"Which individuals have won all four major entertainment awards – the Tony, the Oscar, the Emmy and the Grammy?" This is an annual question that comes up now because the theater’s Antoinette Perry Awards will be happening on Sunday in New York over CBS.

Thanks to our friends at Parade magazine, we know the answer. Only nine people have been honored with trophies in competitive categories – for theater (the Tony), for movies (the Oscar), for TV (the Emmy) and for music (the Grammy).

They are directors Mel Brooks and Mike Nichols … actor Sir John Gielgud and actresses Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn and Rita Moreno … composers Marvin Hamlisch, Richard Rodgers and Jonathan Tunick.

We can add comedian Whoopi Goldberg (our very own wOw woman) if we include the daytime Emmy Awards. And we can add Barbra Streisand and Liza Minnelli if we are allowed to consider their non-competitive, special-achievement Tony and Grammy honors.

So there! Now you know. Stump your friends.

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On the eve of the Tonys, my writer compatriot – Michael Riedel of the New York Post – has offered up a severe critique of what CBS has done this year to the Tony Awards. He and the distinguished actor Kevin Spacey both deplore the musicalization of the show we’ll see Sunday night. The "new" Tonys will evidently drop a lot of awards onstage. "Who wants to see an old costume designer accept an award and make a speech?" seems to be the new point of view. So many important awards will be given off-camera. Dancing and musicals will shine! Straight plays and technical wins will suffer.

This "may" make good TV but it doesn’t do the hard work of all of Broadway any good. Spacey says the Tonys should be taken over by PBS, with the genius Mike Nichols directing, and should be given the formality and inclusiveness that the theater deserves.

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The ebullient legend Phyllis Newman, who already has a Tony award for acting, will be honored with a humanitarian award Sunday night. This is a first. Phyllis has raised millions of bucks for health care for women in the theater.

And now I see that three-time Tony nominee Kelli O’Hara will join with Andrea McArdle, Audra McDonald and Bebe Neuwirth in a benefit concert for Phyllis’s "Women’s Health Initiative" at New World Stages on June 15. Do a good deed in a naughty world – call (212) 221-7300, Ext. 133. I’m betting this will be a lot more exciting than the Tony Awards.

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Too bad that New York magazine can’t spell the name of a woman who won the Presidential Medal of Freedom right! I’m talking Joan Ganz Cooney. 

Our wOw pal Joan – the woman who helped Jim Henson create "Sesame Street" back in the day – tells me I missed a great night last week when the Sesame Workshop did its 7th fund-raising gala with The Muppets as stars!


wOw’s Joan Ganz Cooney

The event drew in over $2 million for "Sesame" work with children worldwide and that was several hundred thousands more than last year. Head Workshop beauty Sherrie Westin talked President Obama into giving a surprise filmed salute. I guess nobody says no to a Muppet.       

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Happy to report that my favorite play of the season, "God of Carnage," will keep its sterling cast of Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden and extend their Yasmina Reza play through November 15. Come to New York and see this rollicking comedy! Also happy to report that Michael Feinstein and Broadway’s sizzling hunk Cheyenne Jackson have extended their duet show, "Power of Two" – six more shows added. This talented pair is at Feinstein’s at Lowe’s Regency. Call (212) 339-4095.