Dolly Parton<\/a> didn\u2019t make it to the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles on Sunday (Nov. 16) for this year\u2019s Governors Awards, but that wasn\u2019t a surprise. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which puts on the awards, had already said that her acceptance would be by video.<\/p>\n More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n The entertainer announced on Sept. 28 that she was postponing an upcoming concert residency in Las Vegas to address health concerns. Her announcement became national news. Ten days later, she released a video attempting to clarify the situation and allay people\u2019s fears.<\/p>\n But even though Parton wasn\u2019t present at the event, her presence was strongly felt. Lily Tomlin<\/a>, her co-star in the 1980 film Nine to Five, presented the award. Andra Day<\/a> sang a soulful version of one of Parton\u2019s most prized songs, \u201cJolene.\u201d Fellow honoree Tom Cruise<\/a> paid tribute to all of the night\u2019s other honorees. Of Parton, he said: \u201cAmerican original, legendary singer\/songwriter, actress, storyteller, humanitarian, your performances, your songs, your work, your soul, you\u2019re part of the very fabric of all of our lives, and you show that compassion and creativity are not separate. They are the same burning light.\u201d<\/p>\n Parton received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, \u201cfor her deep commitment to charitable efforts throughout her extraordinary career,\u201d in the words of a keepsake handed out at the event. Other music stars who have received this award include Frank Sinatra (1970), Danny Kaye (1981), Quincy Jones (1994), Harry Belafonte (2014) and Debbie Reynolds (2015).<\/p>\n Cruise, choreographer Debbie Allen<\/a> and production designer Wynn Thomas received honorary Oscar. Cruise\u2019s award was presented \u201cfor his unwavering commitment to our filmmaking community, his vital support of the theatrical experience, and his unmatched body of work.\u201d Allen\u2019s was given \u201cfor her career as a trailblazing choreographer and actor. Her work across multiple disciplines has captivated and inspired generations.\u201d Thomas\u2019 award was \u201cin recognition of artistic innovation, visionary eye and lasting influence in the field of production design.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are seven highlights from the 2025 Governors Awards.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Billboard VIP Pass<\/p>\n Comedian and actor Will Arnett opened the event with a dry joke about how the Governors Awards aren\u2019t televised or livestreamed \u2013 and how that suited a crowd of stars and show-biz insiders. \u201cPeople in entertainment, when they win awards they don\u2019t want anybody to know about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Tomlin had a hard time reading her remarks off a teleprompter, but it made her segment the comic highlight of the night. She would close one eye, saying that helped her see better with the other eye. After a while, when she just closed an eye, she got a laugh.<\/p>\n Tomlin also recounted the backstory on Nine to Five, saying that Jane Fonda had a draft of the film written as a drama, but then decided to change it to a comedy. She recruited Tomlin and then, driving home one day, heard Parton\u2019s 1978 country hit \u201cTwo Doors Down\u201d and decided she\u2019d be perfect for the film.<\/p>\n Julia Roberts, Parton\u2019s co-star in 1989\u2019s Steel Magnolias, spoke thoughtfully in a video tribute. \u201cDolly\u2019s power is one the world needs right now. It\u2019s her empathy we\u2019re grounded in, her belief in inclusion without judgment, her commitment to unifying us, to always wanting to build up and never tear down. Dolly appeals to everyone, coal miners and CEOs, drag queens and churchgoers. She\u2019s able to bring people together no matter who they are or where they live, and she has never wavered in her commitment to giving back to people in need.\u201d<\/p>\n Andra Day excelled on a soulful version of Parton\u2019s 1973 classic \u201cJolene,\u201d an interesting choice because it didn\u2019t originate in a film. It was the only musical performance of the night.<\/p>\n Cruise capped a gracious acceptance speech by asking those people in the room who had worked with him over the years to stand. Many did. Alejandro G. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu, who is directing Cruise\u2019s next movie, presented the award to the actor. I\u00f1\u00e1rritu won back-to-back Oscars for best director in 2015-16. Cruise is still waiting for his first competitive Oscar. He has received acting nods for\u00a0Born on the Fourth of July\u00a0(1989), Jerry Maguire\u00a0(1996) and\u00a0Magnolia\u00a0(1999) and best picture as a producer of\u00a0Top Gun: Maverick\u00a0(2022).<\/p>\n Debbie Allen got a laugh talking about Tom Cruise\u2019s famous scene in his \u201ctighty whiteys\u201d in 1983\u2019s Risky Business, but then she got serious. \u201cMy greatest mentors have always been my family \u2026 who raised their children believing that we were citizens of the universe, and that there were no boundaries, and that anything we could see we could be. \u2026 Movies helped us see a lot of that \u2013 and we were faced with brick walls and glass ceilings and White Only signs everywhere. But we grew up believing in ourselves. We grew up understanding what fight and faith is.\u201d Allen\u2019s award was presented by Cynthia Erivo.<\/p>\n Octavia Spencer, one of the stars of the 2016 film Hidden Figures, presented the award to Thomas, who served as production designer on the film.<\/p>\n \u201cMy journey to storytelling began as a poor, poor Black kid in one of the worst slums in Philadelphia,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cThere were street gangs and poverty everywhere. And to escape that world, I immersed myself in books with characters like Sherlock Holmes and I read the writers Harper Lee, Shakespeare, James Baldwin, Tennessee Williams and Lillian Hellman. I would sit on my front stoop, and I would travel around the world. Now, the local gangs looked down on me and called me sissy. But that sissy grew up to the work with some of the great filmmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dolly Parton didn\u2019t make it to the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles on Sunday (Nov. 16) for this year\u2019s Governors Awards, but that wasn\u2019t a surprise. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which puts on the awards, had already said that her acceptance would be by video. More from Billboard The entertainer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2021507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[414565,375810,397172,380339,22641,414358,414566,366821,33293],"class_list":["post-2161771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-academy-of-motion-picture-arts-sciences","tag-andra-day","tag-debbie-allen","tag-debbie-reynolds","tag-dolly-parton","tag-governors-awards","tag-jean-hersholt-humanitarian-award","tag-production-designer","tag-tom-cruise"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Charli-XCX-and-George-Daniel-marry-for-second-time-in.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2161771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2161772,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161771\/revisions\/2161772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/div>\n
Will Arnett Tweaks the Event<\/h2>\n
Lily Tomlin Finds Comedy Gold in Her Difficulty Reading the Teleprompter<\/h2>\n
Julia Roberts Speaks Eloquently About Her Former Co-Star<\/h2>\n
Andra Day Puts a Soulful Spin on \u201cJolene\u201d<\/h2>\n
After More Than 40 Years in the Business, It Seems Tom Cruise Has Worked With Everybody<\/h2>\n
Debbie Allen Fangirled About Tom Cruise, But Then Got Serious<\/h2>\n
Octavia Spencer Presented to Wynn Thomas<\/h2>\n