While Anthony Montgomery and Cirroc Lofton were in Germany partying with Star Trek fans at FedCon, their current film project was busy winning awards back home. At the Hollywood Black Film Festival last weekend, "I'm Through with White Girls" (aka "The Inevitable Undoing of Jay Brooks") — starring Montgomery with Lofton in a supporting role — won the festival's highest award, "Best Narrative Feature Film."

It's another feather in the cap of the independent film that has been picking up honors internationally in recent months. In France it won the Audience Choice Award at the Pan African Film Festival, and at the Houston Worldfest it earned the Platinum Award for Best Romantic Comedy, among others. Montgomery is "Jay Brooks," a storyboard artist in L.A. with race-related relationship issues. You can see a trailer for the film, along with a synopsis and glowing audience reviews, at this festival link.

Congrats to Langella for Tony Award

He was nominated for London's highest theatre award and didn't win, but then he moved his show to Broadway and took home the highest honor of the American stage. Last Sunday at the Tony Awards, Frank Langella — who played the Bajoran "Minister Jaro" in DS9 — triumphed in the category "Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play" for playing Richard Nixon in "Frost/Nixon."

"There's a line in 'Frost/Nixon' which says, 'Success in America is unlike success anywhere else. That feeling when you are up is indescribable,'" said Langella in his acceptance speech. "Thank you for giving me that indescribable feeling. I wish it for you all." He's been "up" more than once, as this is his third Tony Award out of five nominations. Last month he also won the Drama Desk Award for the "Nixon" role, his fifth such trophy.

Langella will continue to perform "Frost/Nixon" — revolving around British talk-show host David Frost's infamous 1977 interviews with the disgraced president — through August 19 at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on 45th Street in New York. Visit www.frostnixononbroadway.com for more info. Once the stage production closes, eight days later Langella will start shooting a film adaptation of the project, under the direction of Ron Howard, for release in 2008.

In the leading actor category, Langella defeated Christopher Plummer — "General Chang" in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" — who was nominated for his lead role in "Inherit the Wind." Plummer plays Henry Drummond, a character based on Clarence Darrow, in the classic fictionalization of the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial" (if this sounds familiar, John de Lancie recently played Darrow directly in a traveling production based on the trial's actual transcripts). Brian Dennehy co-stars as Matthew Harrison Brady, the character based on William Jennings Bryan. "Inherit the Wind" is still running at the Lyceum Theatre, on 45th only a block away from Langella's show, through July 8. Visit www.inheritthewindonbroadway.com for more info. Plummer has been nominated six times before for a Tony, and has won twice.

Another nominee at the Tonys this year was Donna Murphy, who played "Anij" in "Star Trek: Insurrection." She was up for "Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical" — her fourth nomination in the same category, with two prior wins — for her part in "LoveMusik" as the wife of composer Kurt Weill. Though she came up empty-handed at Sunday night's Tonys, Murphy did win the Drama Desk Award last month for this role. "LoveMusik" is running for one more week at the Biltmore Theatre on 47th Street, closing Sunday, June 24. For more info visit the Manhattan Theatre Club (the same group that produced Kate Mulgrew's "Our Leading Lady").

For more about this year's Tony nominees and winners, visit www.tonyawards.com.

While continuing to perform "Nixon" on stage, Langella will begin shooting a film this coming week in New York called "On the Hook," playing an energy company whistleblower concerned for his life. The independent thriller co-stars Elliott Gould. It was also announced this week that another indy film that Langella previously shot, called "Starting Out in the Evening," has been picked up for distribution. Langella stars as an aging novelist whose life is shaken up by a young graduate student writing her thesis on him. Roadside Attractions plans to get the movie, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, into theaters in November in time for awards consideration.

Last Weekend in Canada: Spacey Awards, GalaxyFest

Yet another award presentation took place last weekend, honoring the Original Series as well as latter-day Trek makeup guru Michael Westmore. Canada's SPACE cable network broadcast its fifth annual Spacey Awards last Sunday. The twist on this awards show is that instead of gathering nominees in one place, the show's hosts travel around North America presenting the alien-head trophies to the recipients wherever they are. Viewers got to vote in several categories, and for "Favourite Classic TV Show" the overwhelming winner was Star Trek with 51 percent of the tally (out of five nominees). George Takei accepted the award by having it "transported" onto his desk while answering piles of fan mail. Westmore was presented a Special Achievement Award in a more straightforward manner at his home, where his Oscar and many Emmys were on display, along with a Borg head.

Bryan Singer, a crewman in "Star Trek Nemesis," accepted an award for his picture "Superman Returns," and also presented a Spacey to Spacey — "Best Movie Villain" to Kevin Spacey for playing Lex Luthor. Visit www.spacecast.com/spaceys to see video highlights from the 2007 Spacey Awards, including portions of Takei's and Westmore's segments. Also see this press release for a full list of winners.

As mentioned above, Germany had their big Trek celebration last weekend, but so did Canada. The small farm town of Vulcan, Alberta, held its annual "Galaxyfest," where the holographic "Vulcan Space Adventure" was unveiled (related story). Max Grodenchik and Aron Eisenberg were the special guests at the event which doubles the town's population once a year. A news report on the convention, and how Star Trek tourism has revitalized the local economy and put Vulcan on the map, is posted at this news link. A Klingon from Montreal says, "You can walk into the market here in full costume and the clerk doesn't even bat an eye." The story also quotes Grodenchik: "At home (in Los Angeles), when I go into a store, they act like I'm going to steal something," apparently because of his Ferengi reputation, "but at Star Trek conventions, people know me. It's nice."

"Motion Picture" Cited at Visual Effects Festival

A lot happened last weekend. In Beverly Hills, the Visual Effects Society (VES) held its annual Festival of Visual Effects, attracting all the heavyweights in the field including Trek veterans Dan Curry and Ronald B. Moore. A special panel of the industry's top names climaxed the festival on Sunday, most of whom have worked on Star Trek at one time or another, on the topic of VES' selection of the "50 Most Influential Visual Effects Films of All Time." That panel included Doug Trumbull and John Dykstra ("Star Trek: The Motion Picture") and Ken Ralston ("ST II," "III," "IV"), along with Richard Edlund and Dennis Muren. Recent Oscar Winner John Knoll ("ST Generations," "ST: First Contact," etc.) was the moderator. Unfortunately no "Star Trek" film was named in the VES 50 list, but Trumbull pointed out the omission of "Motion Picture."

"We had as many [visual effects] shots as 'Star Wars' and 'Close Encounters' combined, to do in six months," Trumbull recalled regarding the first Trek feature. "The only way I could figure how to do it was to collaborate with John [Dykstra], and so we talked Paramount into letting us split the job. Here we are, arch-competitors across town — we're all 65 millimeter, they're all VistaVision [a 35mm format], everything's optically different, no compatibility whatsoever, software, hardware — and we pulled it together pretty well I think. We collaborated, and worked so smoothly, and came out okay and we saved the day for those jerks." He was referring to the Paramount executives who imposed such a restrictive production schedule on the crew, drawing an outburst of laughter from the industry audience. Dykstra added, "I don't think [movie mogul Jeffrey] Katzenberg would be where he is today if it hadn't been for your efforts and our efforts in getting that movie finished."

As the final event of the VES festival, Trumbull — who cut his teeth on the production of Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" — told stories of his experiences on that seminal sci-fi film, and gave a slide show of rare photos from behind the scenes including many of the reclusive director, before screening the film itself. See the photo gallery at left for shots from these panels, and more about the event at www.visualeffectssociety.com.

Auberjonois Out, Larroquette In on Boston Legal

Bad news and good news for fans tuning in every Tuesday night to see William Shatner sharing the screen with other Trek vets in a contemporary setting: Rene Auberjonois is being dropped as a regular on Boston Legal. But John Larroquette, who played the Klingon "Maltz" in "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," is coming on. According to trade reports, the move by executive producer David E. Kelley was "part of an effort to keep the stories and characters fresh in the show's fourth season."

Auberjonois is one of four principal cast members whose contracts have not been renewed. The others are Julie Bowen, Mark Valley and Constance Zimmer. However, it's possible that any of them could appear next season in a recurring or guest-starring role.

Larroquette will play "Carl Sack," a senior partner from the New York offices of Crane Poole & Schmidt who transfers to Boston. Expect some interesting chemistry between him and Shatner's "Denny Crane." It was playing a morally dubious lawyer that originally brought Larroquette fame — and several Emmys — on Night Court in the late 80s. He also won a guest actor Emmy on Kelley's The Practice, like Shatner.

Production on the fourth season of Boston Legal starts June 27.

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