HBO and The U.S. Comedy Arts Festival (USCAF) announced today that Goldie Hawn will be honored at the 12th anniversary of the prestigious comedy festival, to be held March 8th-12th in Aspen, Colorado.

Academy Award(R) winning actress and producer Goldie Hawn will receive the 2006 AFI Star Award. The award, presented annually at the USCAF, recognizes artists whose work represents excellence in film and television.

Past recipients include Albert Brooks, Jim Carrey, Billy Crystal, Diane Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin, Mike Myers, Rob Reiner, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, Monty Python and Robin Williams.

“I’m thrilled to have my AFI star in the same constellation as the previous recipients of this award,” said Goldie Hawn. “It is a true honor to be recognized by American Film Institute and the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, especially in one of my favorite places in the world.”

“Goldie Hawn is one of the very few people on a first name basis with the world,” said Jean Picker Firstenberg, CEO of the American Film Institute. “A gifted actor and a proud producer of both films and family, Goldie makes us smile, and there is no greater gift in the world today.”

Hawn broke into the national consciousness on Dan Rowan and Dick Martin’s Laugh-In (1968-1970), the top rated comedy on television. Cast originally as a dancer on the show, and known for wearing bikinis and having her body painted with jokes, she quickly proved herself a talented comedienne and actress.

Hawn made a successful jump to the big screen and won an Academy Award(R) for Best Supporting Actress for her acting debut in Cactus Flower (1969) with Walter Matthau. Immensely popular as a comedy star — she has twice co-hosted the Academy Awards (R) — Hawn has been able to shift seamlessly to drama.

In addition to starring in such notable comedies as Foul Play (1978) and Seems Like Old Times (1982) with Chevy Chase, The First Wives Club (1996), in which she co-starred with Diane Keaton and Bette Midler, Woody Allen’s Everyone Says I Love You (1996) and The Banger Sisters (2002), she also starred in Steven Spielberg’s directorial debut The Sugarland Express (1973) and Hal Ashby’s Shampoo (1975) with Warren Beatty.

As a producer, she has chosen to do television projects with a social importance including When Billie Beat Bobby (ABC 2001) and The Matthew Shepard Story (NBC 2001).

In 2005, Goldie published her memoir, “A Lotus Grows in the Mud,” which immediately became a New York Times bestseller and will be released in paperback March 1.” She is currently a part-time resident of Aspen.