Friday, January 11, 2013

Hooray For The Golden Globes!


We're awash in the silly season of dubious awards shows. It's been said that Hollywood's "B" list celebrities will even attend the opening of a new parking lot just to collect an award, any award.
The Golden Globe Awards are in that category.
They're set up by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. All 93 members, that's what I said 93. A waiter at the Century Plaza hotel once told me he was a voting member.
So did a taxi driver in Burbank.
The GG members vote all kinds of awards and are considered the low trash alternative to the high and mighty Oscars.
I mean these awards are beyond hilarious --they're simply fun of a wild and crazy kind.
First of all there's the setting as celebs sit around tables and dwink and dwink. Some look smashed on air. Others totter up to the mike and totter off.
And as for the awards.
Remember Pia Zadora once won one of these as best newcomer. And whatever happened to her?
Other past winners include Esther Williams (for best Australian crawl I wonder), Jayne Mansfield, Karen Sharpe, Tippi Hedren, Marianne McAndrew, Carrie Snodgress, Stathis Giallelis, Desi Arnaz Jr.,  Joseph Bottoms and John Kerr.
Whew! You see what I'm getting at.
Then there's the "scandal" that erupted when it turned out you had to attend to win or somebody else would step forth to nab the statue.
From 1968 to 1974 NBC refused to telecast the event  --I was then at the Hamilton Spectator and remembered CHCH used to show the event weeks later after midnight (the tapes were literally bicycled around).
And then there are the winners. One of my all time faves Rosalind Russell won five of them although she never garnered an Oscar.
 Another perennial Oscar loser Angela Lansbury has six wins while Barbra Streisand has nine of them (and only one Oscar).
One good point about the Globes: acting nominations are divided into comedy/musical and drama.
So in 1983 Ben Kingsley won for drama (Gandhi) against Dustin Hoffman for comedy (Tootsie) while Metyl Streep won for drama (French Lieutenant's Woman) while Julie Andrews won for comedy/musical (Victor/Victoria).
But the real reason I watch is because viewers can get up close and personal with the stars whereas at the Oscars we can only see the first few rows in the cavernous Eastman theater.
Here we see them joking around, looking lost, desperately searching for a way to get out. In other words behaving more or less like ordinary people.
And by the next day you'll have totally forgotten who won or lost anyway.
THE GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS ARE ON NBC AND CTV SUNDAY JANUARY 13 AT 8 P.M.



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