It’s the most, wonderful time of the year!
Awards season is here! And as I said in the fall when the Emmys aired, I’m a sucker for awards shows. And there were two just this last week alone: Glorious! The Critic’s Choice Awards aired Friday and the Golden Globes aired Sunday.
And although there may be more pressing matters to write about this week — “American Idol” is back without Simon, and Regis is retiring — they’ll just have to wait while I recap what went down at this year’s Golden Globe Awards.
In what is dubbed the “fun, party” awards show — it’s the only one where alcohol is served — according to some, the fun was sucked right out of the show when Ricky Gervais, the evening’s host for the second year in a row started to bash on celebrities with some harsh, deep-cutting jokes. So much so, in fact, that he was not asked back next year.
I, on the other hand, thought the jokes were honest — and funny. In a span of five-minutes, topics included: Charlie Sheen; ‘The Tourist’ starring Jonny Depp and Angelina Jolie (“It seems like everything this year was in 3-D; except the characters in ‘The Tourist’ ”); Cher (“Do you want to go see Cher? No. Why? Cause it’s not 1975.”); Hugh Hefner and his new fiancé; and the age of the cast of “Sex and the City 2” (“I was sure the Golden Globe for special effects would go to the team that airbrushed that poster.”)
In his most controversial joke, Gervais nabbed on two famous scientologists (most likely John Travolta and Tom Cruise) — “ ‘I love you Phillip Morris’ didn’t get nominated either. It stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, two heterosexuals pretending to be gay; the complete opposite of two famous scientologists we know... My lawyers helped with the wording of that joke” — all to a sea of shocked faces and booing.
But it wasn’t until after taking a jab at the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association that Gervais slowly dwindled away from the show. After an hour-length gap with no host, Gervais reappeared sporadically and with only modest jokes.
NBC hired the host and should have known what they were getting themselves in for. Comedians don’t change their style just for some fancy-dancy award show. And I say Cheers to Gervais for a job well done.
But anywho, on to the winners.
Pleasant surprises: Katey Sagal winning Best Actress for a TV Series— Drama, for her role in “Sons of Anarchy.” I haven’t watched the show, but I’ve heard very good things about her performance. To transform her image of Peggy Bundy from “Married With Children” into a hardcore biker chick is hard to do, and I’m glad the academy recognized it.
Steve Buscemi wins Best Actor for a TV Series — Drama, for “Boardwalk Empire.” He’s one of the creepiest-looking actors out there, but I love every role he does. Nucky Thompson is no different. And Buscemi had a very humble acceptance speech.
Unpleasant surprise: The three awards that “Glee” took home: Best TV series — Comedy or Musical; Jane Lynch for Best Supporting Actress; and Chris Colfer for Best Supporting Actor.
I still don’t get what all the fuss is about “Glee,” and I refuse to think that “Glee” is better than “Modern Family” or that Chris Colfer is better than Eric Stonestreet, David Strathairn or Chris Noth, some of his fellow nominees. Jane Lynch I can live with — she’s quite funny — although Julia Stiles put up one heck of a performance in this season’s “Dexter,” so I wished she had taken the cake.
Funniest presenter: Robert Downey Jr. tackles the category of Best Actress — Comedy or Musical, with quick-wit and humor, as only Downey Jr. can do. Some exerpts of his speech: “I consider myself a veteran of sorts. And I have made some sort of study of this, tell me if I’m wrong. I don’t know if an actress can do her best work, until I’ve slept with her, Julianne,” he said, as he motioned toward Julianne Moore, nominated for “The Kids Are All Right.” And so on and so forth, with each nominee.
Downey then agreed that the nominees might be the exception that broke the rule, since they all put on great performances without ever having slept with him.
No surprise there: “The Social Network” took home the most awards of the night with four, including Best Motion Picture. There are a few haters out there who think “The Social Network” is getting way too much praise for a mediocre movie, but I’m not one of them. This movie deserves the title of Best Movie of the Year, and both Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher were worthy of their wins for Best Screenplay and Best Director, as
well.
“Toy Story 3” won for Best Animated Feature, raising the question: When was the last time a non-Pixar film has won this category? (Answer: Never. The category has only existed since 2006, and “Cars,” “Ratatouille,” “WALL-E” and “Up” all took home the award). And because it’s “Toy Story” — the first of its kind — the other contenders didn’t stand a chance.
Well-deserved awards: It’s about time Natalie Portman (Best Actress — Drama for “The Black Swan”), Christian Bale (Best Supporting Actor — Drama for “The Fighter”), Melissa Leo (Best Supporting Actress — Drama for “The Fighter”) and Colin Firth (Best Actor — Drama for “The King’s Speech”) snagged a win for their acting efforts. All are phenomenal actors, and I’m glad to see this was the year they finally got recognized.
You talkin’ to me? Robert De Niro picked up the Cecil B. DeMille award. And despite his rehearsed and trying-too-hard-to-be-funny speech, De Niro will always be good in my book.
Mark your calendars: Award shows coming up soon include the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards on Sunday, Jan. 30; the Grammys on Sunday, Feb. 13; and the Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 27. The latter is hosted by Anne Hatheway and James Franco.
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