Carol Burnett Praises Reporters in Hollywood: ‘Journalists Are Essential to This Business’

Receiving the IndieWire Honors Vanguard Award at Citizen News on June 6, Carol Burnett reflected on her years spent as a teenage reporter. The comedy legend further praised journalists as “essential” to the entertainment industry and described the evening as a “full circle” moment in her illustrious career. (Watch her interview on our red carpet above.)

“This actually happens to be the neighborhood I grew up in just a few blocks from here,” Burnett said in her speech. “At one point, I was editor of my Hollywood High School newspaper and one of my assignments was to interview the editor of the Hollywood Citizen News. That was in this building.”

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Speaking to IndieWire in May, the actress said that in addition to interviewing Citizen News editor Lowell E. Redelings — who Innovation Award winner John Mulaney would later accuse of Communism during his predictably hilarious acceptance speech — she narrowly missed a chance to speak with Lana Turner.

“I was going to have to cut a class and they wouldn’t let me do it,” Burnett told IndieWire. The famous actresses would meet nevertheless years later on the set of “The Carol Burnett Show.”

As a young newswoman, Burnett followed in the footsteps of her late mother, Ina Louise Creighton, who in the 1930s wrote for publications like PIC Magazine. According to her daughter, Creighton profiled a handful of major names while she worked in entertainment including Bob Hope, Rita Hayworth, and George Montgomery among others. Although Creighton never made a full-time gig of it, she always encouraged Carol to write. Burnett had additional interest in studying to become a cartoonist, but saw her promising future in newsprint diverted to the screen and stage by a mandatory UCLA acting class.

“I wound up as a theater arts major and it changed my whole life, but I’ve always championed ethics in journalism for decades,” Burnett said in her speech. She specifically shouted out the Carol Burnett Fund for Responsible Journalism, which was founded through an endowment given to the University of Hawaii in 1981. That same year, a judge found in Burnett’s favor when she took on The National Enquirer with a libel lawsuit that would help rein in gossip rags and awarded her $1.6 million in damages.

“Journalists are essential to this business, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without the gracious reporters and publications who supported me over the course of my career,” she said. “I have come full circle here being in this building to accept this award.

Burnett continued, “Speaking of support, our incredible ‘Palm Royale’ showrunner Abe Sylvia is here with me,” gesturing to her seating area. The Vanguard Award was given to celebrate the entirety of Burnett’s decades-long career in television, but paid special attention to her performance as Norma Dellacorte in Sylvia’s glittering period piece opposite Kristen Wiig, Allison Janney, Laura Dern, Ricky Martin, and more.

“Thanks to you and the team at Apple TV+ for providing me with the opportunity to play such an amazing role,” Burnett said. “My character was in a coma for several episodes. I’d get up at five in the morning and drive to the studio and get into makeup, put on my costume, and go back to bed. It was a great gig.”

Watch a video with Burnett above.

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