Longtime writing-producing-directing partners Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick (“Thirtysomething”, “My So-Called Life”) will receive the Writers Guild of America, West’s 2012 Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television for lifetime achievement in television writing. The ceremony will take place Sun., Feb. 19 at the Hollywood Palladium.
Though this honor counts them “among a small group of writers who revolutionized the television drama,” Herskovitz and Zwick have also produced many notable films together, among them “Defiance” about the WWII resistance fighters, the Bielski brothers, “Love and Other Drugs,” the rom-com starring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal, and “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise. They have also been involved, centrally or peripherally in “Courage Under Fire,” “Legends of the Fall,” “I Am Sam,” “Traffic,” and “Shakespeare in Love,” for which they shared a 1999 Academy Award for Best Picture with several others producers, including Harvey Weinstein.
Having endured the requisite trials and tribulations that come with many years in the entertainment biz, they also deserve kudos for loyalty and partnership. It’s a real gift to be steadfast in challenging circumstances but these two have been as devoted as if in a marriage. In fact, at least for one of them, their partnership outlasted marriage.
Read the full press release here.
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