Award Shows: January 2008 Archives

Viewership was way, way down. Perhaps Jeff Zucker will get another promotion.

 NBC has always led the way in blurring the lines between entertainment and news. For years, the Today show was under the imprimatur of the Entertainment division rather than news, so why shouldn’t the Globes be hosted by Matt Lauer? Maybe that was the network’s thinking (actually their thinking was – we’ve gotta come up with something, anything). Turns up they came up with nothing.

I did not watch the globes last night – Instead I was riveted by the first installment of “Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles” – If I were THE GAP I would get that T-shirt Lena Headley was wearing into the store window TODAY – I’m sure Trey Laird is signing up Lena Headey for some ads right now. (some of you may recall Ms. Headey from high minded films like Possession – I would add "the Brothers Grimm," but no one saw that – or more likely, as Queen Gorgo in "the 300."

            As for the Globes, although we all know that the Hollywood Foreign Press association is actually less than 100 journalists – I always bought into the big party idea – Actors from film and TV in the same room, getting looped on cocktails and saying things they might not say at other awards show – that is until that was seized upon by the forces of marketing – a forced/fake ploy ”Watch out – anything can happen!"

            But the reason for my soft spot for the Globes is that the night my daughter was born, the waiting area outside the delivery room featured a TV that was playing the Globes. There was a very disparate group assembled there (there’s a whole other story there, but I’ll save that for another time) but the Globes provided us with fodder for conversation – a common ground – to discuss and relate to. Everyone, including the nurses at the desk, embraced the show as a distraction, as a celebration at a time of celebration… and so the very notion of The Golden Globes brings a smile to my face.

            This year, however, I will miss my favorite part of the Globes – seeing how fast the fashion worn by the (female) winners makes into the window of ABS, the clothing store famous for knocking off – I mean creating fashions “inspired by…..”

 

BY THE WAY – WHY IS IT…. British and Australian actors and actresses have no trouble ditching their accents to play Americans (the afore-mentioned Ms. Headey, as well as Hugh Laurie, Rachel Griffiths, Frances O’Connor) but Americans….can only seem to adopt a British accent as an affectation (Madonna).