Monday, January 12, 2015

The Golden Globes -- my review

First let me say the Golden Globes is to the Oscars and Emmys what the Rupert Pupkin Show is to THE TONIGHT SHOW. Especially this year. The nominations are staggeringly ridiculous and shows are in categories that bear no resemblance to the genres they belong in. So there is zero credibility and importance as to who wins.

Among the absurd snubs this year: THE WALKING DEAD, Tatiana Maslany, Lisa Kudrow, Julia Roberts, Maggie Smith, BIG BANG THEORY, MODERN FAMILY, MAD MEN, and SONS OF ANARCHY (well, everyone ignores that one). Meanwhile, Jennifer Aniston gets nominated for wearing a back brace for her part. That’s “acting.”

As a reminder, the Hollywood Foreign Press is a grand total of 89 critics, some of whom are literally waiters. People win these awards for being generous tippers. Considering members of the Hollywood Foreign Press can be bought, some of them might be NFL referees.

But let’s travel over the potholes on Wilshire Blvd. to the Beverly Hilton Hotel where the red carpet is just out of view of a construction site (“Would you like a hard hat, Ms. Blunt?”) to review last night’s sanctimonious Golden Globe Awards. Helping me this year is the comedy writing team of Annie Levine & Jonathan Emerson. They pitched in some lines and stopped me from changing the channel when F TROOP came on MeTV.

First up was the NBC Red Carpet show, anchored by Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie. Matt always looks so uncomfortable. And why not? THE TODAY SHOW is getting killed in the ratings and all the other network morning hosts are in Paris covering the major news story of the day while he’s in Beverly Hills (adjacent) interviewing George Clooney’s wife.

Amal Clooney is gorgeous but scary thin. You won him already. Eat something.

Matt fawned all over her, stating she is an accomplished attorney who has handled high-profile cases, and Jon wanted him to add, “But none of that matters because you’re now Mrs. Clooney.”

Lots of the stars were wearing lapel pins in support of Paris. I’m sure when they were issued a few weeks ago they were intended to be in support of Sony, the hacked studio.

Helen Mirren wore a fountain pen on her gown in support of “free speech.” Hollywood cares. On camera.

When Bill Murray was asked how he felt about being a double nominee he said it was “better than being a double amputee.”

Savannah asked Eddie Redmayne what his process was for becoming Stephen Hawking? Jon thought his answer should have been: “I sat down.”

Nice of Savannah to remind Matthew McConaughey that “LAST year was really your year.”

With that new beard and mustache, McConaughey looked like either a Civil War General or outfielder for the Boston Red Sox.

Yeah, now Matt & Savannah need Amy Adams. They didn’t a few weeks ago when they dumped her interview and NBC publicly claimed she was difficult. But on the red carpet they were practically licking her pumps. You could almost see the thought bubble over Matt’s head: “Why aren’t I in Paris?!”

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler again were the absolute highlight of the night with their opening monologue. Some great lines and their dueling Bill Cosby impressions were both hilarious and tasteless.
Unfortunately, after that – ten minutes into a three-plus hour ordeal, the laughs stopped. Nothing was particularly funny, even Tina & Amy. Their bit about the North Korean film critic not only died. But it was reprised and died three times. (In comedy we call that a Nakamura – a running bit that doesn’t work… again and again and again.)

I think Hollywood is finally starting to hate Ricky Gervais as much as America does.


Emma Stone looked like a table cloth got caught on the back of her dress.

Again, the nominees for each category were selected randomly. And there are so many genres lumped together in these categories that it’s impossible to keep everything straight. I apologize if I sometimes get confused as to who won what.

J.K. Simmons won for Best Foreign Film. Now that he’s a Golden Globe winner maybe he won’t have to star in a bad new NBC sitcom this year.

Speaking of “foreign films,” since this is the Foreign Press, aren’t American movies the ones that should be considered foreign?

Joanne Froggatt won for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, TV Movie, Stage Play, Musical, Puppet Show, Opera.

Jeffrey Tambor won for Best Actor and Actress for TRANSPARENT.

Naomi Watts looked like the world’s most delicious Easter Peep.

Half the show was winners trudging up the side stairs to the stage. It was like watching a security camera at LAX.

Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader were so unfunny I thought I was watching an old sketch from the CAPTAIN AND TENNILLE SHOW.

Every time they cut to Oprah she was overcome with emotion. I’m sure the tears were real when she lost. Poor Oprah can’t even win an award she can buy.

How come in the George Clooney film tribute they didn’t show him as Batman?

Show Business is so brave. They gave George Clooney a standing ovation for proclaiming: “We won’t walk in fear!” and yet NONE of them would sign his weenie petition last month denouncing Sony’s hackers. Forget the North Koreans, Hollywood is afraid of the Foreign Press.

Catherine Zeta-Jones came as a Catherine Zeta-Jones impersonator.

Amy Adams won for BIG EYES and thanked everyone but Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski, the two writers who found the project and toiled relentlessly for eleven years to get it made.

Best speech of the night was by Wes Anderson. Annie wondered if THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL won because people had mustaches.

Worst speech was Michael Keaton’s. I guess it was meant to be inspirational. You could come from a poor GRAPES OF WRATH background, brought up in a large family that struggled for every meal on the table. And still you could become a pretentious actor.

Prince and Claire Danes wore the same outfit. He at least pretended to be blind.

One of the Gyllenhaal’s won for something.

Kevin Spacey couldn’t find anyone to come with other than Kate Mara, the girl he killed in the season premier last year?

Most touching moment: Gina Rodriguez winning for JANE THE VIRGIN. Her acceptance speech was so heartfelt I felt bad that it wasn’t for a real award. I’d like to say this gives her show some much needed exposure but more people watch the CW than NBC.

Congratulations to Billy Bob Thornton for winning Best Animated Film for his work in FARGO.

Why didn’t they show Anna Kendrick? She looked stunning. Was she not wearing a solidarity pin?

Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda now have the same face.

They kept cutting away to Frances McDormand who looked like her husband had dragged her to a time share seminar.

Annie: I hate when writers give terrible speeches.

More people wrote BIRDMAN than appeared in it.

Jon thought Gwyneth Paltrow came dressed as Pepto-Bismol.

Keira Knightley’s print gown must’ve been an ode to her bug collection.

Did it seem like most of the winners had foreign sounding names or accents? Or was that just a coincidence?

Since there were no actual comedies nominated I forget which show won Best TV Comedy. Was it THE AFFAIR? Might have been. Or might as well have been.

I'll tell you what didn't win Best TV Comedy -- JANE THE VIRGIN, although ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY reported on its website that it did.  If you're going to screw up EW, at least report that SELMA won.  Oprah is so sad. 

And finally, in a salute to the big winner, BOYHOOD -- the show seemed like twelve years.

Look, the Golden Globes is a bogus fabricated TV “event” – much like the Pro Bowl. The best we could hope for is an entertaining fun silly show where shit-faced celebrities say things they shouldn’t and Salma Hayek has a wardrobe malfunction. But instead it was like attending Mitt Romney’s election night party.

Bring on the Oscars. Or even the Kids Choice Awards. They at least know that BIRDMAN isn’t a comedy.

73 comments :

  1. Every time they cut to Oprah she was overcome with emotion. I’m sure the tears were real when she lost. Poor Oprah can’t even win an award she can buy.

    She'll be back. She'll always be back until voters for the Golden Globes, Emmys, Oscars, MTV Movie Awards and Kids' Choice finally give her something so she can make a tearful 10 minute speech about how it's the greatest moment of her life and how by winning the awards she has changed the course of human history.

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  2. Why a Nakamura?

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  3. He'll always be Schillinger to me.

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  4. Jeremiah Avery1/12/2015 6:25 AM

    It is odd that Amy Adams won for "Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy" considering her movie is about the true story of a woman whose husband took credit for her artwork. Not exactly "funny" to me.

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  5. TRANSPARENT won best TV series, musical or comedy.

    And it deserved it, IMO (granted that it's probably at least half drama, not pure comedy - but none of the categories work well any more). BIG BANG THEORY may be more of a pure comedy, but it isn't nearly as funny as it was four years ago, and many weeks I struggle to find anything to laugh at in it. Last night's EPISODES premiere, on the other hand...brilliant!

    What is the evidence that the Golden Globes can be bought? Call it a Friday question: you've made this claim before, and I'm not sure what the basis is. Perhaps some history of the Golden Globes is in order?

    wg





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  6. Looks like Spacey will have to kill Cheadle in the next season of House of Cards, if we go by Lily Tomlin...

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  7. Wendy, there were accusations at the time that Pia Zadora's husband at the time 'bought' her a Golden Globe for "New Star of the Year" early in her career.

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  8. Johnny, Michael: Thank you. I will point out, FWIW, that outside the US, where newspaper and magazine budgets and staffing have always been much tighter, the thing of PR companies paying to fly journalists places to see things is widely accepted. The Independent, when it first launched in the UK, made a big thing of instituting a policy not to allow staff to accept freebies of this nature - and when it eventually hit financial trouble (long before the present Internet-fueled industry-wide troubles), it abandoned the policy. British journalists take great pride in the notion that such freebies do not compromise their critical ability, and given how savage they can be I'm inclined to believe them in most cases (my own familiarity with this is based on technology journalism). *However*, freebies *do* unquestionably compromise what gets written *about* - and IMO that makes a bigger difference than what is said, because it determines what's important (you could draw a comparison here to retained communications data and content versus metadata, but perhaps not for this audience...). So for the foreign press association to accept such largesse is probably more shocking to the American eye than to those who know how the press works in the rest of the world.

    That said, 89 is a very small number of voters!

    Still glad Tambor and TRANSPARENT won, though.

    wg
    I can't believe I have to do another captcha! It's a *penalty* for posting.

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  10. I will please like to mention that even with the ridiculous categories at least one of my favourite shows of 2014 got a couple of nominations.

    It is from the UK, and it is called The Missing. Absolutely amazing stuff. Don't let the subject matter put you off because the writing and acting is truly brilliant.

    The show tells the story across two storylines - then (2006) and now, and it is truly amazing to note that they filmed the now first, and then, they filmed the then.

    It aired on Starz in the US, the last episode aired there last weekend but I am told you can catch it on demand.

    The minute I saw Joanne Froggatt win, I knew the show had zero chance of winning any awards. :(

    I watched maybe the first 20 minutes, and then went off to do other things.

    Thanks for the excellent recap which was probably ten thousand billion trillion times more funny than the real thing! ;)

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  11. Emma Stone got stuck on a table cloth lol.

    We went to my parents' house last night and couldn't convince them to watch the Globes. So we watched Guy's Grocery Games and Worst Cooks instead. I'm not so sure we lost out on that.

    On top of that, I had no dogs in any of those fights. This has to be one of my worst years for seeing awards contenders. Usually, I've seen at least one. This year, bupkes. I'd rather watch/see the classics. There's just too many bad filmmaking habits going on in movies nowadays. Can't stand it. Give me a movie with some decent music for crying out loud instead of synth droning or drum crashes. Where's all the melody and eloquence gone from film scores? Oh right, it died with Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, and golfs with an under-employed John Williams.

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  12. Oh, and thank you for filling me in on why Helen Mirren was wearing a fountain pen.

    I was thinking maybe it was for signing autographs, silly me! :)

    I was also a bit worried that maybe it would leak, but I am assuming the ink was removed, which reduces the element of danger most heinously.

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  13. How does the best movie not have the best screenplay OR the best actor?

    Just what the hell are they basing their vote ON?

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  14. Charles H. Bryan1/12/2015 7:08 AM

    I couldn't agree more about the hypocrisy of people wearing pens and saying "Je Suis Charlie". (Y'know, it could be said in English; it really would mean the same thing, but it wouldn't give people a chance to show off a limited knowledge of French. Good thing it didn't happen in a country with a tough language.)

    The entertainment industry, so many times, couldn't be more cowardly. It caves in to complaints, it caves in to the Great Offended, it caves in to advertisers, it caves in to three schmucks in a focus group who don't like someone's ears. It sometimes doesn't like to hire talented, competent people with unpopular views.

    This is not to say that there haven't been instances of courage, but I don't think that there's a habit of it.

    The murdered Charlie Hebdo employees did their work knowing, based on previous attacks, that the threats were real. A few weeks ago Sony, who didn't know if threats were real, pulled its movie. Someone who wanted to express commitment to free speech should have pointed that out last night, should have pointed out that when some courage was called for, Hollywood ran out the back door.

    Sorry for the rant.

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  15. God, I really love your recap on Golden Globes.. very high level of sarcasm yet realyyy funny.. looking forward for your Oscars recap :)

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  16. There were funnier lines in this blog than the 10 minutes Tina and Amy did. I was disappointed. Funniest line was about Emma Stone and BIG EYES. The Cosby riff just didn't work for me and I think Tina knew it halfway through.

    I never cared for Lisa Kudrow or FRIENDS, but had free HBO this weekend and binge-watched THE NEWSROOM and discovered THE COMEBACK. Kudrow's character is hilarious/adorable/innocent/vain/oblivious. She should be up for an Emmy next year.

    Glad Kate Mara went with Spacey to the GG. Hope she wan't taking the subway home.

    Great recap of the night.

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  17. Me? I watched F TROOP.

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  18. Tina and Amy's talents were totally wasted. After the opening monologue, they weren't on stage for another hour and twenty minutes, and then all they did was that lame North Korea bit.

    Speaking of North Korea, have you noticed that when banks or major chain stores got hacked the news coverage was minor and lasted only a day or so but when Sony got hacked even President Obama had to address it publicly? Same with Charlie Hedbo. There have been terrorist attacks in the past in Europe and they have received some press, but let a branch of the media get hit and it's 24 coverage for a week.

    Finally, why are Netflix and Amazon Prime considered "TV"? The categories are jumbled, I grant you, but calling streams from a computer site "television" is like calling a Model T a fighter plane.

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  19. No, it's because when the bank was hit there were no demands that a movie be pulled that is critical of a dictator. Target merely lost some money and lots of customers were inconvenienced/robbed.

    Charlie Hebdo attack had rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs within a mile of Notre Dame.

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  20. Couldn't agree more with Charles H. Bryan.

    But for me, the high point of the evening was the appearance of Ricky Gervais. He served as a living reminder of the rank hypocrisy of all those preening, self-regarding moral cowards who were proclaiming "I am Charlie" and wearing their fashionably PC pen lapel pins. "We, like Charlie's staff, would rather die than silence a satirist for making jokes that offend the powerful! And now, please welcome the British satirist whom we fired as host of this very show for telling jokes that cut too close to home and offended some powerful, thin-skinned celebrities!"

    When they say, "We are Charlie," they must mean "We are Charlie McCarthy, and mouth anything our publicists want us to say."

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  21. Scooter Schechtman1/12/2015 7:48 AM

    Everyone talks about the Golden Globes but nobody does anything about it. Hollywood is Evil but it's such a hot, sweet lay.

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  22. I don't watch the Golden Globes, or any other awards show, for that matter. I could care less about sitting through three hours of the kind of self-congratulatory bullshit show business does so well.

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  23. I still think what happened to The Interview was a marketing stunt that went way out of control, in an attempt to give yet another Seth Rogen comedy some attention.

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  24. What bothers me, Eduardo, is that I don't find that at all hard to believe.

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  25. This is just fabulous and certainly makes up for Ken's poor movie choice selections on TCM. Several just great lines.

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  26. "Emma Stone looked like a table cloth got caught on the back of her dress." LOL
    Bummed I missed F Troop. Thanks for the "everything I was thinking" recap, Hilarious and true!

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  27. Not every American hates Ricky Gervais, Ken. I think he's hilarious and love much of what he's done. I was really hoping DEREK would win last night. Didn't watch, though--I'm not into self-torture.

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  28. So much truth in this piece Mr. Levine.

    Hollywood cherry picks "the truth" they want projected at that moment in time and that's what they demand be pushed in interviews and on their award shows, Their truth changes with the wind. Press reps make a fortune telling clients what they can and cannot say as told to them by studios who hire those reps at awards time. So there is no free speech in the entertainment industry. Hollywood creates their version of free speech which is why every film written has to be gone over by studio execs, actors, producers, directors and even agents who chime in on material.

    Wes Anderson lives in Paris and finances his films independently for a reason. The Cohen Brothers write, direct and finance their films without interference. By living and working outside the system they make a great product. And they begrudgingly showed up last night so they can get the next round of financing (usually foreign) for whatever they're doing. Small price to pay to not have to participate in the rest of the crazy.

    The bottom line is this business attracts sociopaths to run it and if you choose to be an artist in this system you will have to overlook or water down your vision. I think the The Golden Globes are the least offensive awards simply because they are openly crass and offensive. Think about it, they openly use Hollywood and Hollywood doesn't seem to care. The licensing fee alone last night to air the show on NBC keeps the HFP sitting pretty. Everyone on this blog could make up some awards tomorrow to give to Hollywood and in 10 years we'd be making millions and talented people would be standing at a microphone and weeping. It could be fun. The Ken Levine Awards. I'm there.

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  29. tiny fey is a funny person;
    amy pohler is a lucky one.

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  30. I did not like the Cosby joke.

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  31. I did not think Pohler and Fey, who I usually love, were funny. Watched Red Carpet on E. Ladder sticking up in the background was funny. Hostess offered to take tequila straight shot with George Clooney. By the way, I did like the zinger Tina had about how accomplished Clooney's wife was, yet George was receiving the lifetime achievement award.

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  32. Tina and Amy announced that they "decided" not to host next year. What was more cringe-worthy...the Cosby bit, or the people there acting like they had to laugh at it?

    The Cosby bit was a reprise of the bit they did in 2005 on SNL,when allegations first surfaced.

    Gone are the days when hosts tried to get you to laugh along with them. Now its about ridiculing you, and the crueler the better.

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  33. Nakamura.

    According to Ken Levine (whom I trust to know this stuff) it comes from a fictitious company used in TAXI.
    However, Vanity Fair's A TV Snob's Dictionary says it was a character's name on the ODD COUPLE.

    I believe Ken. And I don't recall ever seeing a Nakamura in any Odd Couple episode.

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  34. You know what bothers me is that you have all these dreamers and fast talkers on Done Deal where I found this link, who talk shit, but I never saw them at the Golden Globe Awards? Why does Done Deal attract losers and amateurs. Could you tell them to stop yapping and got and write a good TV show. I am waiting when I see a Done Deal guy on the Golden Globe Awards. Most on Done Deal are yappers and do nothing.

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  35. It was SO refreshing to hear Lily Tomlin say, "And the winner is." "And the [award] goes to." What kind of PC crap is that? I guarantee you, it doesn't make the other nominees feel any better!

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  36. I have my own theory on why the Golden Globe Award show exists. It's because the Oscar show has gotten waayyyyyyy to irrelevant, and the Tonys, well, like anyone cares in the first place. And the MTV Awards might've been relevant and something worth anticipating way back in the day when MTV was actually about music, but now they're just as irrelevant as everything else.

    It's all become pretty much nothing more than watching the Super Bowl just for the commercials.

    Bluh. But I guess network TV needs *something* to poke the dead bear on the side of the road these days.

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  37. But still, imagine the swag all those people are getting, even behind the scenes. Holy shit, I even saw a story where celebs get diamonds. For free! Holy shit!

    Now, imagine even more how the stars of shows like 'Eight Is Enough' and 'Mr. Belvedere' must be seething, since I'm pretty sure there were no 'People's Choice Awards' awesome shows back then. Best it got back then was maybe snagging the center spread in the 'Tiger Beat' magazine Awesome-Best Of The Year issue.

    Am I incorrect?

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  38. Fanstastic. Now we've got to worry about the USA getting bombed and hacked and Lord-knows-whats due to the Margaret Cho North Korean segment.

    Which, speaking as a consumer, wasn't even remotely funny.

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  39. @Canda said "Tina and Amy announced that they "decided" not to host next year."

    Yeah, and everyone in America "decided" that this paltry bullshit big-ass truckload of money really ain't worth it and we want more, dammit.

    Whatcha wanna bet they'll be back next year? They have agents.

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  40. From a guy-spectator's point of view, for me, Amy Poehler's globes were more golden than Tina Fey's. Just an observation. I don't pick their dresses.

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  41. Scooter Schechtman1/12/2015 11:31 AM

    Radman: Surely you're not blaming Ken for TCM's "Underground" broadcast of Chuck Norris' 1982 "Forced Vengeance" last week?

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  42. Ken Levine wrote: "Matt fawned all over her, stating she is an accomplished attorney who has handled high-profile cases, and Jon wanted him to add, “But none of that matters because you’re now Mrs. Clooney.”

    Imagine the head-exploding that would've gone on in that same exact situation on the red carpet with Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggion.

    Shit like this just also goes to the observation that Matt Lauer was just plain uncomfortable with the whole thing. Dude -- you're on assignment to do the fucking puff piece. So just collect your shit-ton of money for the day and take the helicopter ride home, man.

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  43. Ken Levin wrote: "With that new beard and mustache, McConaughey looked like either a Civil War General or outfielder for the Boston Red Sox."

    Or one of the dudes on a box of Dutch Mssters cigars.

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  44. I thought it was funny how they were running long and just rushed through the final, biggest-awards-of-the-night. "Here's Best Actress, ok, now best actor, ok, best movie, g'night!"

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  45. Bash the Golden Globes if you must, but perhaps you should stop and contemplate how they saved America from the far worse nightmare of NBC's regularly scheduled programming in that time slot.

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  46. Friday question: Will both Neil Simon and the creators of the 70's THE ODD COUPLE tv show get paid for the new remake or just Simon because he created the characters?

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  47. Metzger Field1/12/2015 1:18 PM

    Dez Bryant was robbed.

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  48. mock Jennifer Aniston all you want, I would marry her in a heart beat. Probably won't see this movie until after the wedding....

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  49. Wendy Grossman +1 on the EPISODES premiere. Knew they would cave on the script, but would never have guessed why!

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  50. keaton's ex-wife (and the mother of his son) was an actress (Caroline McWilliams) who died a few years ago. From what I gather, she was pretty much responsible for raising him, and then when she died, the father-son bond became closer then ever because that was their whole family. So I would cut Keaton a little slack there. The emotion did seem genuine.

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  51. I watch the Globes for the laughs and drunk actors and actresses. It wasn't as funny this year.

    For me the best line was Jeremy Renner's quip about J-Lo's globes. Yes totally tasteless and offensive, but very funny.

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  52. Can´t say I remember a Nakamura in TAXI either, though. Lol. Maybe I just wasn´t looking out for it... or maybe it got cut?

    Wendy, I´ve no idea why tour captchas are so torturous. I rarely have to type one in, and when I do, it´s always very basic. Odd.

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  53. Ken-
    BEST review of any show ever!

    I'm going to gather the waiters together and see if we can get you an award!

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  54. The only problem with Tina and Amy is that they disappeared for too long. I liked the Korea bit, especially when Cho criticized the category choices (much like yourself).

    Hader and Wiig had me in stitches, a highlight of a somewhat forgettable show featuring shows and movies I'll never see.

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  55. I'm not a rabbit1/12/2015 8:40 PM

    "As a reminder, the Hollywood Foreign Press is a grand total of 89 critics, some of whom are literally waiters."

    1. Here’s a Hollywood Foreign Press membership list (from http://www.hfpa.org/members/).
    Go ahead... finger the waitstaff hiding in their midst.
    2. Are you saying those receiving tips shouldn’t give them? If you can trust them on your haddock, why not on Vampire Academy ?
    3. Aren’t many in the "news" industry, and even (gasp) those working in TV/Film, sometimes forced into moonlighting ?

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  56. I appreciated the Cho/North Korean Dictator bit, if only because it was Cho reprising her bit from 30 ROCK. Although I wonder how many in the ballroom even picked up on that.

    I would also like to know if any of the people who audibly cringed at the Cosby jokes, were all wearing signs in support of Charlie Hedbo. Free speech is brave, unless it's about someone you may have worked with!

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  57. I think Johnny Walker should get a Golden Globe for posting a new pic. {Hey! That could become a new Golden Globe category: "Best still photo head shot taken of a celebrity"}.

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  58. You are spot on about Hader and Wiig. That was painfully unfunny.

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  59. There are a few reasons to watch the GGs. If you have HD, the crowd is filled with familiar faces from the films--you don't see this all that often. The show does expose some art films during slow period in Hollywood, and they seem to go out of their way to pick new TV shows and actors much faster than the Emmys or SAG awards. No TV show should be winning best show 5 years in a row unless it's Mary Tyler Moore level--and few shows are that good. I hate the Globes as a group--but it can make an OK entertainment on a cold January night!

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  60. The best aspect of the Golden Globes is that features TV shows and stars who normally get overlooked for an Emmy. For example, Jeffrey Tambor should've won an award many years ago. I normally like Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader together but their bit was just plain embarrassing. They knew they were bombing and didn't turn THAT into a funny bit. A skill that only Johnny Carson possessed, IMO.

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  61. What weird wins in odd categories. Do they just throw names in a hat and then put on a blindfold to pick winners out. Thanks for watching the GG's, that way I don't have to. Besides your review is funnier than the show might have been (had I watched it of course).

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  62. keaton's ex-wife (and the mother of his son) was an actress (Caroline McWilliams) who died a few years ago. From what I gather, she was pretty much responsible for raising him, and then when she died, the father-son bond became closer then ever because that was their whole family. So I would cut Keaton a little slack there. The emotion did seem genuine.

    I'm a little confused. Was Keaton's ex-wife also his mother?

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  63. @Johnny Walker: Captchas ... I rarely have to type one in.
    You've posted so many comments on this blog, you're on the guest list.

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  64. @Michael said...
    "Friday question: Will both Neil Simon and the creators of the 70's THE ODD COUPLE tv show get paid for the new remake or just Simon because he created the characters?"


    I believe Michael that Neil Simon sold the rights of any television series to Paramount (and thus to Viacom/CBS). He gets nothing for any of the TV series except "Based on the Play by Neil simon" credit.

    I can't believe they are dragging 2 funny actors into a new version that will be just embarrassing.

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  65. I think Johnny Walker should get a Golden Globe for posting a new pic. {Hey! That could become a new Golden Globe category: "Best still photo head shot taken of a celebrity"}.

    Now I'm confused :) Did I post a pic?

    @Mike: Clearly the key is post more!

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  66. Thanks for the House of Cards spoiler.

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  67. Ken, you should get combat pay for sitting through three hours of such drivel.

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  68. Ken you are so fucking funny!
    I almost choked when I read: "Prince and Claire Danes wore the same outfit. He at least pretended to be blind."

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  69. Wendy Grossman - +2. Episodes had me in stitches. The show has gotten even better this season. It is now my favorite comedy.

    I also enjoy Lisa Kudrow on Web Therapy (and Don Cheadle in House of Lies).

    Showtime has come into its own with its series.

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  70. Re: the reboot of "The Odd Couple"

    Matthew Perry, at least, isn't being dragged into anything. He claims he's been trying to get this reboot off the ground for several years now.

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  71. Enjoyed this recap. Second paragraph gave me a real good chuckle. Since my early 20s I've stopped watching all award shows. I find them all overrated. While it's nice to be honored and get dressed up, its just more marketing and celebrity that I can do without. I get enough of that in the daily news. However, I was happy to hear about Amazon's Transparent and Kevin Spacey's win and yes Sons of Anarchy gets no respect. Thanks for the recap. Keep them coming, it gives me another reason not to watch these shows. Holla!

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  72. "Did it seem like most of the winners had foreign sounding names or accents?"

    America consists of every ethnicity in the world; there are no "foreign-sounding names" or accents, as there are no languages not spoken by U.S. citizens. Respectfully, this is a somewhat thoughtless notion.

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