Golden Globing

The list of nominees for the 64th Golden Globe Awards confirms what everyone already knew: This year's Oscars are a race between The Departed, Dreamgirls, Babel and Clint Eastwood's World War II combo Flags of Our Fathers/Letters From Iwo Jima.

Other than that, though, the Globes remain as trivial as ever. It's not just that the Hollywood Foreign Press - that mysterious, shadowy group of "journalists" who give out the awards - is made up of people no one has ever heard of before, thus rendering their verdicts meaningless. It is also that with so many categories in the competition, the Globes spread themselves too thin. It's like watching a prizefight where both of the contenders get to take home the belt.

At least the Globes telecast (which will air at 8 p.m. on Jan. 15 on NBC) tends to be livelier and zippier than the bloated Academy Awards broadcast. It would be amusing to see Sacha Baron Cohen win the Best Actor/Musical or Comedy trophy for Borat, and I'd actually pay money (like around $20) to hear Mel Gibson's acceptance speech if Apocalypto happened to win the award for Foreign Language film. Hey, it could happen.

Comments

[Juan B.]

I thought the Golden Globes had given Eastwood the shaft in the best-picture category, until I noticed "Letters From Iwo Jima" is up for best foreign film, just like "Apocalypto."

Me, I'm cheering for "The Queen" to pick up as many awards as possible. It's my favorite movie of the year. But I can't see them giving the best-director prize to Stephen Frears, especially when they seem to think his first name is spelled Steven.

[Brian Feldman]

I bet the Florida Film Critics Circle Awards (Golden Oranges) could be bigger than the Hollywood Foreign Press Awards (Golden Globes) if they (A) flew all the nominees out to Florida, (B) held the event at either The Breakers or The Biltmore and (C) were broadcast live on NBC.

And do you REALLY think the Academy will nominate BOTH "FoOF" and "LFIJ" as opposed to, say, "Little Miss Sunshine" (the "Sideways" slot)?

And I bet (nothing) that Sacha Baron Cohen WILL win a statuette (and hopefully accept in character)! (If Gibson wins, he better say something to the effect of "Hollywood Foreign Press Association is responsible for all the awards in the world.")