Barbara Walters receives Sherry Lansing award

Barbara Walters has interviewed heads of state and Hollywood’s biggest celebrities, but it’s the working women she remembers the most -- the streetwalkers on 57th Street in Manhattan near Carnegie Hall when she became the first woman to co-host the “Today” show in the 1970s.

As the prostitutes plied their trade in the predawn hours, Walters, in her dark glasses and carrying a garment bag, would also slip into the back of a car -- hers, though, was a long black limousine bound for Rockefeller Center. “I would look at them and they would look at me ... and I gave them hope,” Walters said archly. “That’s my message to you today.”

Walters related the anecdote to the 650 entertainment industry insiders who attended “The Hollywood Reporter’s” 12th annual “Women in Entertainment Power 100” luncheon at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Tuesday as she accepted the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award.

The award was created last year to honor Lansing, a pioneer in the film industry, and recognize individuals who have been leaders and role models in their fields.

Introduced by Lansing as “an icon who has been an inspiration to everybody in this room,” Walters spoke of the early years of her career when she was hired as a writer for “Today” but was allowed to write copy only for the one woman on staff.

“The difference for me today is all of you,” she said, looking around the ballroom at the recipients and other guests, who included celebrities such as Anne Heche, Natasha Henstridge, Brooke Shields and Shelby Lynne. “For many years, you were not there.”

This year’s top five recipients were Anne Sweeney, co-chairman of media networks for the Walt Disney Co. and president of Disney ABC-Television Group; Judy McGrath, chairwoman and chief executive of MTV Networks; Stacey Snider, chairwoman of Universal Pictures; Amy Pascal, chairwoman of Sony Motion Pictures Group and vice chairwoman of Sony Pictures Entertainment; and Nancy Tellem, president of CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group.

In her characteristic maternal tone, Walters ended her address with words of advice about a woman’s need for balance in life: “You don’t have to be married to be a success. You don’t have to be single to be a success. And you don’t have to have children if you don’t want to.”

Then her thoughts returned to the other women in her life.

“I think tomorrow I’m going to go back to 57th Street and tell those ladies what happened,” she said.