Re: Ricky Gervais as Master of Ceremonies, Not Civility

I'm reading British actors on Twitter, and they don't understand what the
big deal is. In England, the bigger a star you are, the more
enthusiastically you are roasted. In that sense, Gervais was too generous to
the Globes and the actors.

Johne Cook
| http://raygunrevival.com | http://authorculture.blogspot.com |


On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 11:18 AM, Bruce Geerdes <[email protected]> wrote:

> 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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