Ryan McNeil
Just curious – did anyone out there notice/wonder the lack of Golden Globe coverage on my blog? Anyone…anyone…Beuller…?
The reason why this space has been primarily GG-Free, is because I have become increasingly disenchanted with the Globes year-after-year, to the point where they now seem as manufactured an occasion as Secretary’s Day. (Sorry – Administrative Assistant’s Day). My full rant is just beyond the jump
You see, about five years back, i watched a fascinating little documentary called THE GOLDEN GLOBES: HOLLYWOOD’S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET. This piece of infotainment took a long hard look at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association – the voting body responsible for handing out those nifty bookends people like Sandra Bullock and Robert Downey Jr. were bequeathed Sunday night. See the HFPA aren’t really all that savvy a governing body to be handing out awards. Many of these so-called “press” members have day jobs, and just do the entertainment coverage on the side. So in essence, imagine if they gave someone like me a vote on what is supposed to be a major industry award. It’d be wicked-awesome for me and all…but no.
Making matters worse, is the fact that these part-timers are an absolutely star-struck posse. They live to meet and schmooze with celebrities. Photo ops and autographs are the norm, and part of the reason why they hold these awards is so they can collect all these pretty people into one place. Not that this mattered much for the first fifty years or so of the Globes’ existence.
Then around the early 90’s a shift occurred. Dick Clark thought having all these pretty people in one place was a goldmine, and started getting the ceremony televised on NBC. That was about all she wrote – the Globes went from being a joke, to a major event on the calendar. problem is, the HFPA didn’t realize that they were all growns up. They just kept on going along, handing out awards in a truly puzzling manner.
Just how crazy is the Globes history? Consider this – Meryl Streep (though admittedly talented) has the most Globe nominations with twenty five. Twenty five effin’ times! Not convinced? What about the year there was a three-way-tie for Best Actress…yes, it actually happened (1988, Look it up). Still not convinced?? Then please recall that this is the awards ceremony that when faced with the WGA strike, cancelled the actual gala because it couldn’t be televised and swapped it out for a press conference.
Dear friends, The Golden Globes grow increasingly meaningless. They are voted upon by one hundred or so anonymous star-fucker fans, and only hold any sort of merit because we continue to tune in. Thus I stand by my position. I no longer care one lick about who gets nominated or wins a Golden Globe. The only reason I have any interest in it at all, is to see what happens when you get that many celebreties in a room and let them drink during the ceremony.
Okay now breath,
Is it really that much worse than other award ceremonies? How many academy members do you think actually see the films they are voting for?
Still it sounds like a plan. If I could just work out a TV deal for the Groover Awards….
The only problem Monica Bellucci and Penélope Cruz would get nominated every year even if they didn’t have a movie out!
Yeah these are just comical. They usually get the gimme awards (Like Mo'Nique and Christoph Waltz), but when they're asked to actually put real thought into the winners they just do it like an election for judge: vote by party (or in this case producer/director).
I think all award ceremonies are just ways for celebrities to indulge their friends, even the Oscars. The reason we watch and are so addicted is that hope springs eternal- every year we hope they'll be a little bit closer to making the right choices and not the choice that would make the most money. And most of the time we're wrong, but it's fun to be condescending, so people keep on watching.
It struck me particularly strange on sunday how small the circle of Hollywood people really is and how everyone knows each other. People have gotten nominated (and won) so many times. Its always the same people and then they invite some new people just to cover up. And they have to give a couple of awards to "unexpected" winners. It is all very strange.
@ Number Six… Yeah, actually it is. The reason it's worse, is because unlike other awards that are voted on by an academy of industry workers, including the artists themselves…the HFPA are people who watch *some* movies and write about them.
They're fans with a soapbox, which is why this whole event is really just a sliver above The People's Choice Awards.
@ Univarn… Amen.
@ Movie Mistress… You're right – most awards manage to screw things up, even Oscar who have a spotty track record themselves. Like I mentioned, what gets me particularly grumpy is how this one event on the Hollywood circuit gets so much undue weight.
@ Vanessa… That strangeness you noticed is what I'm talking about. From year to year it's the same smiling stars every time.
I guess I'm just getting especially bored by it.
“They're fans with a soapbox” so are we, they just have a bigger better soapbox then us!
I think the Golden Globes this year were terrible.
Mo'Nique and Jeff Bridges were the only winners who truly deserved their awards.
I remember first hearing about the Golden Globes as a sort of pre-Oscar award show indicator, and had never seen it on television until this year (and even this year, I only watched maybe about 45 minutes of it). Nearly everything I've read about the show includes the observation that it's funny to see stars get drunk on TV. I could take that or leave it.
One thing that I've noticed, and I'll probably write something more specific about this on my blog come Oscar time, is that award shows are becoming unbearably masturbatory and self-congratulatory. The parts of the Oscars I've always enjoyed most are the parts that honour cinema as an enduring art form – the clips, the thematic assemblages, and honouring those who have given their life to the industry. Last year those were largely shoved into the background so the actors could jerk each other off.
From what I saw of Gervais, he was great and funny in his observations about how much these shows really matter in the grand scheme of things. I think that great films of the year should be recognized and done so publicly, but a lot of the superficial baggage that comes along with that is tedious.
Good piece, my friend.
I didn't watch a minute or cover them at all, either. I'd rather watch the Independent Spirit awards; now those are a good time (and feel much more authentic).
@ Number Six… So the size of one's soapbox dictates the fake importance of one's awards? 😉
@ Sage… Christoph Waltz too!
@ Joel… Don't get me wrong, artistic awards are by nature self-congratulatory. I'm usually more intrigued by nominee lists than by actual winners.
This one, as you saw in the breif 45 minutes, is especially nutty. It's fun to watch the stars get sauced, but that wears off.
Funny you mention montages and retrospection. I like such things myself, but find that award shows have never been able to find the right note for those. Oscar especially tends to go with reels that are too obvious and/or too repetitive. (I believe a few years back, host Jon Stewart made a joke that they had officially run out of montage footage).
@ Fletch… Love the Independent Spirit Awards! Too bad they don't get more coverage.
Whenever I start freaking out about the Globes I think that Katharine Hepburn, who is more or less a legend in the business has won ZERO Golden Globes. I will admit I like their choices sometimes, but I suppose you have to take the good with the bad.
It's not that Meryl Streep doesn't dish out great performances consistently. She does, but for fucks sake how many times does she need to be in the same effing category with herself? It's nonsensical.
I like the Globes because Clooney sometimes gets drunk as is funny, and because I'm a girl and I like to see what everyone wears, but the bullshit of the awards means absolutely nothing to me, and while Oscar (what I call the "serious" awards) fails to get things right too often, at least has some form of merit where the Globes are a clusterfuck of nonsense.
" The only reason I have any interest in it at all, is to see what happens when you get that many celebreties in a room and let them drink during the ceremony."
Well said Hatter.
@ Andrew… If we start talking about legends that have come up empty come award time, we could be here for a while. (Remind yourself that aside from a lifetime achievement award, Alfred Hitchcock has no Oscars).
I do indeed take the good with the bad, but I'm hoping that sooner or later the movie-going world at large starts paying less attention to The Golden Globes.
@ Heather… Well said. Funny thing is, Streep herself has defied people to name one great film she's been a part of.
…I can't name one – can you?
As for stars on the sauce, the zenith of this year's ceremony had to be Brendan Fraser, who seemed to be laughing a bit too hard a bit too often.