Re: Ricky Gervais as Master of Ceremonies, Not Civility

I quit reading the NYT article when she started injected the tuscon situation.  
She lost all credibility for me at that point.

Mike F.  




________________________________
From: Johne Cook <[email protected]>
To: DADL (off topic) <[email protected]>
Sent: Mon, January 17, 2011 11:43:21 AM
Subject: Re: [DADL-OT] 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.
>--
>dadl-ot mailing list
>http://mail.thehood.us/mailman/listinfo/dadl-ot_thehood.us
>http://news.gmane.org/gmane.music.dadl.ot
>

-- 
dadl-ot mailing list
http://mail.thehood.us/mailman/listinfo/dadl-ot_thehood.us
http://news.gmane.org/gmane.music.dadl.ot