Reese Witherspoon leads the stars at The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Breakfast Gala

Ronan Farrow was honored at the Hollywood Reporter’s Power 100 Women in Entertainment gala for his reporting that helped bring down alleged predator Harvey Weinstein. In accepting the award, the Pulitzer-winning journalist slammed the ‘system that protects powerful and dangerous men’ and thanked the two notable women in his life.

The annual gala honors the most notable players in the movie, TV, and business industries, but the awards aren’t withheld solely for women.

Farrow received the Hollywood Reporter’s Equity in Entertainment Award at Wednesday’s event, held at Milk Studios in LA, for his groundbreaking reporting on the disgraced movie mogul and the slew of sexual assault allegations against him.

He was given the award, which recognizes individuals who work against gender-based discrimination and towards the inclusion of women and people of color in the entertainment industry, by former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson. Carlson famously launched a sexual assault lawsuit against Fox News chairman Roger Ailes and helped reveal his predatory behavior at the network.

‘I’m the person I am because of two brave women in my life, my mother Mia and my sister Dylan,’ Farrow said. ‘They faced the same system that protects powerful and dangerous men, and in so many ways, my mother was so alone in that fight.’

‘And how good to know that now, however much more work there is to do, however much change is yet to happen, fewer women have to face these fights alone,’ he added. 

Farrow is the first journalist to receive this award.

‘As I stand before the Women in Entertainment Gala, let’s face it: I don’t belong on this stage for a pretty obvious reason. I’m not in entertainment,’ he said. ‘In all seriousness, any award I’ve gotten, it’s because of brave women who were sources in my reporting.’

He then listed and praised the women who shared their harrowing accounts with him including Ambra Gutierrez, Rose McGowan and Brooke Nevils.

‘Thank you for this award. I’ll leave it there. As a man on this stage I’m well aware of the importance of shutting up and listening,’ he said to close out his speech.

Farrow’s reporting not only outed Weinstein as a predator in the movie industry, but he also published allegations against NBC host Matt Lauer’s sexual misconduct and how the NBC network allegedly buried it.

At the special event Reese Witherspoon was also honored, receiving the Sherry Lansing Award, which recognizes trailblazers and philanthropists. She received the award for her career as one of Hollywood’s most prolific producers with her growing entertainment company Hello Sunshine. 

Among the 100 women listed on Hollywood Reporter’s coveted list, many are actresses-turned-producers and directors, shedding light on how some female actresses are expanding into production and direction roles to take on bigger projects. 

Actress and The Office writer Mindy Kaling moved her business to Warner Brother in February in a massive six-year deal that will earn her a base of $8.5million annually and has made her one of the most sought after writers in the industry. Her latest hit, Late Night, was a hit comedy that she wrote and starred in.

Actress Charlize Theron was honored for her performance as Megyn Kelly in the new Fox News drama film Bombshell. According to Hollywood Reporter, the film almost didn’t come to fruition without Theron’s producing skills.

Reese Witherspoon was honored for her prolific production roles including for Big Little Lies, which she stars in. Its second season created with Witherspoon’s production company Hello Sunshine. Apple has also bought three Hello Sunshine projects in its effort to compete with Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.

Actress Olivia Wilde was honored for her directorial debut with Booksmart, a comedy that opened doors to signing on to a new thriller and comedy for Universal.

Some fresh names on the scene include business owner and home-improvement reality star Joanna Gaines, Little Women director Greta Gerwig, actress Zendaya, and show writer and actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge. 

Director, producer and writer Lulu Wang was honored for her film The Farewell about her family’s decision to lie about their grandmother’s cancer diagnosis, which earned $19.6million in the box office.   

Awkwafina, a rapper and actor who had star break out roles in Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean’s Eight, was also honored, as well as movie director Ava DuVernay, who pioneered the Netflix series When They See Us, which won 16 Emmy nominations. 

Other notable honorees include network giants Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of ViacomCBS who oversaw the giant merger, and NBCUniversal TV studio chiefs Pearlena Igbokwe and Dawn Olmstead. 

Hollywood Reporter’s extensive list of powerful women places a spotlight on the female leaders at major media networks and studios dominating today’s TV and movie scene.

Victoria Alonso, the executive vice president of Marvel Studios, Sony Pictures Animation president Kristine Belson, ABC Entertainment Karey Burke, Paramount TV president Nicole Clemens, and DreamWorks Animation president Margie Cohn were also honored in the list.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki was honored for her work battling fake news and extreme and exploitative uploads on the massive video sharing service that boasts more than two billion logged-in users. Under her tenure, the company has grown an estimated $300billion.   

Some familiar names on the list are long-time visionaries in Tinsel Town including Jennifer Aniston, Oprah, Michelle Obama and Elizabeth Raposo. 

Winfrey was given a nod for her decision to partner with Apple for a series version of her Oprah’s Book Club.  

Other notables on the coveted list include Spotify’s Chief Content Officer and Head of Creative Development Dawn Ostroff and Liz Gateley as the music streaming service skyrocketed in popularity and spent nearly $400million in 2019 on podcast acquisitions – including a massive deal with the Obama’s.

Also highlighted was Amazon Studios Head Jennifer Salke as Amazon Prime’s video streaming service boomed with hit shows like Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag and Mindy Kaling’s film Late Night.

‘Within two weeks, [Late Night] had performed better than any movie that we have on Amazon Prime,’ she said to HR.