Golden Globes: 7 Best and Worst

A few years ago I wrote a blog about the Golden Globes being my favorite awards show (they award both television and film; they split comedy and drama etc), but last year I was really disturbed by the films and acting that they deemed nomination worthy (i.e 'Burlesque', Piper Perabo). This year the nominations weren't *as* bad although they missed quite a few of my favorites of 2011 ('Drive', Aaron Paul, Courtney Cox). I don't think I can really take this awards ceremony very seriously until they start re-thinking their nominations. Here are my best and worst from this years telecast:

BEST:

1. Best Win - That is a tie between Idris Elba for Luther and Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris. I've never seen Luther but Idris never got enough recognition for his work as Stringer Bell on The Wire, so I will accept this as compensation. Midnight in Paris is among my favorite films of 2011 but mostly for the beautifully inspiring screenplay - it was probably the only time during the awards that I shook my head in agreement.

2. Best Loss - The Help losing Best Drama. I really don’t understand the praise for this film. While, I certainly don’t think The Descendants was the Best Drama of the year I was rooting for anything to take the steam away from The Help.

3. Best reference to what I call 'The Tina Fey Syndrome' - Tina Fey! While presenting with Jane Lynch they spoke about how different they were from their characters – then Tina jokingly couldn’t come up with anything….because she plays a characterized version of herself on 30 Rock. I love Tina but I never understood why she got so much praise for “Liz Lemmon” when she wrote the character based on her own life – she’s not exactly stretching her limits.

4. Best Presenters - A tie between Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy’s very adorable and really well done jingle and Seth Rogen – who probably made me laugh the hardest with his announcement that he is hiding a “massive erection” while presenting with Kate Beckinsale. Then he really won me over by sarcastically describing My Week With Marilyn as “hysterical”.

5. Best Ricky Gervais moment - His opening was decent – not as good as last year, but I think expectations were high…maybe a little too high. I think it hurt his whole shtick that most people played along – Jodie Foster smiled and nodded as he joked about her “beaver” while Johnny Depp gave in to the fact that he hasn’t even seen The Tourist either. I think my favorite moment was when he called Colin Firth a racist - although it would be funnier if it was someone who was actually a known racist.

6. Best Speech - Claire Danes redeemed herself for all the speeches she gave for her Temple Grandin performance were she continually said the words “like” “awesome” and “um”. This time she remembers back to her teen years, winning the award for My So-Called Life and how she forgot to thank her parents - then she gives a heartfelt shout-out to her mom in the audience. I also enjoyed Sophia Vergara saying her speech in Spanish with Steve Levitan “translating” – brought some much needed laughter to the end of a very long show.

7. Best Dressed - The ever important question of the night...right? There were a lot of amazing dresses to be seen - like the warrior inspired dress that Nicole Kidman was wearing and the really sexy, but still classy dress that Rooney Mara wore. My two favorite looks of the night were Kristen Wiig and Emma Stone. Wiig stood out in a low-cut nude number - it was simple but still really elegant, while Emma gets the "most-improved" award (last year she looked horrendous with the blond hair, overly tanned skin and bright orange dress) - this year she rocked a gorgeous Lanvin dark purple and red dress complete with an unexpected eagle belt buckle.

Worst:

1. Worst Win - Michelle Williams secured her spot as an Oscar nominee but I really disagree with pretty much everyone. She did a really good impression of Marilyn Monroe but it wasn't worthy of all the praise. I would have been more ok with the award if she was nominated in the Drama category - since this is the one awards show that splits the Dramatic and Comedic acting I think this category should go to someone who was actually funny - like Kristen Wiig.

2. Worst Loss - What does HFPA have against Breaking Bad? Seriously, the show was snubbed for recognition for the past 3 years, along with Aaron Paul. I would also argue that Giancarlo Esposito created one of the most evil villains in recent memory and deserved a supporting actor recognition as well. For the past 2 years, they had the good sense to nominate Bryan Cranston (who has won 3 Emmy’s for his brilliant portrayal of Walter White) but he lost to Steve Buscemi last year but that wasn’t as much a punch to the face as this year’s winner – Kelsey Grammer? For real? I get that the Golden Globes usually pick “new” shows – and if they recognized Breaking Bad from the beginning I might not be as outraged. Bryan Cranston should never be on the losing end of any award. Period.

3. Worst reference to what I call 'The Tina Fey Syndrome' - It was sort of ironic that Matt Le Blanc won for his portrayal of... Matt Le Blanc. I’ve never seen Episodes and to be honest I have never heard anything good about it. Is Matt funny? Probably. Is is award-worthy? My answer is a resounding NO!. I feel the same way about Louis C.K – should he get a writing award for Louie? Hell yeah – that show is downright genius but when he was nominated for an acting Emmy, I definitely questioned it. I also don't think Zooey Deshanel should be getting any praise because I see no differentiation between her and her New Girl character.

4. Worst Presenters - I would like to go with Rob Lowe and Julianne Moore but that wasn't really their fault....so I will choose everyone else!! Seriously, everyone was really boring.

5. Worst Ricky Gervais Moment - Making a “like a virgin” joke about Madonna??? There are so many things to make fun of Madonna for – this one is just simply played out. Also, her “comeback” jokes were pretty unbearable to watch.

6. Worst Speech - Meryl Streep – I know everyone made fun of her for “acting surprised” but I actually think she expected Viola Davis would win. But then, she realized that she forgot her glasses so she couldn’t read her speech – however she wasn’t holding a speech and she sort of implied that it was on the monitor…which would just be weird. The whole thing struck me as odd – as was the camera panning to the celebs in the audience passing her glasses up to the stage only to have David Fincher keep them (what a dick)

7. Worst Dressed - There were a lot of flops like Jessica Beil wearing an antique wedding dress, the usually trendy Julie Bowen sporting a princess look that was much too immature for her and Sarah Michelle Geller who let her 2 year old daughter pick out the dress (which is totally cute so we might just have to let it slide…right?). Hands down Zooey Deshanel was the worst dressed in her “custom Prada”. Shame on them for letting her leave the house like that. Also, as much as I like the idea of Lea Michele’s dress – In the end it looks like something is growing on her body and about to suffocate her. I was having a panic attack just looking at her. Plus the hair

and makeup make her look older.

.