Melanie Griffith, Rosie O'Donnell, Rita Wilson honor Demi Moore at ELLE's 2024 Women in Hollywood Event.
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00:00I can't see this one.
00:01I can't either.
00:01OK, smush in, smush in.
00:03OK, there.
00:04All right, there we go.
00:05Although we've been friends, as you can see, for a long time,
00:10we first worked with Dumi on Now and Then,
00:12a film that she produced and starred in back in 1995,
00:16nearly 30 years ago.
00:18We were all honored that she asked
00:20us to be a part of that film, a story about women, produced
00:23by women, written by a woman, directed by a woman,
00:26and starring primarily women, a rare thing in 1995
00:30and a true gift.
00:31We played a group of lifelong friends
00:33who consider their friendship now
00:36as they look back on their lives as young girls then.
00:40Kind of what we're doing here.
00:42Yeah.
00:42Friends looking at our lives now,
00:45reflecting back on our lives then.
00:47That's meta.
00:48It's meta.
00:49What's meta?
00:49It's meta?
00:50Yeah.
00:51Meta?
00:52I thought you said MAGA had a panic attack.
00:54No.
00:55Is that better?
00:57Is that better?
00:59OK.
01:00Ever since that Jelly Roll song, since Tuesday the 5th,
01:03I am not OK.
01:07It's been my mantra.
01:10OK, is this me?
01:11Am I supposed to be talking now?
01:13All right, well anyway, it feels like 30 years ago
01:15was a whole different world.
01:17Well, you know what, it is a different world.
01:19It's a different world.
01:20It is, and that was a good show in the 80s.
01:23We're here today to introduce Demi Moore.
01:26Yes, we are.
01:27Demi, back then, she shocked the world
01:31appearing naked and seven months pregnant
01:33on the cover of Vanity Fair.
01:34Now, celebrities walk the red carpet in less coverage
01:37than she was wearing on that scandalous cover.
01:40You know, I turned down that gig.
01:42Annie Leibovitz.
01:43Oh, yeah.
01:44Well, frankly, if I looked like Demi Moore,
01:46I'd be naked in the frozen food section of Ralph's every day.
01:48Yeah, me too.
01:49Yeah, for sure.
01:51Back then, in the film The First Wives Club,
01:54the character Elise, played by the incomparable Goldie Hawn,
01:59laments all too wisely that there are only three ages
02:03for women in Hollywood, babe, district attorney,
02:06and driving Miss Daisy.
02:08Yes, but back then, Demi was a box office star
02:12in her own right playing strong, complicated women
02:16in a string of successful hits, Ghost, A Few Good Men,
02:20Indecent Proposal, Disclosure, G.I. Jane.
02:25Yes, as well as being a pioneer as an actress,
02:29who was also producing hit films such as Now and Then,
02:32G.I. Jane, Austin Powers 1 and 2,
02:34and the award winning If These Walls Could Talk.
02:37And now, she's experiencing a renaissance.
02:41A demisance, if you will.
02:43A demisance.
02:44You can get one at Starbucks.
02:46Do they have decaf?
02:47I'm not sure.
02:48OK, demisance.
02:49I like this.
02:51It started when she wrote her intimate, emotionally charged,
02:54and brutally honest memoir, Inside Out.
02:58And it continued as she gave strong, complex performances
03:02this year in Feud, Capote Versus the Swans, The Substance,
03:07and the new Taylor Sheridan series, Landman.
03:10Back then, Demi used to star power
03:12to effect change, most notably fighting for gender pay equity
03:16in Hollywood by leveraging her box office,
03:18using the same calculation the male actors had
03:21been using for decades to get paid her worth,
03:24blasting through the glass ceiling of higher pay
03:26for women.
03:27Earning $12.5 million to headline a movie,
03:32a first for any woman.
03:34Yeah.
03:34Yeah.
03:35For which, by the way, she was also awarded criticism,
03:42blowback, and outrage by some in the industry.
03:45Some.
03:46But women were high fiving her all day long.
03:49And now, a new generation of brave, empowered actresses,
03:53many of them are here tonight, are
03:55following in Demi's footsteps, fighting
03:57to close the gender pay gap for all women, and winning.
04:02And they're still getting a lot of criticism,
04:03and blowback, and outrage.
04:05Change can be slow.
04:07Yes.
04:07Four years is going to be hell.
04:11Back then, Demi often sought out roles
04:14that challenged societal norms, or at least initiated
04:17debate about complex issues.
04:19Women in the military, sexual harassment in the workplace,
04:23abortion.
04:24And now, motivated by her own personal lifelong struggle
04:28with beauty standards, body image, and aging,
04:32Demi continues to challenge society's
04:34unrealistic expectations of female beauty.
04:37Like women's own complicity in perpetuating
04:39these expectations, and the lengths
04:42that they go to to meet them.
04:44In her film, The Substance, with a powerful performance
04:47that many are calling the best of her career.
04:50And finally, back then, Demi was a fighter.
04:53A force of nature.
04:53A truth teller.
04:54A rule breaker.
04:55A problem solver.
04:56A caring, inclusive, loving, wise human.
05:00Always generous in spirit, always the one who shows up.
05:03Always a thoughtful listener, devoted wife.
05:06Mother and friend.
05:07And now, Demi is still all of those things,
05:10plus the hottest grandmother pushing a stroller
05:12through a tunnel box.
05:13Come on.