Actress Kerry Washington heading to Harvard for pudding pot

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Actress Kerry Washington is going to Harvard to collect her pudding pot.

Washington had been named Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals Woman of the Year and will be feted with a roast and parade through Harvard Square in Cambridge on Thursday.

Washington is the first black woman to headline a network TV drama since 1974 as crisis management specialist Olivia Pope on the hit show "Scandal." She has earned Golden Globe, Emmy and SAG nominations as well as an NAACP Image Award for best actress.

Washington was selected because she's a "talented and socially engaged film, TV and stage actress who keeps breaking barriers in Hollywood."

Previous winners include Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor. Amy Poehler won last year.

Hasty Pudding is the nation's oldest collegiate theatrical organization.