I agree with The Envelope‘s Tom O’Neil that Golden Globe award winners tend to get a bump, yes, but mainly — at least in the acting categories — by delivering a great acceptance speech. Or they can hurt themselves by delivering a bad or uncharming one.
(I seem to recall that Eddie Murphy‘s remarks after winning the Best Supporting Actor GG award for his Dreamgirls performance included mispronouncing a producer’s name, or something along those lines. I definitely remember thinking after hearing his acceptance speech, “Uh-oh…that’s not going to help.”)
So without any kind of presence at all last night the ’08 Golden Globes bump factor is probably nil as far as the Oscars are concerned.
O’Neil reports that “most Oscarologists are poohing-poohing” the wins by Atonement and Sweeney Todd. Maybe, but I don’t know. I hope and pray that No Country for Old Men sails to a Best Picture Oscar victory next April (i.e., isn’t that what the rumor is? To give the strike negotiators more time?), but I wonder if Atonement‘s win last night was more of an anti-No Country thing than a full-out “we love Atonement” consensus.
My suspicion is that Atonement, the Hillary Clinton of the Best Picture contenders, may be the default favorite of older, more conservative-minded viewers. Which isn’t to say it’s not a strong and worthy film. It is that, but it’s also a place to go to if you don’t like the dark and arty contenders — No Country for Old Men, There Will be Blood and Sweeney Todd.
If, God forbid, Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee for President (a calamitous act that will plunge this country into a replay of ’90s animosities and poisons that will be truly ugly to behold — the beginning of an entirely new National Depression), it will be said that sufficient numbers voted against the hope and rightness and once-in-a-generation connectivity that Barack Obama embodied.
By this same token, an Atonement win, which I think is highly unlikely, will be seen more as a rejection of the art-film intrigues and thematic lamentings contained in No Country for Old Men — a concoction that for some people was obviously well made but didn’t quite amount to a strike across the plate.
These people are wrong, of course. No Country is a solid strike, all right, but it’s not a fastball. It’s a slider or a knuckleball…no, it’s a change-up. Thrown by Hoyt Wilhelm.

The surreal nothingness of last night’s Golden Globes announcements stirred “a philosophical question,” writes L.A. Times Mary McNamara. “If a winner is announced to the absence of applause, does anyone hear it?

Somewhat less concisely, Variety‘s Timothy Gray wrote that “it raises a philosophical question. If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound? Similarly, if you win an award in Hollywood, but there is no red carpet, no kiss from the presenter, no acceptance speech and no interviews backstage, did you really win?”
Gray’s piece, augmented by reporting from Cynthia Littleton, Bill Higgins and Steven Gaydos, had more meat on its bones, but McNamara’s rant seemed to catch the enervated, Samuel Beckett-like spirit a little better.
“For those of you who wisely spent the evening rearranging your sock drawers or watching your TiVo queues of reruns, [the Golden Globes awards press conference] was a less than magical night,” she wrote. “Um, evening. OK, hour or actually 35 minutes depending on which network you chose to watch the awards…announcement.
“KCBS, E!, CNN and TV Guide went bare-bones, airing the HFPA news conference, which clocked in at a nominee name-rattling 35 minutes, while NBC got a little fancier, enlisting the talents of Billy Bush and Nancy O’Dell and a lot of film clips to create what played like an award-show farce on YouTube. Wayne’s World, meet the Globes.
“I cannot stress this strongly enough: We must never let this happen again.
“Gil Cates, producer of this year’s Academy Awards, if you are reading this, I don’t care if you have to kidnap every member of the studio alliance and lock them in with the WGA until the two sides reach a deal, but you cannot let anything remotely like this happen to the Oscars. Cancel them if you must, or inform the winners by mail, because the only thing worse than all the over-hyped, over-covered awards shows the media loves to hate is the stripping bare of the process.
“You know something has gone seriously wrong when even wins by Daniel Day-Lewis and Julie Christie seem somehow diminished, their names just, well, names on a meaningless list. Daniel Day-Lewis! Julie Christie! We need the exclamation points!
Especially, she said, “when that silence is filled by the bloviations of Billy Bush. ‘You know, I thought it would be Amy Ryan,’ he said one beat after Cate Blanchett was announced as the winner of best supporting actress while calling Javier Bardem‘s win ‘a no-brainer. He’s one of the best villains ever, right up there with Darth Vader.’ Javier, try to contain your gratitude.”

Terrible news concerning Beowulf producer-cowriter Roger Avary, with whom I just spoke a couple of days ago. I’d let it alone but it’s all over the news services and it may as well be acknowledged. Strength, faith, prayers. I’m so sorry.

Okay, I made the mistake of watching NBC’s “fake” time-delayed, Stepford Showbiz News presentation of the Golden Globe Award winners. If I had watched CNN or whomever else, the announcements would have been revealed to me earlier. I should have known that NBC would drag things out to make a full-hour show out of it. It was my mistake, but HE is hereby delivering a resounding thumbs-down to NBC’s decision to play games.

Atonement is back in the game, having won the Golden Globe award for Best Drama. With Joel and Ethan Coen having lost the Best Director award besides and No Country having fallen to Atonement, the question is to what degree are these two No Country losses indicative of general Academy sentiment…if at all? In any event, Joe Wright‘s admirable period romance has gotten a reprieve. It was thought to be a dead duck, and now it doesn’t seem to be. Again — how widely shared is this liking? And to what extent is this decision an anti-No Country vote (possibly due to “that ending”) as much as a pro-Atonement one?

Best Actress, Drama is expected to go to Away From Her‘s Julie Christie, but it’ll be cool if it goes to A Mighty Heart‘s Angelina Jolie…but it’s gone to Julie Christie, and that’s fine. A very fine performance, no quibbles…and won without a lot of campaigning.
And There Will Be Blood‘s Daniel Day Lewis has won for Best Actor (Drama).

The Golden Globe Best Director award goes to Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly…what? Everyone had called this for No Country‘s Joel and Ethan Coen. What happened? Does this mean something? Did anyone at all predict this?
Sweeney Todd‘s Johnny Depp has won the Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical award…deserved, not muchy of a surprise, good call.
The Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture Comedy/Musical goes not to Juno but Sweeney Todd! With Ellen Page having lost the Best Comedy/Musical actress award to Marion Cotillard, this amounts to a double Juno shut-down. I don’t get it — didn’t the Golden Globes voters consider Juno‘s box-office receipts? Perhaps some of them came to the conclusion that Todd is…you know, all things considered, a richer, fuller, better film?

Best Supporting Actor award is sure to go to No Country‘s Javier Bardem, and the winner is….uhm, Javier Bardem. Great performance, total shoo-in, locked for the Oscars.

Golden Globe winner for Best Animated Feature: Ratatouille. No surprise, excellent film, deserving winner. Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical winner: La Vie en Rose‘s Marion Cotillard, which I called a few minutes ago. Big cheers for Cotillard, director Oliver Dahan, Picturehouse’s Bob Berney…yay, team! Hairspray‘s Nikki Blonsky and Juno‘s Ellen Page…shut-down!

Access Hollywood‘s Billy Bush and Nancy O’Dell are hosting NBC’s broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards press conference annoucements…and the winner of the Best Supporting Actress award is I’m Not There‘s Cate Blanchett!! The Amy Ryan blitzkreig has been stopped in its tracks! Temporarily, at least. Good vibrations.

HE’s final Golden Globes predictions with only minutes to spare. Best Picture, Drama: No Country for Old Men…duhhh. Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen. Best Comedy or Musical: Juno…because money talks. Best Actor, Drama: Daniel Day Lewis, There Will be Blood. Best Actress, Drama: Julie Christie, Away From Her. Best Actress, Musical or Comedy: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose…giving great perk shouldn’t be enough to give it to Ellen Page. Best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd. Best Actress, Supporting: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone…I offer this prediction under protest and duress — the winner should be I’m Not There‘s Cate Blanchett. Best Actor, Supporting: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men.

Hollywood Interrupted‘s Mark Ebner sent along a URL with a group of what appear to be Scientology-produced video propaganda spots, four of which feature Tom Cruise. Most entertainment journalists look the other way at the whole Cruise/Scientology thing, and I suppose I’m one of them. But watch these spots and tell me what kind of vibe you get from them. Tell me they don’t creep you out.
The site‘s password is 2004event
There is an unmistakably robotic and strident tone to these pieces. Particularly in the copy read by the narrator, whose belligerent huckster voice makes him sound like a fiend out of 1984. (It reminds me of the voice of the “leader” in that Twilight Zone episode called “The Eye of the Beholder.”) It’s genuinely unnerving. This piece in particular, which barks about how Cruise paid more attention to Ground Zero air quality in the wake of 9.11 than New York authorities, speaks for itself.