Chicago Tribune‘s Mark Caro has gathered quotes about the much-derided Golden Globes telecast, which will air this coming Sunday. “Rarely do meaninglessness and relevance, sham and suspense, smash up against one another with such flair as at the Golden Globe Awards,” he begins. “They’re a joke, truly — the result of fewer than 100 international junketeers rewarding films and the studios that have plied them with freebies and celebrity access during the last year.”

Quote #1: “As an influencer, no one can deny that the Globes is one of the truly big guns — not just because 17 million people tuned in to their show last year, but because the media pays so much attention to their choices to gauge what films are picking up momentum in the Oscar race” — Sony senior vp media relations Steve Elzer.

Quote #2: “They’re not respected, but they do provide a really big TV show for talent to show themselves and to get themselves into the bloodstream.” — myself.

Quote #3: “I think they’re actually less influential now than they’ve ever been. Winning at the Globes or being in the thick of the argument at the Globes is significant only in that you’re not left out of the party.” — MCN’s David Poland.

Here’s a chart that Caro assembled that shows that while the Globes are a decent indicator as to which films may be Oscar-nominated, in four of the last five years they’ve handed out best picture awards to films other than the Best Picture Oscar winner. (Did I rephrase that correctly?)

I still maintain that Vikram Jayanti‘s 2003 doc, The Golden Globes: Hollywood’s Dirty Little Secret, is one of the funniest and most revealing examinations of the HFPA ever assembled.