The Golden Globes nominations were announced today. The standard year end best movies of 2012 made the list from “Argo” to “Zero Dark Thirty.” Instead of listing the nominees, I’m going at address an issue that the fearless and brave Nikki Finke of Deadline.com brings up. Here is a portion from her blog post this morning regarding the Globes:
“I refuse to treat these nominations with any seriousness…I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s a completely meaningless awards show from a scandal-riddled organization aired by a production company desperate for money on a network praying for ratings. That’s why I opt out of analyzing the nominations every year: because the Golden Globes have zero integrity. Studios and networks who lavishly lobby the HFPA almost always score nominations. Actors win in direct correlation to their glamour quotient.”
Oh, it gets better…
“The Hollywood Foreign Press Association isn’t as advertised. It’s actually a small motley group of 85 mostly freelancers who won’t grant membership to the real foreign journalists at the prestige media outlets across the world. The HFPA clique doesn’t want to dilute the financial bonanza it receives from the studios and networks who arrange exclusive interviews about each year’s movies and TV shows. Not only have legitimate journalists for years been attacking the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for its exclusionary membership policies and too-cozy relationship with studios and networks. But an Oscar-winning documentary director (Vikram Jayanti, in his 2004 film The Golden Globes: Hollywood’s Dirty Little Secret) has called the group a bunch of ‘freeloaders’ who know more about hors d’oeuvres than auteurs and select winners based on ‘who kisses butt best’.”
Nikki Finke brings up an excellent point. Remember when the Johnny Depp/Angelina Jolie ‘comedy’ “The Tourist” received multiple nods? All the speculation seemed obvious at that point. This is an awards show that shouldn’t be taken seriously. I try not to watch them!
This years only eye sore isn’t too bad: “Salmon Fishing in The Yemen” was nominated for three Globes: Best Actor and Best Actress in a Comedy (McGregor and Blunt) and Best Comedy. I didn’t hate it but its VERY far from being ranked as 2012’s best. It did have an unintentional hysterical moment: a fly fisher’s rod is used to thwart an attempted assassination by knocking the gun out of the terrorist’s hand. In that case, this movie is comic genius. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the intention of the filmmaker!
I will go out of my way to not mention the Globes this Awards Season, but they provide clarity for this time of year especially if all the movies begin to align. It’s hard to avoid them, but I will try my best. Too big to ignore? Not necessarily. Too scandalous to be taken seriously? Absolutely!
