Cameron Diaz pays tribute to late dad Emilio

Actress asks fans to celebrate his movie cameo

Friday, 3 October 2008

Cameron Diaz made a speech about her late dad at a special screening of There's Something About Mary.

The actress, 36, was attending the Target Presents AFI Night At The Movies in Hollywood, when she paid tribute to Emilio, who died from pneumonia in April.

‘My daddy's in this movie for two seconds,’ Cameron told the audience at ArcLight Cinemas.

‘My father just passed away recently. He's the dude when Ben Stiller is leaving the jail and all the guys run afterwards – my dad has the long black-silver hair down to here who's hamming it up in the front.’

And Cameron was keen for Emilio to have his moment in the spotlight.

‘That's my dad, so would you all just say hi to him, because it's one of the few moments that we have of him immortalized on film,’ she added.

She stayed to watch the first minutes of the film but left before her father’s on-screen performance.

Jim Carrey, Steve Martin and Denzel Washington were also among the stars who presented screenings of some of their classic roles.