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The Ark Trust Announces Fourteenth Annual
Genesis Awards Winners!
Entertainment Wire - February 29, 2000
LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Feb. 29, 2000-- "Instinct," "The Iron Giant," "Animal
Farm," "Judging Amy," "Popular," "Dateline NBC," "Leeza," "CBS
Evening News With Dan Rather," "Road Rules" and The Artist Formerly Known as Prince are among the 23
winners of the Fourteenth Annual Genesis Awards, an international distinction that recognizes members of the major
news and entertainment media for spotlighting animal issues with courage, creativity and integrity.
The announcement was made by Gretchen Wyler, founder and president of The Ark Trust, Inc., a nonprofit,
animal-protection organization and presenter of the Genesis Awards.
Individuals from the major media -- film, television and print -- will be honored and on hand to accept the awards
at the star-studded, televised ceremony at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday, March 18.
Hosts David Hyde Pierce ("Frasier") and Wendie Malick ("Just Shoot Me") will be joined by
celebrity presenters Maria Conchita Alonso ("Moscow on the Hudson"); Christian Bale ("American
Psycho"); Dorie Barton ("Stark Raving Mad"); Garcelle Beauvais ("The Jamie Foxx Show");
Catherine Bell ("JAG"); Linda Blair ("The Exorcist"); James Cromwell ("The Green
Mile,"); Frances Fisher ("Titanic"); Valerie Harper ("Rhoda"); Tippi Hedren ("The
Birds"); Michael Jeter ("The Green Mile"); Alan Rachins ("Dharma & Greg"); Doris
Roberts ("Everybody Loves Raymond"); Susan Sullivan ("Dharma & Greg"); and Concetta Tomei
("Providence"); among others.
"We look forward to having a spectacular show befitting the new millennium," said Wyler, a former Broadway
star and current TV actress (guest-star roles on "Judging Amy," "Providence," "Stark Raving
Mad"). "We have an amazing list of winners in all areas of the media -- works that encompass a wide
variety of pro-animal issues."
The winners of the Fourteenth Annual Genesis Awards (with category), honoring outstanding works in 1999, are:
Film
Feature Film: "Instinct" (Touchstone Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment), for a thought-provoking story about
one man's touching relationship with gorillas and his compassionate defense of their right to be left alone in the
wild.
Feature Film - Animated: "The Iron Giant" (Warner Bros.), for an anti-hunting moment where the gentle
giant observes the beauty of a deer and then helplessly watches as the animal is slain by hunters.
Television
Film for Television: "Animal Farm" (TNT), for a powerful interpretation of George Orwell's classic
allegory that depicts the struggle of animals in a society dominated by oppressive humans.
Network Newsmagazine: "Dateline NBC" (NBC), for several segments, including one exposing the cruelty
inherent in training elephants for circuses ("Under the Big Top"), and another revealing that trinkets
sold in the United States are made from cat and dog fur imported from China ("Toy Story").
Television Dramatic Series: "Judging Amy" (CBS), for an episode that emphasizes the link between
animal cruelty and violence to humans.
New Television Series: "Popular" (The WB), for an inspiring story of a student who, on moral grounds,
refuses to dissect a frog in her high school biology class.
Cable Documentary: "Why Dogs Smile & Chimpanzees Cry" (Discovery Channel), for a compelling look at
how humans and animals share and express many similar emotions.
PBS Documentary: "Nature" (PBS), for "A Conversation With Koko," which chronicles the life and
the intellectual capabilities of a gorilla named Koko.
Television Talk Show: "Leeza" (Syndicated), for "Pets Turned Predators," which graphically
exposes the hideous world of those who are involved in training dogs to fight for "sport."
Network News Feature: "CBS Evening News With Dan Rather" (CBS), for a graphic look at a brutal
wild-dolphin capture in which some of the mammals are destined for theme parks, the rest for slaughter.
Cable News Series: "ABC News/Discovery News" (Discovery Channel), for a segment exposing the continued
clubbing of baby seals in Canada and for another segment spotlighting Shahtoosh shawls, wool garments made by
slaughtering the endangered Tibetan antelope.
Cable Newsmagazine: "Earth Matters" (CNN), for a segment revealing the bushmeat trade in Africa where the
killing of animals for food is decimating the great apes; and for another segment on the devastation orangutans and
gorillas face in Borneo due to destruction of their habitat by the logging industry.
Local News Series: "Newschannel 4" (WNBC-New York), for "Unfair Game," a powerful, two-part
expose on the fate of surplus zoo animals who are doomed to be killed on canned-hunting ranches.
Reality Programming: "Road Rules" (MTV), for a "Semester at Sea" episode in which one of the
students refuses to participate in an art class where elephants, forced to paint, are mistreated by their handlers.
Children's Programming: "The New Adventures of A.R.K." (Discovery Channel), for "Hunting by
Numbers," in which the kids go undercover to rescue an elephant destined to be a victim at a canned-hunting
ranch.
Children's Programming - Animated: "The Wild Thornberrys" (Nickelodeon), for three episodes -- one showing
how little Eliza's seemingly small actions in helping an animal find a way to collect food can disrupt an entire
ecosystem, another that focuses on the cruel and illegal smuggling of wild animals for the pet trade, and yet
another in which Eliza befriends a wild rhino and protects him from being discovered so he can remain "safe and
happy."
Brigitte Bardot International Award: "Carte Blanche" (South Africa), for a segment that reveals the brutal
training methods endured by 30 baby pachyderms stolen from their mothers in the wild for sale to zoos and circuses
("The Tuli Elephants").
Print
Ark Trust International Award: The Toronto Sun/Sunday, for "A Price on Their Heads," a powerful expose on
the sale of surplus zoo animals to hunting ranches where, for a fee, they are killed for trophies.
Periodical: Reader's Digest, for "Scandal of America's Puppy Mills," an incriminating look at the big
business of pet-shop puppy suppliers, exposing the AKC's promotion of the myth that pedigreed dogs are superior.
National Newspaper Feature: The Washington Post, for "For the Birds," a sobering behind-the-scenes look
exposing the lurid details of the poultry industry.
Series of Articles: San Jose Mercury News, for "Zoo Animals to Go," a powerful four-part expose about
surplus zoo animals and the exotic animal pipeline that leads them to hunting ranches, circuses and other inhumane
fates.
Special Awards
Dolly Green Special Achievement: The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, for his liner notes on "Rave Un2 the Joy
Fantastic" (Arista Records) in which he decries the suffering of sheep to produce wool clothing.
Doris Day Music Award: Kingfish (Phoenix Media Group), for "Sundown on the Forest," a song dedicated to
Julia Butterfly Hill who recently spent two years in an ancient redwood tree she named Luna, 180 feet above ground
in Stafford, Calif., in order to prevent a timber company from cutting it down. Hill's valiant efforts made
international news on behalf of old-growth forests and their animal inhabitants and earns her Special Guest
recognition at the Fourteenth Annual Genesis Awards, which she will attend.
Winners are selected from material released in 1999. Entries are submitted by those in the news and entertainment
industry or by "people's choice," with finalists voted upon by the 15-member Genesis Awards Committee.
"In our 14th year, we are truly inspired by the caliber of work being produced by these courageous members of
the news and entertainment media," Wyler said.
Since its inception in 1986, the Genesis Awards has become the nation's premier animal issues
"consciousness-raiser" and the award is the only major news and entertainment media distinction concerning
animal issues.
The artistic theme of the Fourteenth Annual Genesis Awards is "On the Brink of Extinction," with a
spectacular stage design reflecting that theme.
"It's unfortunate that over the next century, unless we take drastic measures to protect them in the wild, we
will be saying goodbye forever to the giant panda, orangutan, mountain gorilla, cheetah, Asian elephant, tiger and
the northern right whale, among others," Wyler said. "We want to bring the plight of these majestic
animals to our audience's attention at this year's Genesis Awards."
The Fourteenth Annual Genesis Awards will be taped for television in front of an anticipated audience of more than
1,000. The TV special will air on Animal Planet on Saturday, June 10, 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. (PT) and 9 p.m. and
Wyler and Robert Halmi Sr. are the executive producers and Paul Flattery is the producer of the special. Event
Patron is Hallmark Entertainment. Event Benefactors are Culinary Revolution, Dr. Marty Becker and PETsMART.com.
Sponsors are PETsMART Charities and Turner Network Television.
Copyright © 2000 Entertainment Wire. All rights reserved.
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