Golden Globe Reactions

Uri
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Post by Uri »

Now I know why I've never bothered seeing any of this guy's movies.
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Post by Damien »

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Apatow joins in the criticism of Gervais' controversial Golden Globes jokes.

Producers Guild Awards host Judd Apatow built his opening monologue around a profanity-laced attack on the way Ricky Gervais handled his Golden Globe Awards hosting chores a week earlier in the same room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

What did you think of Ricky Gervais?” he asked the black-tie industry crowd Saturday night. “I didn’t like him. I thought he was mean.”

Apatow, whose movies include The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, knocked Gervais for his controversial jokes.

“He had that joke about the guy on Lost,” said Apatow. “He said he ate everybody else. Let’s be honest -- Ricky Gervais just lost weight. Even now he’s four pounds away from not being allowed to do a joke like that. Did he lose weight just to make fat jokes? You think that’s how mean he is?"

Apatow had no problem with a Gervais joke about Charlie Sheen.

But Apatow added, “(Jay) Leno did it the week before."

“I think he’s an OK target," Apatow said of Sheen. "The people at CBS have said as long as he shows up on time, knows his lines, he can do whatever he wants.”

However, Apatow took exception to Gervais making a joke about The Tourist.

“(Gervais) says the characters were two-dimensional,” said Apatow. “Then he says he hasn’t seen The Tourist. So as a comedian, that’s not fair, is it? To make jokes about a movie you haven’t seen.

"I can’t do a joke about (Gervais’s movie) The Invention of Lying because I haven’t seen it. You haven’t seen it. None of us have seen it. So the joke would not work.”

Apatow also came to the defense of Cher, Hugh Hefner, Tim Allen, Tom Cruise and Robert Downey, Jr. - others who were Gervais targets.

"(Gervais) made a joke about Tim Allen who was standing next to Tom Hanks," said Apatow. "Who looks good standing next to Tom Hanks? We all look like a piece of shit standing next to Tom Hanks. Warren Buffet would look like a piece of shit next to Tom Hanks.

"Tim Allen did 200 episodes of Home Improvement. He was in three of the highest grossing movies of all time. And his latest just crossed the one billion mark. Whereas The Invention Of Lying made $18 million dollars worldwide...Leave Tim Allen alone.”
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
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Post by Big Magilla »

I'm sure the presenters were in on the jokes, but according to Philip Berk, HFPA President, as per the Hollywood Reporter, nobody at the Network, the HFPA or Dick Clark Productions reviewed Gervais' comments in advance of the show. "That's not how Ricky works. I had no idea what Ricky was going to say." Even if they had been, what would have stopped him from ad libbing?

The HFPA's official statement reads: "We loved the show. It was a lot of fun and obviously has a lot of people talking. When you hire a comedian like Ricky Gervais, one expects in-your-face, sometimes outrageous material. Certainly in this case he pushed the envelope, and occasionally went too far. The HFPA would never condone some of his personal remarks." They didn't comment on any of Gervais' jokes about the HFPA itself.

Former HFPA Presidnet Hemlut Voss said "He made the mistake of confusing an awards show with a roast."
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Post by Okri »

Those three seemed fine with the quips, actually. Bruce Willis looked like he was trying not to laugh a little.

That said, he just wasn't that funny. He went for easy targets the whole night. I did find the Betty Ford joke in poor taste, was pleased with Downey's rejoinder, than annoyed that his joke went on for ever (though loved the punchline with Stone).

Other than that.... just not a great night.
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Post by Damien »

Sonic is absolutely right. Having been at rehearsals for the Oscars, I can guarantee you that on Saturday or early Sunday, there was a dress rehearsal for the Globes. And Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen et al would have heard Ricky Gervais's quips then and there. If they had any problems with them, that would have been dealt with then and there. And those quips were encoded on the Teleprompter. Plus, the Globes have a closed three-hour running time (as opposed to the open-ended Oscars) so that if Gervais was ad libbing and not following a script, it would have wrecked havoc on the show's time frame schedule. (If anyone did complain to the Foreign Press people after the show, it was presumably folks associated with Tom Cruise.)



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Post by Damien »

Sonic Youth wrote:Tilda Swinton looks like Tintin in a dress
ROTFLMAO! :D
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Post by Sonic Youth »

I watched the ceremony yesterday, and my reaction to Gervais is: seriously, people, get over it? Please?

I don't know, maybe I would have had a different reaction had I watched it live when the impact was at its rawest. But it's not like we've never heard these sorts of jokes before, or told them among our friends or even posted them here. Gervais is in the grand tradition of insult comedy, like Don Rickles and Joan Rivers or Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman. Ah, but there's an inexcusable difference! These insult jokes are usually told behind the celebrities' backs. Gervais skewered Hollywood's elite right in their faces! (My mother is still appalled at his "disgraceful" conduct.) To which I say: Ricky Gervais is a professional, as are the producers of the Globes broadcast. His jokes weren't kept in a safe hidden from view until fifteen minutes before broadcast. They were gone over with producers and very likely with the targeted celebrities themselves. If Bruce Willis had a serious problem with the line "Ashton Kutcher's dad", I doubt it would have been used. That Bruce Willis came out all flustered was part of the show's overall concept.

And when I read commentary on the message boards as they were posted in real time, or idiotic articles like the one by Rob Shuter below, all I can think is how so many people were had (which, I believe, was the idea). Read that Shuter article, and you'd think a spontaneous drama was playing out between Gervais and Robert Downey, Jr. Read some of the other commentary - both professional and on the message boards - and you'd think the Globe president's threat was made in earnest, or that Hanks and Tim Allen insulted him back because they were fed up with him. Gervais is being interviewed by <s>Larry King</s> Piers Morgan on CNN tomorrow. Don't be suprised if he makes the shocking revelation that those zingers Downey, Jr., Hanks & Allen, and the president of the Globes let loose were written by Gervais himself.

I have no doubt that the audience was legitimately uncomfortable, and I'll even buy the rumor that some actors' "representatives" complained. But I doubt they were representatives of any actors whom he mocked. More likely, they were concerned friends or colleagues calling on behalf of the besmirched stars in question. Well, they got taken too. I don't care how many outraged quotes anonymous HFPA members are able to fabricate. They love it that this Globes broadcast is being talked about more than any other. Gervais will be asked back next year.

Now, to get the superficial shit out of the way:

Christian Bale looks like George Harrison, circa 1973; Steve Buscemi looks like Martin Landau, especially with those glasses; Tilda Swinton looks like Tintin in a dress; and Geoffrey Rush looks like he's auditioning for "The Isaac Bashevis Singer Story". When those latter two presented an award together, I almost went blind. I've never seen two paler, Vitamin D-deprived people in my life.

As for the races themselves, I really have nothing to say. I'm noticing people are saying how bored they are with this year's season. I've been trying to avoid following the precursors because more often than not the excitement is gone by the time the nominations are announced. Anyway, it's impossible to avoid them completely. You do pick up things, whether you mean to or not. I couldn't tell you who has won what, but I knew "The Social Network" won a boatload of critic's prizes and that Natalie Portman is the frontrunner for her category, etc. I didn't know that "True Grit" was shut out of the Globes completely, and that was a legitimate surprise for me. But since I'm now reading and hearing how boring the race is and the Globes only confirmed how predictible it was this year, then I guess watching the Globes put a damper on surprises for me also. Oh, well.




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Post by Franz Ferdinand »

Right-wingers praise Gervais insults
By PAUL BOND, Hollywood Reporter

LOS ANGELES - British comedian Ricky Gervais is the new darling of political conservatives thanks to the fusillade of insults he directed at the aghast celebrities attending the weekend's Golden Globe Awards.

Delighted at the sight of Gervais belittling Hollywood elitists who they maintain do likewise to them regularly, the right-wing blogosphere lit up with positive reviews, even while more traditional media was critical of Sunday's telecast.

Had Gervais "been as relentless in ripping apart Sarah Palin, her young children, Jesus Christ or George W. Bush, today the comedian would be celebrated as 'edgy' and 'courageous'," noted John Nolte, editor of the Andrew Breitbart website Big Hollywood.

Instead, the Washington Post said Gervais "crashed" and the New York Times said he was "merciless" and in "bad form." Philip Berk, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the event's organizer, said some of the things Gervais said "were totally unacceptable."

Nolte, though, likened Gervais' jabs at various actors and the HFPA as a much-needed "sucker punch" leveled against elite bullies who do likewise to middle America on a routine basis.

At Pajamas Media, a conservative and libertarian news organization, CEO Roger Simon wrote that Gervais "has been roundly attacked for being rude to practically everyone, including the HFPA, whose event it was. Problem is: he was right, particularly about the HFPA."


The U.K's right-leaning Daily Mail weighed in via a lengthy, positive analysis of Gervais' performance that was headlined: "Bravo, Ricky Gervais! A risque' attack on self-loving Tinseltown."

"The flock didn't know what to do because it had never encountered such risky mockery," author Quentin Letts wrote, praising Gervais for his rebellious performance.

"Hollywood and its power brokers hate a rebel. It is a place of groupthink and almost terminal political correctness."

On Sunday night Gervais earned himself a cult following around the world, Letts opined, as "the man who went to Hollywood and told them what a bunch of self-regarding boobies they are."
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Post by dylanfan23 »

My feelings on the show mirror a lot of you folks. I'm having a hard time getting enthusiastic about this season. For a few reasons. One being things are getting more and more predictable year after year and i think thats a trend thats only going to continue and only us are going to care about. No more are we going to have critics voting without knowing who the frontrunners are. I think a trend going forward will be that the oscars as the most unpredictable awards of the season(kinda like the britsh academy noms). But not all that unpredictable either. The other reason i was unenthusiastc about the globes is because i kinda like all the predictable winners. I liked the facebook movie very much. I thought the director and writer did it justice. I thought firth gave another in a long line of good performances. I thought portman brought what was needed to black swan to make it as compelling as it could have been. I thought bale gave the best supporting performance of the year and i've been big a fan of leo's for years and she gave another solid performance. Are they the 4 i would vote for, no except for bale. But i can't argue with any of them and they are all in my top 5 and not going anywhere. I never cared too much for the speeches but they were all fine. The tv awards were either very good or very bad. Glee being the bad...linney and pacino being the good. Deniro was weird...not being sentimental at all about getting an award like that showed a lot of disrespect for the group...but i kinda have always disrespected the group myself. And a few of his jokes hit well. I thought downey was the funniest presenter in every way, with his ripping back at gervais and his whole thing with the actresses. Carrell and fay were great too. I thought gervais was outstanding in every way. A little awkward at times but thats not a bad thing. Couldn't get where he was going without laying a few eggs in the wrong direction. I'd rather they be in that direction than the safe steve martin direction. I hope the rumors of him not being invited back are false, or else go back to no host. Because i don't know if it will be good for anyone to follow ricky.
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Post by anonymous1980 »

From Ricky's blog:
I enjoyed the Globes more this year. I think I had better gags. More along the lines of the Mel Gibson one last year.

Obviously the rumour that the organizers stopped me going out on stage for an hour is rubbish. I did every link I was scheduled to do. The reason why the gaps were uneven is because when I got the rundown I was allowed to choose who I presented to. I obviously chose the spots that I had the best gags for. They couldn't move around the order but I could move around however I wanted.

All the same conspiracy theories as last year too... "So and so was offended"... "hasn't been invited back yet"... exactly the same as last time. "Paul McCartney was furious"... no he wasn't. And nor was Tim Allen and Tom Hanks. I was drinking with them after.

Why do people have to embellish? They're allowed to say they hated it. They're allowed to say they didn't find it funny, that it was tasteless, over the top, or whatever. But why do they speculate and make stuff up?

Don't worry, I know the answer. Because it's more interesting than "it went fine and some people won some awards and then went to a party". But that's all that happened.

Actually, I see what they mean. Boring. So here's what really happened. Bruce Willis and Sly Stallone started a fight with me but Alec Baldwin and Mark Walberg stepped in and helped me out. That's what happened.
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Post by Kris »

anonymous wrote:"For sure any movie he makes he can forget about getting nominated.
So they're basically admitting that getting a Globe nomination/win isn't based on merit at all. Good to know.
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Post by Mister Tee »

It could also be that this article is like a Politico story that quotes all sorts of Anonymous Democrats saying how unhappy they are -- confirming the narrative pre-established by the media, offering no on-the-record evidence.

I mean, seriously -- do people still take anonymously sourced articles like this seriously? It could be totally an invention on the writer's part. Or a wildly overstated version of what three people said.
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Post by Big Magilla »

I think Tom cruise before John Travolta. Cruise has a record of being litigious. Travolta stories pop up all the time and you never hear him complain. Allen I can't see being that thin-skinned. Downey's presentation was pretty mean spirited itself, so it would be kind of like the pot calling the kettle black.

Hugh Hefner and his sixty year younger bride-to-be? Maybe.

It's also possible that none of the stars who were butts of Gervais' jokes were all that offended - as they say, any publicity is good publicity. It could be the other Scientologists whose reps did the complaining.
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Post by Sonic Youth »

anonymous wrote:To make matters worse, Ricky's last words in the telecast were, "Thank God for making me an atheist." Smooth move!
Scandal. *yawn*

Maybe they can get Armond White for next year?
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Post by OscarGuy »

My guess is the complainers were: John Travolta, Robert Downey Jr, Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt, and especially Tim Allen.
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