News:
Tonight the acting community awarded its best and brightest for their work in 2008, and Sean Penn was singled out for one of the biggest awards of the night for playing Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant's biopic. His acceptance speech was a plea for equal rights, and his final thanks were to "the counsel of Cleve Jones and the great Harvey Milk". But first, he gave the crowd a healthy dose of humor:
"Something happened to me during the making of this movie. I noticed it tonight that the statues have rather healthy packages ... As actors we don't play gay, straight ...we play human beings. (I'm) so appreciative of this acknowledgment. This is a story of equal rights for all human beings. Thanks Gus Van Sant, Lance Black, the counsel of Cleve Jones and the great Harvey Milk."