Ruby Dee Keeps On Truckin'

Oscar nominee Ruby Dee isn't slowing down anytime soon.

"It's been a good year," the 83-year-old legend said last night at Ebony magazine's annual pre-Oscars gala at Hollywood's Boulevard3. "I've been a really busy kind of creature."

And get this: Dee is currently writing a musical. (She was mum on details, because it's too early in the process.)

Dee,  Denzel Washington, Queen Latifah and Quincy Jones were honored at last night's soiree.

And Holly Robinson Peete may not have been an honoree, but the event has an extra special place in her heart. She said that three Oscars ago, she was pregnant and hitting the party circuit with Chris Rock's wife, Malaak Compton. "She kept taking me to party to party, and I was like, 'I need to sit,' " Peete remembered. "My water broke in the middle of the Ebony party, this party that we are at right now!"

Now Peete has another baby to worry about—a new daily one-hour talk show with her husband, former football star Rodney Peete, on Oprah Winfrey's Oprah & Friends XM radio channel.

"She's awesome," Peete said about Ms. Winfrey. "We'll email each other back and forth, and she'll give me little tips. She's a great boss, and she's very inspiring."

—Filed by Marc Malkin, with additional reporting by Laura Lane