See what Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd, Kevin Smith and more said at N.J. Hall of Fame ceremony

Previously recorded, (mostly) from New Jersey, it’s Saturday night!
Actors Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd, director Kevin Smith and oh so many more Jersey celebrities brought out the star power as their famous friends showed up to induct them at the 2024 New Jersey Hall of Fame ceremony.
While the event was broadcast on TV the night of Saturday, Nov. 16 (you can catch a replay 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17 on WWOR/My9), it was pre-recorded. Celebrity segments were filmed in the state hall of fame’s new home at the American Dream mega mall in East Rutherford.
The induction brought stars to the 10,000-square-foot New Jersey Hall of Fame Entertainment and Learning Center, which opened in June. There, they recorded their acceptance speeches in a departure from the hall’s live induction ceremonies that usually have an audience.
The virtual format was a return to the type of remote ceremonies the hall embraced when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which allowed organizers to show off the new facility (which would not accommodate the large in-person audience that usually turns out for the event).
If they weren’t at the Entertainment and Learning Center, various notables showed up from all over Jersey and other places across the country to fete the honorees.
Danny DeVito, a 2010 inductee and longtime fixture of the hall’s ceremonies, returned as host of the 16th induction, riding the escalator at American Dream to gaze upon the new center with awe.
The New Jersey Hall of Fame inducted 21 people — 16 men and five women — in the class of 2024.
Here are some highlights from the show, including the A-listers joining the hall and those who presented them with the honor.
Three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep is such a legend that the New Jersey Hall of Fame welcomed her in its inaugural class.
Among her 2008 classmates: Albert Einstein, Harriet Tubman, Frank Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen and Thomas Edison.
She’s also part of the class of 2024.
How?
Since Streep couldn’t make it to any of the previous induction ceremonies (there was a close call in 2018), she formally joins now.
What celebrity has enough star power to introduce Meryl Streep?
Why, Cher, of course.
“You may know me better as Meryl Streep’s lesbian roommate in ‘Silkwood’ or her way-too-youthful momma in the second ‘Mamma Mia!’ movie,” Cher said.
The recent inductee to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame helped induct Streep from what appeared to be in her home in Malibu.
As for Streep (Cher called her by her birth name, Mary Louise Streep), her father hailed from Newark and her mother from Madison. She was born in Summit and spent her younger years in Basking Ridge, where she made her acting debut in middle school. Streep went to high school in Bernardsville before going on to win Oscars for “Kramer vs. Kramer,” “Sophie’s Choice” and “The Iron Lady.”
“This chick was so impressive,” Cher said. “It’s a little bit annoying, right?”
The singer recalled getting ready to go to Texas in 1982 to film Mike Nichols’ “Silkwood,” her first “real movie.” She was massively intimidated by the idea of acting with Streep. While packing, she got an anxiety attack and started to unpack, but she showed up in Dallas anyway.
All her fears were allayed when she met Streep, who put her arms around her and said “I’m so glad you’re here.” (Both Streep and Cher were nominated for Oscars for their performances in the film.)
“Despite that, Meryl still likes to point out that she’s three years younger than me,” said Cher, 78.
Streep, 75, grew up singing Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe” on her walk to school in Bernardsville.
After Streep’s daughter Mamie Gummer was born in 1983, she was in New York with Cher one day and suggested going for some ice cream. Cher wondered if 10 p.m. was too late to be going out, but Streep shirked the idea of any danger. It wasn’t long before they witnessed an attack on a woman, who screamed as a huge man tore at her clothes.
“Meryl started running towards the guy, yelling, and I followed her, thinking, ‘we’re gonna get killed,’” Cher said.
But Streep drove the man away.
“Mary Louise, you will always be my favorite superhero, so congratulations on taking your rightful place in the New Jersey Hall of Fame, and please know that now and forever, I got you, babe,” Cher said.
Streep’s speech:
“I am thrilled and honored to be inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame alongside my heroes and the greats of our state,” Streep said, accepting the honor. “Thomas Edison and me. Me, a person whose name is in lights, and the other person, who invented lights. I mean … yikes.
“Back in high school in Bernardsville I never in my wildest dreams imagined I’d ever be here, but it is my imagination that got me here ‘cause all my life I’ve imagined what it’s like to be other people, people not like me, not necessarily from New Jersey. People from other countries, other centuries, even. As actors, we’re encouraged to make that leap. But I know that curiosity is something that we all have in us from birth. We all wonder what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes. Imagination — it’s how we fly up and out of our own lives into the world that we share. It’s where empathy and understanding are born. My dreams were born in New Jersey and my imagination was nurtured in her public schools, and for that, I am very, very grateful. Thank you for this wonderful honor.”
If you know anything about Kevin Smith, you know that becoming part of the New Jersey Hall of Fame means a lot to the “Clerks” director.
So it wasn’t exactly a surprise when his voice started to crack during his acceptance speech.
But before that, the Highlands guy’s “hetero lifemate” and partner in cinematic Jersey duo Jay and Silent Bob had a message.
Actually, a threat.
Jason Mewes was taken aback.
“I cannot believe the New Jersey Hall of Fame is inducting Silent Bob but not Jay,” he said from Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash comic book store in Red Bank.
“I mean, what the hell, guys? You can’t just split up Jersey legends like that. It’s like splitting up pork and roll. Or Asbury and Park. Or Bon and Jovi.”
Mewes, 50, who also grew up in Highlands, promised that if he isn’t inducted, too, Jay and Silent Bob would be delivering some “Jersey justice.”
Before his friend Smith, 54, became a director, he started out filming basketball games at Henry Hudson High. He was raised in the Catholic Church, but the movies were his other church. He flexed his performance skills in school plays and talent show comedy skits before working at the Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, which he would make famous in the indie hit “Clerks” (1994).
Everything changed for Smith when he saw Richard Linklater’s movie “Slacker” for his 21st birthday, which convinced him he could make his own film.
Smith banned together with friends in 2022 to buy the Atlantic Moviehouse, formerly Atlantic Cinemas, the movie theater of their youth. They turned it into SModcastle Cinemas, where he regularly hosts events.
He has returned to Jersey to film so many of his movies, including “Clerks III” and, most recently, “The 4:30 Movie.”
“For 16 years I’ve been thirsty, as the kids say, like cringingly thirsty, to be a member of the New Jersey Hall of Fame,” Smith said.
“Being from New Jersey is a currency, culturally, that I’ve spent the world over,” he said, describing his Garden State origin as something he wears “like a suit in the world.”
His whole family is from New Jersey. And he went out of his way to make sure that his daughter, actor Harley Quinn Smith, was born in Jersey.
When he’s in the state, he lives in an apartment above his movie theater in Atlantic Highlands.
“Isn’t that adorable?” Smith says. “A filmmaker who lives over the movie theater — that’s like a cobbler who lives in a giant shoe.”
Smith said the hall of fame honor was making him “moist in the face … and other places.”
“Getting into this place, I’m done … I can hang it up, man,” he said. “My whole career has been a chase for relevance — somebody needed to know I came from this place. Now they do. Now there’s going to be kids coming through here (the hall of fame center) when I’m long dead, waving a hand over my face and being like, ‘who’s this fool?’”
He ended with a message for “every dreamer out there who just wants to be known, just wants the world to see you.”
“Say something. Go out there and tell ‘em who you are, and tell ‘em where you’re from.”
Who best to induct Jersey-born actor Paul Rudd?
Another Jersey guy.
In fact, his friend of more than 25 years, actor Bobby Cannavale.
Cannavale, who hails from Union City, didn’t know how to honor the “Ant-Man” actor, so he stole Clive Davis’ speech for singer Tony Orlando’s induction in 2023.
The bit was quite successful as Cannavale, 54, uttered lines like this:
“Several songs (Rudd) recorded have become all-time classics.”
The famously ageless Rudd, 55, grew up in Kansas, but was born in Passaic. He also lived in Palisades Park as a kid.
His family settled in Jersey when they emigrated from England, and his father grew up in Paterson. His aunt, uncle and cousins are from Fair Lawn. His grandparents lived in Lodi “until they died … and then they were buried in Paramus,” Rudd said.
“So really, my life can be encapsulated by the opening credits of ‘The Sopranos,’” the actor said.
“New Jersey is home.”
Rudd’s parents were married in New Jersey and his wife, Julie Yaeger, is from Jersey. He gave a nod to the Parkway rest stops named for Jersey greats in the hall, then suggested something smaller for himself.
“Is there a payphone still standing somewhere? Maybe an ATM, or a gas pump?”
The Marvel actor, whose other credits include “Clueless,” “The Cider House Rules,” “Friends,” “Anchorman,” “Knocked Up,” “This is 40″ and the newest “Ghostbusters” movies, also delivered a little riff on the pressures of joining the state hall of fame.
“I actually looked up the demonym for the people of New Jersey to make sure it was New Jerseyans and not New Jerseyites or New Jersans,” he said.
“I then looked up the actual definition of demonym, because I wasn’t sure if that was the right word, and if I was going to use it in these opening remarks, I wanted to be accurate.”
He proceeded to read that definition, along with the origin of the word.
“I wanted to make that clear, because looking at the word demonym, I worried that some people might think that I meant people from New Jersey are demons,” Rudd said. “Actually, I never thought that, but that seemed kind of like a funny joke, sort of how I felt when I found out I was to be chosen to be included in the New Jersey Hall of Fame.”
Rudd said he could think of so many other people worthy of the hall, including Cannavale, “who took time and energy to lift Clive Davis’ introduction for Tony Orlando, word for word, to induct me today.”
Who better to honor Jersey Mike’s CEO Peter Cancro than Asbury Park’s Danny DeVito?
Besides being a celebrated actor, director and New Jersey Hall of Fame supporter, DeVito is the pitchman for Jersey Mike’s, which is headquartered in Wall Township. (You may have seen his ads and billboards.)
Cancro, who hails from Point Pleasant Beach, turned Mike’s Submarines of Point Pleasant, where he worked as a teen, into a Jersey Mike’s Subs franchise of more than 3,000 shops across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
To celebrate Cancro’s induction to the hall’s enterprise category, DeVito, who turns 80 Sunday, surprised him at a Jersey Mike’s. The big boss even got behind the slicer.
Of course, they both had to taste the wares.
Other performing arts and entertainment inductees included those living and those who have passed on.
Radio legend Cousin Brucie, aka Bruce Morrow, 89, was on hand to induct singer Lesley Gore.
Gore, who grew up in Tenafly, topped the charts in 1963 with “It’s My Party,” produced by Quincy Joes, when she was 16 and still a student at the Dwight School for Girls.
“She has given us her poetry, her music for years, and now, we’re giving something back,” Brucie said.
Gore is also known for her 1963 anthem “You Don’t Own Me.”
In 1981, she was nominated alongside her brother Michael Gore for an Oscar for best original song for “Out Here On My Own,” performed by Irene Cara in “Fame” (1980).
Gore was 68 when she died of lung cancer in 2015.
What does Emmy-winning “Handmaid’s Tale” star Elisabeth Moss have to do with Warren Littlefield?
He’s the reason she did the show.
Littlefield is an executive producer of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the acclaimed Hulu series whose sixth and final season premieres next year.
Moss, 42, introduced Littlefield, 72, at the hall’s ceremony.
She said she loved the “Handmaid’s Tale” scripts but in order to sign on, she needed to know there would be a good producer involved to see the project through. Moss was “obsessed” with “Fargo,” which Littlefield produces, and told her team she’d need “a Warren Littlefield-type” in order to board “Handmaid’s Tale.”
“Warren and I spoke shortly thereafter and the rest is history,” she said.
Littlefield, who hails from Montclair, was president of NBC Entertainment from 1991 to 1998.
He built the network’s popular “Must See TV” slate, working with “Frasier,” “Friends,” “Mad About You,” “ER,” “L.A. Law” and “The West Wing.” He also developed “Cheers,” “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “The Golden Girls” and “Seinfeld.”
Littlefield told the story of his time with NBC TV in his 2012 memoir “Top of the Rock.” He currently heads up the Littlefield Company, where he is executive producer of “Fargo,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Dopesick” and “The Old Man.”
The producer and former TV exec, who opted to use the alternative demonym “Jerseyites,” described his hometown of Montclair as “diverse and sophisticated,” a place where he was exposed to art and culture. When he was younger, he shoveled coal at a plastics factory in Wayne and drove trucks in Paterson.
Littlefield had moved to California by the late ’70s, but it was commuting into New York on the DeCamp No. 66 bus where he met his wife of 45 years.
The hall’s 2024 sports inductees include some legendary Giants.
One is Phil Simms of Franklin Lakes, a quarterback for the team for 14 seasons and Super Bowl champion who became a broadcaster for ESPN, NBC and CBS.
His son, Chris Simms, a fellow sports analyst and former quarterback (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos), helped to induct his father.
Simms, 69, came to Jersey from Kentucky. He may have been booed at games in the beginning, but Jersey fans soon warmed to the player.
“His bond with New Jersey is special,” Chris, 44, said of his father, who met his mother, Diana Simms, in the Garden State.
“I never dreamt, being drafted in 1979 by the Giants and moving to New Jersey, that 45 years later, I would be sitting here today, being inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame,” Phil said, shouting out former Giants coach Bill Parcells, from Oradell.
Tim Howard, who grew up in North Brunswick and became a global soccer superstar, was also inducted to the hall.
Introducing the goalkeeper was none other than Tim Mulqueen, the soccer coach and former professional goalkeeper who hails from Woodbridge. He coached Howard when he was young.
“With New Jersey being the greatest soccer state in all of America, I knew if I could make it here, I could make it anywhere,” said Howard, 45.
“What ultimately made me successful wasn’t my God-given talent. It was my grit, desire and unwavering dedication to never accept failure, which was honed, of course, on the rugged pitches of North Brunswick.”
Olympic figure skating and broadcasting great Dick Button is 95.
Speaking on his behalf at the induction was fellow Olympic champion and broadcaster Scott Hamilton.
Hamilton, 66, took to the ice skating rink at American Dream in his friend’s honor.
Button, who grew up in Englewood and started skating at 12, made history by winning back-to-back figure skating gold medals with his Olympic victories in 1948 and 1952.
“He was the greatest skater of his generation, and I would argue, the greatest skater of all time,” Hamilton said. “He created so many incredible athletic feats that no one humanly thought possible.”
Button performed the first double axel in competition in 1948. He became the first man to do a triple loop jump in 1952 and invented the flying camel spin, known as the Button camel.
His influence was also felt in a big way in broadcasting. Button founded TV’s World Professional Figure Skating Championships. He was a fixture of Olympics figure skating coverage, working for CBS, ABC and NBC, winning an Emmy in 1981.
“He created skating for television,” Hamilton said. “He was the first man to produce it and the first voice that we ever heard describing the incredible feats of the Olympic champions and the American champions that came after him … There’s no one in this sport of skating that hasn’t been touched by him in some extraordinary way.”
Two honorees are known for their tremendous influence on education and business in Newark.
One, the Rev. Edwin D. Leahy, known as Father Ed, is the longtime headmaster at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark.
In his remarks for the hall’s ceremony, Leahy said he was initially rejected when he tried to get into St. Benedict’s as a student.
“My father had to intercede to get me in,” he said. “But on my second day of school, I realized I was at home.”
At the time, he was 13.
Leahy would go on to become a teacher at the school, then headmaster, and in his more than 50 years in the position, transformed the school into a model for urban education.
He was recently depicted in the movie “Rob Peace,” which is about St. Benedict’s alum and former teacher Robert DeShaun Peace (actor Michael Kelly plays Leahy in the film).
Another Newark-minded inductee is Don Katz, founder of Audible, the Amazon-owned purveyor of audiobooks and podcasts.
Finn Wentworth, a founder of the YES network and former CEO of Yankeenets (Yankees, Nets and Devils) from Mount Tabor, who was inducted into the hall last year, helped induct the former Audible CEO.
“Don understood Newark’s economic potential,” he said of Katz, 72, who started as a journalist and author. He moved Audible from Wayne to Newark in 2007.
The Audible founder has called Jersey home since 1989, living in Montclair.
“Please consider backing a business in a challenged neighborhood,” Katz said.
He addressed business executives, too — asking them to think about moving their headquarters to a historically challenged city.
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Here’s the full list of 2024 inductees to the New Jersey Hall of Fame. Find more information below on those not mentioned above.
Lesley Gore
Paul Rudd
Meryl Streep
Kevin Smith
Warren Littlefield, Montclair, former NBC Entertainment president
Dick Button
Tim Howard
Phil Simms
Ron Johnson, Madison, former Giants running back and chairman of the National Football Foundation. He joined the Giants in 1970 and became the first player in franchise history to rush for 1,000 yards. He also founded Rackson, a food service company headquartered in Totowa. Johnson died in 2018, at 71.
Writer Gay Talese, Ocean City. His Esquire article “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” is a landmark example of New Journalism’s literary nonfiction. Author of books like “Thy Neighbor’s Wife,” “Honor Thy Father,” “The Kingdom and the Power” and “Unto the Sons.” His latest, “A Town Without Time,” was published Nov. 12.
Elizabeth Coleman White, the blueberry pioneer at Whitesbog who died in 1954. Her work made it possible for the blueberry to become readily available as an American crop and, eventually, the state fruit.
John Forbes Nash Jr., Princeton Junction, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 for his work on game theory and was the subject of the Oscar-winning film “A Beautiful Mind” based on the Sylvia Nasar book (Nash was played by Russell Crowe). Nash died at 86 in a car accident on the Jersey Turnpike in 2015 with his wife, physicist Alicia Nash (played by Jennifer Connelly in the movie), who became a mental health care advocate after John was treated for schizophrenia.
Avi Wigderson, computer scientist and mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. The Turing Award winner was introduced by Gov. Phil Murphy and first lady Tammy Murphy.
The Rev. Edwin D. Leahy, headmaster, St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark
Geraldine Livingston Thompson, Lincroft, a social reform pioneer and founder of the social services organization that became VNA Health Group (Visiting Nurse Association). She served 39 years on the state board of control, helped preserve Island Beach as a state park and donated hundreds of acres to the Monmouth County parks system before she died in 1967.
George Cooney, Bogota, chairman emeritus of EUE (Elliot, Unger & Elliot)/Screen Gems studios and former Columbia Pictures executive
Peter Cancro, Point Pleasant Beach, founder of Jersey Mike’s
Don Katz, Montclair, founder of Audible in Newark
Bob Guarasci, Englewood, founder of New Jersey Community Development Corporation, a community development and social service agency based in Paterson
Reva Foster, Willingboro, executive director, Community Affairs and Veterans Affairs
Andrew DeNicola, who spent 50 years as a music teacher at J.P. Stevens High School in Edison, where he was band director. DeNicola died in May.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at [email protected] and followed at @AmyKup.