Ricky Gervais as Master of Ceremonies, Not Civility

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/movies/awardsseason/17watch.html

Master of Ceremonies, Not Civility
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: January 17, 2011

The Golden Globe ceremony is a formerly marginal awards show that Hollywood
takes very seriously — except this year, when the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association, which sponsors the event, became a running joke.

Ricky Gervais, the master of ceremonies, broke the rule of paying homage to
the obscure foreign journalists whose one lever of power are those awards.
He was merciless from the start, mocking his hosts for nominating the stars
of the badly reviewed movie “The Tourist.” “Everything is
three-dimensional,” he said with a smirk. “Except the characters in ‘The
Tourist.’ ” The comedian dismissed the charge that the members did so merely
to lure Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp to the event. “Rubbish,” Mr. Gervais
said. “They also accepted bribes.”

Later he mocked Phil Berk, the president of the association, joking that he
had to help Mr. Berk off the toilet and “pop in his teeth.” Audience members
tittered nervously. There was even less laughter when Mr. Berk didn’t
pretend to be amused. “Ricky, next time you want me to help qualify your
movies, go to another guy,” he said sourly.

For most viewers, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is a bit like the
House sergeant-at-arms who introduces the president at the start of the
annual State of the Union address — both have a moment of sudden prominence,
then are forgotten and ignored the rest of the year.

But studios court the members with the kind of reverence that borders on
cynicism. Many winners, including Steve Buscemi, Al Pacino and Claire Danes,
dutifully thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in their
acceptance speeches. But Robert De Niro, who received the Cecil B. DeMille
lifetime achievement award, dropped the deference. “We’re all in this
together,” he said. “The filmmakers who make the movies, and the Hollywood
Foreign Press Association members who in turn pose for pictures with the
movie stars.”

Christian Bale also startled the room by sneering at the entertainment
reporters who voted to give him the award for best supporting actor in a
motion picture. Mr. Bale said that he never really knew anything about the
association, and joked that on press junkets he wondered who “those awful
characters” in the room were.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association used to be something of an open
joke, best known for giving a Golden Globe award to Pia Zadora in the early
1980s, a choice so unlikely it was seen as proof that it had been corrupted
by Meshulam Riklis, her millionaire husband at the time.

But the ratings of the awards show — and its importance to studios — made it
slightly more respectable. That is, until the inclusion of “The Tourist,” in
the category of best comedy or musical. That spy caper is most definitely
not a comedy (or a musical).

Even Ms. Jolie, who sat with Brad Pitt and shimmered at her table in a
sequined emerald dress, said she was a little nonplussed at being nominated
for best actress in a musical or comedy. “I’m still shocked that I got
acknowledged as being funny because I don’t think I’m funny,” she told a red
carpet reporter on her way to the event. “But I am grateful.”

The ceremony itself is almost always a fast-paced orgy of fashion, frivolity
and self-congratulation, and often more fun to watch than the Oscars, partly
because viewers can expect the unexpected. But some of the participants
might be treating it too much like the Oscars, or like the White House
Correspondents Dinner. Mr. Gervais’s gibes at the Hollywood Foreign Press
Association divided the room, as Stephen Colbert’s speech did at the White
House Correspondents Dinner in 2006; many there complained he went too far
in roasting President Bush.

It’s so rare for presenters to be at open war with their host, and at times
it almost looked as if Mr. Gervais and Mr. Bale were intent on bringing to
Hollywood some of the incivility and extremism that veins political
discourse.

Theirs was certainly the most conspicuous wisp of conflict of the night, and
that is unusual. Almost every year some sort of crisis or calamity threatens
to dim the event or challenge the winners to find an appropriate response.
Last year several stars mentioned the Haiti earthquake. This year the attack
on Representative Gabrielle Giffords was perhaps too fresh and too horrible
to invoke in that giddy, boozy setting.

Mostly, stars who spoke out didn’t stray far from show business. Diane
Warren, who won for her song “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” from
“Burlesque,” dedicated her victory to Ronni Chasen, the publicist who was
fatally shot in Beverly Hills late last year. While accepting the best
screenwriting award for “The Social Network,” Aaron Sorkin alluded to the
culture wars, thanking the women in the room for proving to his daughter
that “elite is not a bad word, it’s an aspirational one.”

Trashing the association that feeds you, on the other hand, is bad form, or
bad politics. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen seemed to be signaling their
disapproval of Mr. Gervais at the night’s end. Mr. Hanks said he could
recall “back when Ricky Gervais was a slightly chubby but very kind
comedian.” Mr. Allen replied sternly, “Neither of which he is now.”

It was Mr. Gervais’ second chance to host the Golden Globes; he may not get
a third.

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