Golden Globes

[sandik]

Here's a link to the nominations -- who's seen what, and what do you think?

nominations

[dirac]

Thanks for posting, sandik. The Golden Globes aren’t the most meaningful awards in the world and are unreliable Oscar predictors, but the show itself tends to be entertaining, so I usually watch.

I can’t comment much on the feature films currently nominated because many of them haven’t been released in my area yet. The Hurt Locker was good, Inglourious Basterds rather less so.

It has not been the strongest year overall IMO, so it will be interesting to see how the Academy fills out its list of ten, count 'em, ten Best Picture nominees this year. I’m rooting strongly for Jeff Bridges to win every award in sight. I don’t have to see Crazy Heart to know he’s good and he deserves to feel the love this year. Unless there’s some kind of surprise Christoph Waltz is going to win Best Supporting in a walk.

I’m hoping that House wins in the Best Television Series – Drama category because the cable series have really been hogging the awards in recent years and House deserves more recognition than it’s received, much as I like Mad Men and Dexter.

[dirac]

A piqued Brad Pitt and the missus will not attend the ceremony.

But the actor has decided against attending the event on 17 January (10) with his superstar partner, because he was not given a nod for his role in the film, according to Jolie's stylist Jen Rade. Rade tells E! Online, "They're not going because he's not nominated individually. 'Inglourious Basterds' is, but not him."

[cubanmiamiboy]

dirac, can't agree with you more about "House"!-(BTW, the ONLY TV show I watch, after ER was canceled). And I LOOOVE Hugh Laurie AND his character. I really hope he wins, along with the show. As per the films, I only saw "Precious"-(from which I predicted a winning Mo'nique)-and Almodovar's "Broken Embraces" -(pretty much in the same line of his "Law of Desire". , but still...this is a director whose films I always look for...and from which I have had only a couple of disappointments..."Kika", for instance...). Right after I'm done posting this I will be on my way to the movie theater to see "A single man". Will report back.

[dirac]

Thanks, cubanmiamiboy. The medical plotlines on House can be a little Out There but I still like the show, although I stopped watching TV medical dramas as a rule years ago -- too much repetition.

Broken Embraces is still playing in my vicinity but I’m not sure if I’m going to see it because as you say it sounded to me like a retread. (On the other hand I’m sure it’s still twice as good as anything else out there.) I am deeply suspicious of what Tom Ford will do with A Single Man, a book I like, so I would really like to hear your take on it when you do see it.

[dirac]

And I LOOOVE Hugh Laurie AND his character. I really hope he wins, along with the show.

I forgot to add to my previous post that Laurie is my main reason for watching the show. Robert Sean Leonard, too - he and Laurie are surprisingly good together.

[4mrdncr]

Doesn't everyone watch the Globes to see what everyone's wearing or who's sitting with whom? (I like watching all the British actors sitting together and trying to look like they're actually enjoying the inanity around them.) But anyways, I've had a lot of disappointments in transfers of talent, story, program from the telly there, to tv's here...

But Hugh Laurie isn't one of them. I'm glad he was careful, chose right, and is in a program I don't mind watching now and then. (But I still remember him from the PG Wodehouse series on PBS way back when.)

Otherwise... .....

Linus Roach is holding his own on ubiquitous L&O, but still hope he returns across the Pond for better fare.

But...

I remember Patrick Stewart for Sejanus and RSC days, NOT Star Trek! (Save that great voice and layered nuance for finer things please)

Then this year there was K.Kidd, R. Sewell, and D. Lewis all trying for series again---horrifying to watch (Rome and BofB were good, but miniseries don't count)

And my favourite of all time, Anthony Hopkins, who did the best Pierre ever (this side of Bondachuk) but no one remembers that, only Hannibal

It's sad...so sad.

So please remember, "All that gli(s)tters, is not gold" even those Globe awards.

[dirac]

I also watch the Globes because the show is brisker than the Oscars and everyone is more relaxed, sitting at tables and sometimes getting visibly tipsy on national television.

Patrick Stewart : I remember Sejanus and RSC days, NOT Star Trek!

Oh, he was so great in I, Claudius. Patricia Quinn and he made such a marvelous evil couple.

RE: HOUSE: Of all the British actors whom I've seen "sell out to Hollywood" over the years and do various silly American programs--I've always admired Hugh Laurie for choosing right, and not disappointing me.

You know, I’m not one of those who blame British actors for allegedly “selling out” to Hollywood. They have as much right to anyone to international fame and a nice fat paycheck. (It’s also possible for bad TV shows to happen to good people, unfortunately.) Laurie chose well but some of it is also luck and being in the right place at the right time. And having the range, of course – a lot of great sketch comics have trouble when venturing into other genres.

I think Rome was intended to be a series-series, not a miniseries, and HBO canceled it. I didn’t really care for it but it did give opportunities to some good actors. I keep waiting for James Purefoy to hit it big.

[sidwich]

I'll go out on a limb and say that as much as I like Hugh Laurie, I think David Shore and his writing staff have been running on fumes over the last 2-3 years. "House" was very good during it's first few years, but like many long-running shows, I think it's well past it's peak. I think its best writers have probably either written themselves out at this point or been lured away to create and/or run other shows.

And I only watch awards shows for the fashion show. No point in expecting anything based on merit. Well, maybe this year I'll watch for the battle of the exes (James Cameron vs. Mrs. Cameron #3, Kathryn Bigelow).

[dirac]

True, sidwich. House was better years ago. It's too bad that so many good shows go on past their sell-by date, although I understand the reasons for it.

Regarding Cameron vs. ex-Cameron, I wonder if voters this awards season will split the difference with Avatar getting best picture nods and Bigelow getting Best Director and breaking the glass ceiling, etc. (This makes questionable sense in view of the control directors exert over most contemporary films, but the Academy has done it in the past.)

I guess it depends on how you define merit, too. The Oscars certainly don't have anything to do with art but it is nice when a good actor/writer/director gets recognition on the biggest stage. For example, I was pleased for Scorsese when he finally won even if it wasn't for his best stuff. He wanted it so badly I was getting embarrassed for him....

I must say from the fashion angle the awards season has gotten duller than it used to be. The actresses are so terrified of being mauled in the celebrity magazines the day after that they shun anything that smacks of risk and the Rodeo Drive glory days of Bob Mackie and Nolan Miller are long gone, as I've lamented before. I sure miss Geena Davis and Cher.

[dirac]

James Cameron got Best Director, after all, and Mel Gibson is back. Nice speeches from Christoph Waltz, Mo'Nique, and Robert Downey, Jr. The Gosh-I-didn't-expect-to-win-so-I-didn't-prepare-anything-and-so-I'll-just-burble-on-endlessly trope perfected by Kate Winslet last year is getting more than a little old. Waltz had a speech prepared and it was gracious and apparently sincere. Very pleased for him.