2014 Golden Globes show some ‘American Hustle’

The annual film and TV awards show has come and gone, and in its wake leaves behind a whole slew of drunken Tinsletown memories.

By NOA AMOUYAL
The cast of 'American Hustle.' (photo credit: REUTERS)
The cast of 'American Hustle.'
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Golden Globe Awards have become a showcase for random, unsolicited bursts of cursing fueled by booze and jovial carefree celebs who – for once – are happy to let their guard down at what is now known as the “party of the year.”
Contrary to the sober, formal and more prestigious Academy Awards, the Golden Globes are certainly the most fun ceremony (or trainwreck) to watch.
But drunken shenanigans weren’t the only highlights of the night (although, there were quite a few and more on those later). Below, some key moments of last night’s show.
Tina Fey and Amy Phoeler win at everything: Following the glowing reviews gleaned from last year’s Golden Globe hosting gig was no easy feat for the comedy duo, but they proved once again that if you need a host, these two should be on speed dial.
Looking stunning in their gowns, the two sauntered onto the stage and tossed zinger after zinger at the star-studded crowd. The best dig of the night, though, was directed at George Clooney. Very loosely describing the plot of Gravity, Phoeler took a swipe at Clooney’s track record for dating much younger women and joked, “It’s a story about how George Clooney would rather float into space and die then spend more than a moment with a woman his own age.”
The two of have already signed on to host the telecast next year and Hollywood – and the viewing public – should be grateful.
Leonardo DiCaprio finally rewarded: It’s hard to feel sorry for a man who dates supermodels and rakes in millions of dollars a year, but his award show track record is nothing to envy. Despite carrying critically revered films such as Django Unchained, Inception and The Departed, aside from a Golden Globe win in 2005 for The Aviator, his trophy mantle is notably barren.
He finally won for his turn as a hedonistically corrupt Wall Street stockbroker in Martin Scoreses’s The Wolf of Wall Street. Looking grateful, and a tad surprised, he paid wisely paid tribute to frequent collaborator Scorsese as a “visionary” and said, “you’ll be regarded as one of the great artists of our time, thank you for your mentorship.”
It’s good to be bad – Breaking Bad finally wins: Speaking of long overdue wins, AMC’s drama snagged best drama series and best actor for its final season. The dark, twisted tale of Walter White – a cancer- stricken chemistry teacher who turns to selling and “cooking” methamphetamines to pay his medical bills – became one of television’s most poignant morality sagas, which captivated audiences for five years.
When creator Vince Gilligan let supporting actor nominee Aaron Paul take the stage, Paul took the opportunity to bring his Jesse Pinkman back to life one final time and shouted his character’s most famous catchphrase, “Yeah, bitch!,” much to the delight of the audience.
Women of a certain age: Typically, award show ceremonies are dominated by f resh-f aced ingénues. This year, however, indicates that Hollywood may be finally acknowledge the fact that excellent actresses do age and that should be something to embrace. Three of this year’s female winners – Amy Phoeler, 42; Jacqueline Bisset, 69; and Robin Wright, 47– are all over the age of 40 (At 39, Amy Adams, who won for American Hustle, comes in a hair below that benchmark). Not to mention the other over 40 female nominees such as Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Sandra Bullock.
Of course, it helps that most of these women are in incredible shape – seemingly defying all aspects of physics and nature, Robin Wright confidently sprinted to the stage in a slivery, clingy gown and without any form of support underneath her frock, and looked fabulous doing so.
Brigitte Bardot once said, “Every age can be enchanting, provided you live within it.” Let’s hope Hollywood takes note of that and this year’s trend of recognizing satisfying, enriching roles for women are here to stay.
Everybody was drunk: Okay, not everybody. But more than a handful of the celebrities that sauntered onto the stage gave random, bewildering speeches and looked sloshed.
When accepting the Cecil B. DeMille award for Woody Allen, Diane Keaton thought it was appropriate to end her speech by singing a Girl Scouts song called “Make New Friends (But Keep The Old)” to the director (who wasn’t even in attendance).
Jacqueline Bisset, who won for Best Supporting Actress in a Miniseries, looked both simultaneously grateful and annoyed to have won during her profanity-laced speech.
And God bless Emma Thompson, who graced the stage holding a martini glass in one hand and her Christian Louboutins heels in the other. Whether Thompson was actually drunk or doing a very good impression of a lush is unclear, but it certainly explains Jennifer Lawrence’s proclamation backstage that she “needs to catch up on her drinking.” You would need to in a crowd like this.
That said, while fun to watch the Golden Globes is not an award show to take seriously. Yes, statistics show that most movies nominated go on to win nominations at the Oscars (expect American Hustle to make a big splash when those nominations are announced on Thursday), however there is no overlap between the Hollywood Foreign Press and Academy Award members.
The HFPA – an association that has spent years dodging bribery and corruption claims – is a voting body of foreign critics, while the Academy members are actual members of the cast and crew that make the films voted on.
Plus, it is hard to take an organization seriously when they clearly don’t know – or care – what a comedy is. Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle and Her were all nominated for Best Musical or Comedy and they’re clearly neither. “They’re fantastic movies,” Anchorman 2 director Adam McKay said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “But we were joking that between all those [Best Comedy nominees], there’s probably, like, nine laughs.”
It may not be the most credible spectacle, but when it comes to the party of the year, there’s always reason to watch.