The REEL Addict 

By David Eng

After missing a year because of the writer’s strike, the Golden Globes returned with a vengeance. Hollywood royalty got decked out in some of their finest, not yet affected by any economic downturn. The red carpet interviews were the usual frivolousness. The flirtatious exchange between Miley Cyrus and Ryan Seacrest took the prize for bizarre and uncomfortable. Meanwhile Megan Fox lived up to her name and graciously feigned insecurity, but seemed in a foul mood and complained of the ego of her (absent) fiance. Hmm, maybe I’ve got a chance. She then got into a envy contest with the interviewer by saying she wanted Salma Hayek’s breasts, to which the interviewer replied that she wished she had Fox’s breasts, leading to Fox to respond that they could all trade. Kinda gives a whole new meaning to “Golden Globes.”

The Globes are usually a much more fun affair than the staid Oscars, perhaps for the main reason that the champagne flows freely all night. Kate Winslet got the night off to a roaring start by seeming genuinely startled to win Supporting Actress for THE READER. By the time the evening was done, she pulled off another surprise win with her Best Actress Award for REVOLUTIONARY ROAD. That marked only the third time that an actor or actress had won two Golden Globes in a given year (The others were Joan Plowright in 1993 and Helen Mirren in 2007), and the first time that both awards were in the Motion Picture category (Plowright and Mirren both won one for Film and one for TV).

In the Television categories, the GGs mirrored the Emmys by favouring 30 Rock and John Adams which won three and four awards respectively. Tracy Morgan and Tina Fey gave hilarious acceptance speeches, with Morgan looking like he’d been drinking since breakfast (”Tina Fey and I had an agreement that if Barack Obama won, I would speak for the show from now on. I am the face of post-racial America! Deal with it, Cate Blanchett!”). Canadian content took the form of an award to Anna Paquin for the new series True Blood.

But it’s for the film awards that the Globes have the most importance. They played clips from the major contenders which were each introduced by some funny presenters, particularly Don Cheadle and Ricky Gervais (”What did I tell you, Winslet — do a Holocaust movie, win an award” - a reference to her appearance in Extras. “Problem with those films is there’s no gag reel.”). Spielberg gave an excellent speech for his Cecil B. DeMille Award, which he was originally supposed to receive in last year’s canceled ceremony. He referred to seeing DeMille’s GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH as a child and being moved to go into film.

Many of the categories were quite strong with solid choices across the board, e.g. screenplay, actor and actress (drama) and supporting actress.  I was quite pleased with pretty much all of the winners, but based on the nominations that were in place (the song “Jai Ho” from SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE wasn’t nominated but should have won).  Some of the wins were obvious, like the late Heath Ledger’s win for Supporting Actor in THE DARK KNIGHT, and WALL-Es win for Animated Film.

The biggest surprises of the night had to be Winslet’s win for REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and Colin Farrell’s for the underappreciated IN BRUGES.  He gave a lengthy, rambling and what appeared to be a possibly coked-up speech.  But he came across and sincere and genuine.  Rourke’s win was perhaps obvious, though Penn and Langella were equally outstanding.  But it still felt slightly unusual when he won and after a moving but longish speech where he thanked his dogs and got playfully given the finger by director Darren Aronofsky, he got played off by music as the evening was running late.Meanwhile, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE was unstoppable winning all four categories in which it was nominated, score, screenplay, director and picture. This was a bit unexpected, and yet it was fully deserved. But as it was the end of the night when it won Best Picture - Drama, producer Christian Colson’s speech was eventually interrupted by the dreaded music. He let slip an “Oh fuck!” before holding his hand up to his mouth in embarrassment. He quickly finished before Tom Cruise thanked everyone and brought the evening to a close.

http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/Complete list of winners at Sunday’s 66th annual Golden Globes held by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in Beverly Hills, Calif.:

MOTION PICTURES:

- Picture, Drama: “Slumdog Millionaire.”

- Picture, Musical or Comedy: “Vicky Christina Barcelona.”

- Actor, Drama: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler.”

- Kate Winslet, “Revolutionary Road.”

- Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

- Actor, Musical or Comedy: Colin Farrell, “In Bruges.”

- Actress, Musical or Comedy: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

- Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight.”

- Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader.’

- Foreign Language Film: “Waltz With Bashir.”

- Animated Film: “Wall-E.”

- Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

- Original Score: A.R. Rahman, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

- Original Song: “The Wrestler” (performed by Bruce Springsteen, written by Bruce Springsteen), “The Wrestler.”

TELEVISION:

- Series, Drama: “Mad Men.”

- Actor, Drama: Gabriel Byrne, “In Treatment.”

- Actress, Drama: Anna Paquin, “True Blood.”

- Series, Musical or Comedy: “30 Rock.”

- Actor, Musical or Comedy: Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock.”

- Actress, Musical or Comedy: Tina Fey, “30 Rock.”

- Miniseries or Movie: “John Adams.”

- Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Laura Linney, “John Adams.”

- Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Paul Giammatti, “John Adams.”

- Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Laura Dern, “Recount.”

- Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Tom Wilkinson, “John Adams.”

Cecil B. DeMille Award: Steven Spielberg.