers have been postponed.
Even when Spielberg was not in the audience, Williams didn’t shy away from praising the filmmaker for his vision and also joked about how she was looking forward to getting the award from Spielberg, and not Paul Dano.
“I thought, ‘Imagine if that teenage girl knew that at the midpoint of her career she’d be seeing a tribute award at the Gothams from none other than Steven Spielberg, and what would she have thought?’ Then I thought, ‘Well, what if we had to tell that girl that Steven got Covid?’ She’d be like, ‘What’s Covid?’ and that ‘Paul Dano was going to introduce you?’ She’d be like, ‘Who the f*ck is Paul Dano?’” Variety quoted Williams as saying.
‘The Fabelmans’ is Spielberg’s 34th movie as a filmmaker and is a beautifully crafted movie that reminds us why he is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. It also stars Gabriel LaBelle, Seth Rogen, Judd Hirsch, Julia Butters, and Jeannie Berlin in pivotal roles.
The movie currently holds a score of 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, giving Spielberg his seventh-best Rotten Tomatoes score.
‘The Fabelmans’ is currently playing in theaters.
