Legislators including Sens. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
and Rep. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) joined FX president
Peter Liguori and host Michelle Lee Thursday night for a premiere Capitol Hill
screening of the 2003 Prism Awards.
The awards, which salute "the accurate depiction of drug, alcohol and tobacco
use and addiction" in TV and other media, were handed out May 8 in Los Angeles,
with the awards show slated for air on Fox-owned cable network FX May 25.
It will be the first awards show to air on the network, although the plan is
for it to become an annual airing.
Although not one of the Prism winners, FX's gritty The Shield received a
Prism certificate of merit.
TV winners were Bernie Mac for best performance in a comedy series;
The West Wing's Tim Matheson and John Spencer for best performance in a drama
series; ER's Noah Wiley for best performance in a drama series,
multiepisode storyline; VH1 won for a Behind the Music episode on
Aerosmith; E! Entertainment Television won for a E! True Hollywood Story episode on Andy Dick; and
NBC won for its documentary Sudden Impact: The Ripple Effects of Drunk
Driving.
The awards are sponsored by the Entertainment Industries Council, the
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
