2012 Golden Globes

2012 Golden Globes, Taking place in the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the Golden Globes are awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, an organization of about 90 members from around the world. The 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards were hosted again by Ricky Gervais and aired on NBC.

Out of all of the awards, the Golden Globes demonstrate wooing at its best. With only around 90 members, Hollywood studios can throw a little money at the HFPA members and use celebrities to wine, dine, and court them for votes. The king at this is Harvey Weinstein. Two years ago, he was practically out of the business, but tonight the Weinstein Co. bought-I mean won-six awards, beating all the other motion picture distributors.

I am not revealing anything new. Everyone in Hollywood knows about this.

Where there any surprises? No, not really. I haven’t been shocked by the Golden Globes since 1995, when ‘The X-Files’ won its first Globe for Best Drama TV Series. I was a little surprised that Ricky Gervais was tamer than last year. Perhaps he wanted to appear boring so he would not be considered for the hosting gig next year.

‘American Horror Story’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ were nominated for Best TV Drama along with ‘Homeland,’ ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ and ‘Boss.’ Showtime’s ‘Homeland’ took the prize.

In addition to the nomination for best director, ‘Hugo’ was also nominated for Best Original Score and for Best Motion Picture (Drama). Howard Shore, who composed the score for ‘Hugo,’ lost the award for Best Original Score to Ludovic Bource for ‘The Artist.’ ‘Hugo,’ ‘The Descendants,’ ‘The Help,’ ‘The Ides of March,’ ‘Moneyball,’ and ‘War Horse’ were nominated for Best Motion Picture (Drama). ‘The Descendants’ won.

Sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fare received four other nominations. The genres did better in those categories:

Peter Dinklage
Winner, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for his work as Tyrion Lannister in ‘Game of Thrones.’ Backstage, Dinklage told reporters that he hopes his win will give the fantasy genre “more respect.” He also said that ‘Game of Thrones’ has a “really smart narrative,” and more shows should “push the envelope and challenge expectations and ideas of what’s going to happen next. That adds to the addiction of the show-you never know what’s around the corner.”

Jessica Lange
Winner, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for her work as Constance Langdon in ‘American Horror Story.’ During her acceptance speech, Lange thanked the writers, saying, “And especially to Ryan [Murphy] who convinced me to do this.” Backstage she hinted to a possible return for next season’s ‘Horror Story’

‘The Adventures of Tintin’
Winner, Best Animated Feature Film. The film beat ‘Cars 2,’ ‘Arthur Christmas,’ ‘Puss in Boots,’ and ‘Rango’ for the award. The film, based on a series of comic books, was directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson. Spielberg accepted the award.

Martin Scorsese
Winner, Best Director, Motion Picture for ‘Hugo.’ The steampunk-ish fantasy tale about a boy who lives in a train station is not doing well at the box office, but that did not stop the HFPA from awarding Scorsese his third Golden Globe for directing.

Golden Globe Winners 2012

Golden Globe Winners 2012, The 2012 Golden Globe Awards went as expected for the film nominees — and defied all expectations when it came to TV winners.

For the big screen contenders, favorites “The Descendants” and “The Artist” took home the Best Picture awards, for Drama and Musical/Comedy, respectively. George Clooney and Jean Dujardin won the corresponding Best Actor awards. In the main actress categories, Meryl Streep and Michelle Williams both won for playing historical icons; Streep, for her turn as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” and Williams for her role as Marilyn Monroe in “My Week With Marilyn.”

On the TV side, “Homeland” won Best Drama Series, giving the freshman series a win over “Boardwalk Empire” and “Modern Family” repeated as Best Comedy. Not too unexpected, sure, but how about Best Actors: for Drama, Kelsey Grammer won for “Boss” and in Comedy, Matt LeBlanc won for “Episodes.”

Meanwhile, Ricky Gervais was rather timid, getting in some fun digs at the HFPA and Kim Kardashian in his monologue, but largely avoiding the low hanging fruit: no Charlie Sheen, no Tom Cruise, hardly any divorce jokes outside of one mention in his monologue.

Here’s the entire list of winners; for all the in-show gossip
Best Actor, Drama: George Clooney, “The Descendants”

Best Actress, Drama: Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”

Best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Jean Dujardin, “The Artist”

Best Director: Martin Scorsese, “Hugo.”

Best Actress, Musical or Comedy: Michelle Williams, “My Week With Marilyn.”

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, “Beginners.”

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, “The Help.”

Best Foreign Language Film: “A Separation.”

Best Animated Film: “The Adventures of Tintin.”

Best Screenplay: Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris.”

Best Original Score: Ludovic Bource, “The Artist.”

Best Original Song: “Masterpiece” (music and lyrics by Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry), “W.E.”

TELEVISION

Best Series, Drama: “Homeland,” Showtime.

Best Series, Musical or Comedy: “Modern Family,” ABC.

Best Actor, Drama: Kelsey Grammer, “Boss.”

Best Actress, Drama: Claire Danes, “Homeland.”

Best Actress, Musical or Comedy: Laura Dern, “Enlightened.”

Best Actor, Musical or Comedy: Matt LeBlanc, “Episodes.”

Best Miniseries or Movie: “Downton Abbey (Masterpiece),” PBS.

Best Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Kate Winslet, “Mildred Pierce.”

Best Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Idris Elba, “Luther.”

Best Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Jessica Lange, “American Horror Story.”

Best Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones.”

Golden Globe Winners

Golden Globe Winners, The cast of “The Artist”, winner of the best comedy or musical motion picture, appear with their award at the 69th Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California Jan. 15, 2012.
George Clooney and Meryl Streep, as close to movie royalty as this post-star era can get, solidified their front-runner status in the Oscar race by taking the trophies for Best Actor and Actress in a Drama at Sunday evening’s 69th Golden Globes awards, presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. On a night for old stars (Christopher Plummer) and new stars (Michelle Williams), the big winners were the who? stars: actor Jean Dujardin and auteur Michel Hazanavicius for the unclassifiable, incomparable-and, on Oscar Night, possibly unbeatable-silent comedy The Artist. (Here’s the full list of winners, including the prizes for TV shows and stars, which we’ll let James Poniewozik attend to.)

The Golden Globes are an award show with the emphasis on Show. Zillions of the glamourati clog the tables and listen to the host, Ricky Gervais, insult them; imagine dinner at Newt Gingrich’s house, but with a swankier guest list. Standing in front of a set dominated by purple curves, like amusement-park flume rides, Gervais played his naughty-boy card, He managed to libel Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster, the star of The Beaver, in one R-rated riff. (Foster courteously gave Gervais a thumbs-up instead of a finger.) He also jokingly maligned Ewan McGregor, Colin Firth and his own pns. Taking Gervais’s dick jokes as a challenge, the presenting and winning stars joined in the ribaldry. Walking onstage with pretty Kate Beckinsale, comic actor Seth Rogen, said, “Hello, I’m Seth Rogen, and I am currently trying to conceal a massive erection.” And Clooney thanked Michael Fassbender, who went impressively nkd in his film Shame, “for taking over the frontal-nudity responsibility that I had. Really, Michael, honestly, you can play golf like this, with your hands behind your back.”