Two Dreamgirls Lead the Pack of Winners at BET Awards

From The Hollywood Reporter:

"Dreamgirls" co-stars Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson were the big winners Tuesday night at the BET Awards '07, which were handed out at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

The singer-actresses each took home two awards. Beyonce was named best female R&B artist and won for video of the year for "Irreplaceable," directed by Anthony Mandler, while Hudson won best new artist and best female actress.

Forest Whitaker was named best male actor during the ceremony, hosted for the third time by actress-comedian Mo'Nique.

Elsewhere in the music categories, Ne-Yo took home the award for best male R&B artist, while Gnarls Barkley won for best group. T.I. was a repeat winner this year with another nod as best hip-hop artist, while Kirk Franklin also repeated his win as best gospel artist.

Winning the award for best song collaboration was "Runaway Love," by Ludacris featuring Mary J. Blige.


The "BET J Cool Like That" award went to R&B singer Gerald Levert, who died in November.

Basketball star LeBron James was again named male athlete of the year, while tennis pro Serena Williams walked away with the award for female athlete of the year.

Diana Ross was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award during the ceremony, while Don Cheadle was presented with the Humanitarian Award for his efforts to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur.

BET Networks also paid tribute to James Brown, who died in December, and Levert with performances by Bootsy Collins, Public Enemy (Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Prof. Griffin and DJ Lord), Gladys Knight and Yolanda Adams.