Ricky Gervais too funny for Hollywood

Returning Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais did indeed let it be known that he wasn't going to hold back in skewering Hollywood's most famous celebrities. And, in what will undoubtedly be his last hosting gig for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (and, who knows, maybe any Stateside awards) he didn't disappoint.

But in the process of making searingly funny jokes at more than just the obvious targets (Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, the HFPA itself), the heat he put into the punch lines might have made him more of the story than the actual winners.

And yet, it made for compelling -- if sometimes wince-inducing -- television. Given the staid lameness of most awards shows -- hello, Emmys -- at least he kept those who are not in the industry laughing uproariously. (His "I warned them" line came after a particularly funny joke about Hugh Hefner's new fiancee, complete with physical comedy and facial expressions).

Gervais' biting lines were scattered at various stars (and movies like The Tourist), with not everyone taking kindly to the treatment. Bruce Willis seemed miffed to be called the father of Ashton Kutcher, Robert Downey Jr. seemed to take slight umbrage about his rehab past (before going into his own salacious and super speech), etc. Even when the jokes weren't directed at them, some stars took gentle swipes back, as when Tom Hanks, who just received a rave recitation of his career achievement from Gervais, protected Tim Allen, who received none.

Gervais's jokes were so incendiary that when he went missing during the second half of the show, the Twitterverse lit up with suggestions that he'd been fired backstage. Clearly, Gervais had done so much damage entertaining the viewers at home (or appalling them, depending on their belief in decorum), that he became the story of the night.

But so what? The Globes are considered one of the best, if not the best, awards show on television because of this feeling that anything goes and Champagne-fueled winners and presenters could say just about anything. Adding Gervais into the mix last year was exactly the kind of tone that seemed to fit the primetime party and as funny as he was this year, there's little doubt many in the industry will think he went too far.

The trouble is, the awards are for the people in the business, but the show itself is for the viewers at home. There's only so much sycophantic back-slapping anyone can take without a little needling to burst the ego bubble.

But if Gervais wasn't intending to come back, which is what he's said prior, he sure went out swinging, thanking all the right people -- the HFPA, NBC, the stars in the room for being good sports, then ending with, "And God, for making me an atheist."

That pretty much sealed it, one would suspect.

‘The Social Network’ Dominates Golden Globes

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — What can be the silliness of the Golden Globes matched up with the seriousness of the critics on Sunday night as “The Social Network” took the prize for best drama, Colin Firth was named best dramatic actor for “The King’s Speech” and Natalie Portman danced away with the award for best actress in a drama at the entertainment industry’s second-favorite awards show.

“The Social Network” also won top prizes for its director, David Fincher, and its writer, Aaron Sorkin, making it the evening’s big winner.



In a moving touch, the final award for best movie drama was presented by Michael Douglas, who has fought his way through treatment for throat cancer that was diagnosed not long before the awards season got under way.

“There’s got to be an easier way to get a standing ovation,” said Mr. Douglas, who spoke little but sounded good, and stood out as the kind of trouper Hollywood and its fans both love.

Ms. Portman, who wore neither black nor white — her theme colors of late — but pink, won an almost inevitable prize for her performance as a ballerina on a death spiral in “Black Swan.” That film, critically acclaimed and heavily promoted, has been surging at the box office, giving it the kind of alignment that points toward a strong Oscar presence in coming weeks.

Almost as inevitably, Mr. Firth won for his portrayal of a stammering George VI. His thanks built up to some shaky words of gratitude for Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood executive who has been a master at landing his pictures in the spotlight at the Globes and Oscars alike.

Melissa Leo and Christian Bale landed some blows by winning supporting actress and actor awards for “The Fighter,” a classic boxing story. The movie starred Mark Wahlberg, who did not win a prize as Micky Ward, a light welterweight champion who was coached by a drug-addicted brother, played by Mr. Bale.

In accepting his prize for writing “The Social Network,” Mr. Sorkin threw a barrage of gratitude at an inner circle of Hollywood operatives that included Sony Pictures executives, his agents at William Morris Endeavor, his producer Scott Rudin and even his publicist. But he also remembered to toss some conciliatory words at Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook co-founder who was made to look less than admirable in the unauthorized film but did not put any legal roadblocks in its way.

“You turned out to be a great entrepreneur, a visionary and an incredible altruist,” Mr. Sorkin said.

After making numerous disconcertingly off-kilter nominations in the best musical or comedy category — Johnny Depp was twice-nominated for his work in “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Tourist,” neither of which seemed quite to fit — the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, whose 80 or so mostly freelance writers present the awards, redeemed itself by giving its lead award in the category to “The Kids Are All Right.”

A critical favorite, that film also won an acting award for one of its stars, Annette Bening. At the same time, Paul Giamatti won an acting award for the semi-serious comedy “Barney’s Version,” about a middle-aged man confronting his unraveling life.

A bit of a snub came with the presentation of the Globe for best foreign language film to “In a Better World,” from Denmark. One of the nominees, “Biutiful,” which stars Javier Bardem and is from Spain and Mexico, has had an early awards-season push behind it.

As always, the awards show, in the grand ballroom of the Beverly Hilton, wore thin as the plethora of awards — for movies and television both, plus those special prizes for comic categories — piled up and were spread around. There was a little something for Jim Parsons, as best comic actor in “The Big Bang Theory,” and best comic actress for the absent Laura Linney in “The Big C.”

It was a big night for Fox’s “Glee,” which picked up the best musical or comedy series award, as well as a pair of acting awards for Jane Lynch and Chris Colfer.

The Globes show only occasionally sank to the more inevitable movie-season jokes about Mr. Zuckerberg’s billions (“Heather Mills calls him the one that got away,” said Ricky Gervais, the show’s sharp-tongued host) and severed limbs (Steve Carell joked that he would have given his right arm to have written “127 Hours”).

Mr. Gervais virtually disappeared from the later stages of the show, leaving the presenters mostly to fend for themselves. Some did better than others.

Matt Damon fell flat with some schtick about being a young guy who had to ask around about Robert De Niro’s bona fides, as Mr. De Niro received his Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement. Mr. De Niro, 67 and only a little younger than the Globes, which are in their 68th year, took off his glasses and shot back, “And I loved you in ‘The Fighter.’ ” In which, of course, Mr. Damon did not appear.



Robert Downey Jr. summed up the show’s vibe as being “hugely mean-spirited” and mildly sinister, then upped the ante with sexual innuendo directed at the nominees for best actress in a motion picture, comedy or musical — Ms. Bening, Anne Hathaway, Angelina Jolie, Julianne Moore and Emma Stone — even as he introduced them.

Ms. Bening, whose spiky hair-do roughly matched that of Al Pacino — perhaps not lost on the camera operator who panned to his table as she spoke — won for her portrayal of an acidic lesbian mother in “The Kids Are All Right.”

Mr. Pacino won for his portrayal of Jack Kevorkian in the television film “You Don’t Know Jack,” while Claire Danes won for portraying an autistic woman in “Temple Grandin,” both of which helped keep HBO’s Globe dominance alive. “Toy Story 3,” from Disney’s Pixar unit, won for best animated feature, which was no surprise but certainly kept the film on track for what is expected to be a strong showing at the Oscars.

“Carlos,” about the terrorist Carlos the Jackal, won best televised movie or mini-series, for the Sundance Channel, one-upping HBO, which had three nominees in the category.

Steve Buscemi, one of many old film hands who have been turning to television as the movie world has diminished, picked up an award as the lead actor in HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire.” The show was also named best dramatic series.

In the first round of awards Katey Sagal won for best actress in a dramatic television series for her portrayal of the biker matriarch Gemma Morrow in “Sons of Anarchy” on FX.

The ragtag writers group that gives the Globes prompted even more than the usual giggles with some of its nominations this year, including three for the critically abused “Burlesque” and three for “The Tourist,” which was nominated for best comedy or musical despite its being neither. That added to the widely held belief that the press association nominates based more on red-carpet currency than performance. Cher, a star of “Burlesque,” didn’t take the bait, but Ms. Jolie, nominated for her work in “The Tourist,” gamely showed up, though she did not win.

Coming into the ceremony “The Fighter,” directed by David O. Russell, was perhaps the picture with the most to gain. A late-season release, it had six nominations, including one for best drama, and was positioned for the kind of come-from-behind push that left “Crash,” another dark horse, with a best-picture Oscar in 2006.

Two front-runners, “The King’s Speech” and “The Social Network,” had more to lose. Both were heavily nominated by the press association, and had already done well with awards from the critics. But both were looking for a show of strength to keep from slipping. “The Social Network,” with six nominations, picked up its first award for its score, by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

(On the red carpet, Jesse Eisenberg, nominated for his portrayal of Mr. Zuckerberg, allowed that he still had not met Mr. Zuckerberg. “I’d really like to, though.”)

One film with nothing on the line: “True Grit,” the somber western that has been burning up the box office and is expected to be a player at the Oscars. But the film did not receive a single nomination by the press association.

In truth, the Globes do not predict much. Last year’s Globe winner for best drama was “Avatar”; for best musical or comedy it was “The Hangover.” But “The Hurt Locker” walked off with the best-picture Oscar.

A bit of inside action involved a hot dispute between the press association and Dick Clark Productions, which has long produced the ceremony, broadcast on NBC. In November the press association sued Dick Clark Productions and others for what it called an attempt to abscond with the awards by going around the association to reach a new eight-year broadcast agreement with NBC. The Dick Clark company sharply challenged the claim.

In another go-round, a longtime spokesman for the Globes, Michael Russell, on Thursday filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against the press association and Phil Berk, its president. In the suit, Mr. Russell claimed he was wrongfully terminated from his publicity job partly because he had objected over the years to “unethical and potentially unlawful” deals under which members of the nonprofit association profit from the ceremony, sometimes by accepting payments from studios or producers to lobby for votes among their friends. Mr. Berk and the association dismissed the claims as baseless.

As Diane Warren picked up an award for her song “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” from “Burlesque” — yes, it had a winner — she dedicated the prize to Ronni Chasen. It was another inside moment: Ms. Chasen, a publicist who had represented Ms. Warren, was murdered on her way home from the “Burlesque” premiere in November.