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Crystal, Twain Shall Meet

Wed., May. 2, 2007 8:48 AM PDT by Julie Keller

In case you haven't figured it out, Billy Crystal really is mahvelous, baby.

To hammer the point home, the entertainer has been tapped as this year's recipient of the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the nation's top award for bringing the funny.

Crystal, whose résumé includes blockbuster movies (Analyze This, City Slickers, Monsters, Inc. and When Harry Met Sally...), groundbreaking television (the six-time Emmy winner played one of prime-time's first openly gay characters on Soap), standout stage work (he won a Tony for his autobiographical one-man Broadway show 700 Sundays in 2004), hit comedy albums and bestselling books, will be the 10th Twain honoree.

"The work he has created for stage, film and television has made an indelible impression," said Kennedy Center chairman Stephen Schwarzman. "It is the work of not just a humorist but also a humanist."

Aside from his greatest hits, which also include his stature as go-to Oscar host (he's emceed eight times) and an SNL stint that introduced his classic impersonation of Fernando Lamas ("You look mahvelous!"), Crystal cofounded the charity telethon Comic Relief with Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams. The 2006 edition of the all-star affair benefited victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Crystal greeted the news of the prize with a characteristic quip. "To be given the same award as Richard Pryor, Steve Martin and Neil Simon is a great honor," the 59-year-old performer said in a statement. "As my grandfather said, If you hang around the store long enough, once in a while they'll give you something!

I told my granddaughter, who is 3, that I won the Mark Twain Prize, and she said, 'I have one too.' "

Along with Pryor (the inaugural winner in 1998), Martin, Simon and Goldberg, the other Mark Twain honorees include Lily Tomlin, Lorne Michaels, Bob Newhart, Jonathan Winters and Carl Reiner.

The award will be presented Oct. 11 in Washington, D.C., at a tribute performance at the Kennedy Center and telecast by PBS.