Remember LAST year's Golden Globes? When Ricky Gervais made fun of any and everything in Hollywood, the Hollywood people didn't understand his jokes, us "normal folks" at home giggled our buns off and thought it was too bad that his jokes flew right over their heads? He made Angelina jokes, Mel Gibson jokes (at the time, less heinous than today), Aniston jokes, cosmetic surgery jokes - subtle, dry, BRITISH-styled jabs that were apparently primarily lost on the famous people at the tables sipping their Moet et Chandon. Or not sipping. I swear I saw more un-touched bottles of bubbly on the tables than I did full flutes. THAT there is the travesty, not the Gervais.
Anyway, they asked him back to dish up another helping this year, he pulled out the same stunts and got the same groans. Last year the question was, "did he bomb? will he be back again?" and this year the question posed by mainstream media (and the blogs that pander to stars) has become "did he go too far? Will the Hollywood Foreign Press Association BAN him forever?"
Please.
The moral of the story is that Ricky Gervais is a funny, wry guy with a definite grasp of the subtler goings-on in pop culture and he spins that wit into jokes that a bunch of self-entitled, smug movie stars can't handle. Because they can't appreciate (or even giggle at) the bizarre absurdity of their lives or recognize that for half of them, we associate them as much with their tabloid faux pas as we do with their movies. Or their television shows. Or whatever.
Basically, he dared SAY what the rest of us were thinking. Stuff like this:
"It seems like everything this year was 3-dimensional -- except for the characters in The Tourist...I haven't even seen 'The Tourist' -- who has?"
Or when he acknowledged the "are they or aren't they?" orientation of Tom Cruise and John Travolta (take your pick....either man has had their name slung across tabloids in reference to trysts on the downlow this year) when he said about the film "I Love You, Phillip Morris,"
"two heterosexual actors pretending to be gay. So, the complete opposite of some famous Scientologists, then."
I giggled. The crowd groaned. It was current. Bold? Ehhhh, maybe. But familiar to those of us who troll tabloid covers.
He name-dropped Robert Downey Jr in the only old news, not-funny-anymore jab of the evening, but Downey is witty enough to defend himself, coming back with this already much-quoted retort:
"Aside from the fact that it's been hugely mean-spirited with mildly sinister undertones, I'd say the vibe of the show's pretty good so far, wouldn't you?"
But nothing so outrageous it warranted responses from the HFPA such as this item purportedly whined by a member:
"Ricky will not be invited back to host the show next year, for sure...For sure any movie he makes he can forget about getting nominated. He humiliated the organization last night and went too far with several celebrities whose representatives have already called to complain...He definitely crossed the line...And some of the things were totally unacceptable. But that's Ricky. Any of the references to individuals is certainly not something the Hollywood Foreign Press condones."
Aha. And therein lies the real complaint.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is having to apologize to representatives from miffed stars who got their feelings hurt. The stars call their handlers and whine because they were the butt of a joke, the handlers call the HFPA, the HFPA issues broad, blanket statements to placate the famous handlers, the blanket statements trickle down to the masses who laughed at the jokes, and all of the average joes at home read this the next day and think, "wow - those famous people really can't take a joke...."
So, I wanted to learn a little bit more about the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. I'll leave most of the history aside -- you can find it here -- and say that the organization sprouted in the 1940's during World War II and the Golden Globe awards are presently their most recognizable contribution to the broader entertainment industry. Here's their mission statement:
The mission of the HFPA is:
To establish favorable relations and cultural ties between foreign countries and the United States of America by the dissemination of information concerning the American culture and traditions as depicted in motion pictures and television through news media in various foreign countries;
To recognize outstanding achievements by conferring annual Awards of Merit, (Golden Globe® Awards), serving as a constant incentive within the entertainment industry, both domestic and foreign, and to focus wide public attention upon the best in motion pictures and television;
To contribute to other nonprofit organizations connected with the entertainment industry and involved in educational, cultural, and humanitarian activities;
To promote interest in the study of the arts, including the development of talent in the entertainment field through scholarships given to major learning institutions.
Soooooo - what part of making fun of The Tourist is in direct violation of their mission to promote interest in the arts? Are they afraid that The World At Large will perceive the Gervais jokes to be sanctioned by The Association and somehow serve as a DISincentive within the entertainment industry to focus on the "best in motion pictures and television?" HARDLY. If anything, he pointed out the glaring holes in the Association's function - they nominated films that no one even watched, let alone the BEST the industry has to offer, mostly in order to guarantee the major A-listers would have to show up.
There. That's my theory. They nominated a lot of these movies and stars so that the stars would be sure to be there and the ratings would look better.
And so if Ricky Gervais wants to call out the obvious jokes about Bruce Willis being Ashton Kucher's dad and Tim Allen having no real credits to his name, then have at it. It'll nab ratings, too.
If anything, I'm going to call bull on all of this - I'm going to suggest that the HFPA suggests in their own mission statement that they're out to further awareness, promote themselves through entertainment and garner interest in Hollywood around the globe. What better way than to have a host from the UK make a bunch of Hollywood stars mad enough to rant to the Association and force the association to issue press releases?
I'm no conspiracy theorist, but, uh:
I smell a rat.
And not just the one that made a nest on Scarlett Johanson's head last night.
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