Awards Season

Switcheroos: Stanley Tucci Out, Oliver Platt in As James Beard Awards Host

Getting his game face on.
Getting his game face on. Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Thank goodness for understudies: James Beard Foundation president Susan Ungaro announced this morning that stage and screen actor Oliver Platt will host this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards Ceremony at Avery Fisher Hall on May 6. Stanley Tucci, the previously announced host, is unable to make it to Lincoln Center because of a “work commitment,” so he’s asked his friend (who also happens to be New York critic Adam Platt’s younger brother). The actor, who’s appeared in Bulworth, The Big C, and Grub Street favorite Flatliners, is no stranger to food, and was even an associate producer on Tucci’s 1996 Big Night. The theme of this year’s Beard Awards is Lights! Camera! Taste! Spotlight on Food & Film, which will pay “tribute to the role food has played on the silver screen in America.” [Earlier]

Switcheroos: Stanley Tucci Out, Oliver Platt in As James Beard Awards Host