Events in Film & Television in 1998

Jan 4 Second successful revival of by Stephen Sondheim's musical "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum", starring Nathan Lane, closes at St James, NYC, after 715 performances and 1 Tony Award

Jan 11 24th People's Choice Awards: Harrison Ford & Julia Roberts win (Dramatic Motion Picture) and Tim Allen & Oprah Winfrey win (TV)

Jan 18 55th Golden Globes: "Titanic", Peter Fonda and Judi Dench win

Jan 20 "Dawson's Creek" created by Kevin Williamson, starring James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson premieres on WB in the US

Mar 1 Yasmina Reza's French stage comedy "Art", starring Alan Alda, Victor Garber, and Alfred Molina opens at Royale Theater, NYC; runs for 600 performances

Mar 8 The Screen Actors Guild award Gloria Stuart (Old Rose in "Titanic") with their Founders Award

Mar 15 Revival of John Kander and Fred Ebb's "Cabaret", starring Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson, opens at Club Expo Theater, NYC; runs for 2,377 performances and wins 4 Tony Awards

Mar 23 70th Academy Awards: "Titanic", Jack Nicholson & Helen Hunt win

Mar 29 WrestleMania XIV, FleetCenter, Boston, MA: 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin's wins his first WWF Heavyweight tile against Shawn Michaels

Apr 27 Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall, NYC; performers include: Sting, Elton John, James Taylor, Madonna, Billy Joel, Joe Cocker, Emmylou Harris, Roberta Flack, Wynonna Judd, and Tsidii Leloka

May 14 Seinfeld's final 2-part episode "The Finale" airs on NBC-TV to 76.3M viewers with commercials priced at $2M for 30 seconds

Jun 5 "The Truman Show", starring Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, and Ed Harris, is released

Jun 6 TV sitcom "Sex and the City" premieres in the US on HBO, starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon

Jul 17 "The Mask of Zorro" directed by Martin Campbell, starring Antonio Banderas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Anthony Hopkins is released

Jul 24 "Saving Private Ryan", directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Hanks, Edward Burns and Matt Damon, is released (Academy Awards Best Director 1999)

Aug 5 The American spin-off "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", starring Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady, debuts on ABC

Sep 10 15th MTV Video Music Awards: Madonna & Will Smith win

Sep 18 "Rush Hour" directed by Brett Ratner, starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker released - Jackie Chan's Hollywood breakthrough

Sep 19 23rd Toronto International Film Festival: "Life Is Beautiful" directed by Roberto Benigni wins the People's Choice Award

Oct 20 Comedian Richard Pryor is awarded the 1st ever Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

Nov 3 "Shakespeare in Love" directed by John Madden and starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes premieres in New York (Best Picture 1999)

Nov 10 "Star Trek: Insurrection" film directed by Jonathan Frakes and starring Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes premieres