I'd bet that after his caustic performance emceeing the 68th Golden Globe Awards this past Sunday, Ricky Gervais won't be invited back for a hosting three-peat.
Personally, I loved him, but the room definitely didn't. While his numerous humorous barbs touched on Charlie Sheen's recent hotel tirade, Mel Gibson's notorious anti-Semitism, Hugh Hefner's newest fiancée, Robert Downey Jr.'s past transgressions and even the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association himself, I doubt it was any of these that really doomed Gervais' chance to return. Rather, it was his ridicule of the Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp film ""The Tourist"" and the nominations it received, because, in doing so, Gervais was really calling attention to the Golden Globe's dirty little secret—they don't really matter, or, at least, they are a lot less prestigious than the HFPA wants people to believe.
For those who didn't watch, here is what Gervais actually said: ""It was a big year for 3-D movies. Seems like everything this year was three-dimensional, except the characters in ‘The Tourist.' I'm jumping on the bandwagon ‘cause I haven't even seen ‘The Tourist.' Who has? I'd like to squash this ridiculous rumor going around that the only reason ‘The Tourist' was nominated was so the Hollywood Foreign Press Association could hang out with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. That is rubbish. That is not the only reason. They also accepted bribes.""
The HFPA is an organization of journalists who write about the U.S. film industry for a wide variety of press outlets in foreign countries. While the average viewer likely considers the Golden Globes to be almost on par with the Oscars in terms of prestige, the reality is that the two are in totally different leagues.
The Academy Awards are voted on by members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences including actors, directors, writers and cinematographers, people who actually make movies. But the Golden Globes are voted on by foreign journalists—outsiders who for the most part have no experience inside the actual Hollywood film industry other than writing about it. Furthermore, while over 6,000 Academy members vote for Academy Awards, only 90 people vote for the Golden Globes. And those 90 are notoriously easy to sway with big names and invites for intimate press coverage—doubtlessly what resulted in the critically panned, box-office failing film ""The Tourist"" snagging three nominations. In case the best picture nomination didn't stick out enough already, the movie was inexplicably nominated in the ""Comedy or Musical"" category despite being billed as a ""Thriller."" And while ""The Tourist"" was being needlessly praised, the HFPA also managed to snub several of the year's best pictures and performances that will hopefully get the limelight during the Academy Awards.
""True Grit"", another masterpiece from the Coen Brothers and undoubtedly one of the best films of the year did not garner a single nomination from the Globes. ""True Grit"" was likely a victim of the HFPA's notorious international-bias. Even though their entire foundation is writing about American film, the HFPA has always seemed to have a soft-spot for foreign stories and, as such, the unequivocally-American ""True Grit"" probably didn't earn their praise because it was too American, which is a damn shame.
Taking this into account, I was actually surprised that ""The Social Network"" won Best Motion Picture - Drama, even though it is my pick for Best Picture at the Oscars. My reasoning here was that ""The King's Speech,"" a British historical drama, just seemed more inline with the HFPA's voting tendencies. In the last five years only one of the films that won Best Picture at the Golden Globes, ""Slumdog Millionaire"" in 2008, went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars. Last year the Globes picked ""Avatar"" over ""The Hurt Locker;"" in 2007 they picked ""Atonement"" over ""No Country for Old Men;"" in 2006 they picked ""Babel"" over ""The Departed;"" and in 2005 they picked ""Brokeback Mountain"" over ""Crash."" So while the Golden Globes have traditionally been viewed as a forerunner to the Oscars, the reality is that recently they have been anything but. Let's just consider them a guilty pleasure.
Would you be friends with Ricky Gervais after Sunday Night? Tell Dave at dcottrell@wisc.edu.
