Mike Nichols on wife Diane Sawyer: 'She's pretty perfect'

Mike Nichols maintains a very active career, but he can't stand to be away from Diane Sawyer for more than one night ... if even that.

This week is a good example, since it began last night (Monday, May 24) with the weeknight "ABC World News" anchor on location to report on the oil spill in Louisiana -- away from her New York-based husband, the Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning stage and screen director responsible for such movie classics as "The Graduate" and "Carnal Knowledge."

"I'll go downstairs with her and we'll have a long hug before she leaves," Nichols tells Zap2it, "then she e-mails me that the plane is taking off. And she'll e-mail me again later that she's on her way back from LaGuardia [Airport].

"We can't be separated very long, but we're used to it, and we do the best we can when we are. She's pretty perfect."

Sawyer's shift change from her previous "Good Morning America" schedule to "World News" duty has been "paradise," in Nichols' view: "Our hours are finally relatively normal. We adapted very nicely and there was no complaint, but getting up at 3:40 a.m. is a very distinct experience as the years go by. Now, it's just great."

Nichols is this year's recipient of the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, an event TV Land will show Saturday, June 26. Rather than that honor being the capper to his career, the former comedy-performing partner of Elaine May considers it fuel to propel him into projects he's currently planning.

"I have such things on the horizon," Nichols says, "but they have no meaning until they exist. It's getting particularly exciting now, because three things look very imminent, rather than a year away. The real reason you wish you were shooting is that you can turn everything else down."

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