By Lee Pfeiffer
Well, the 2010 Golden Globes are history and although I couldn't bring myself to sit through the three hour back-slapping fest, I did listen in from the other room while I worked on my computer. Occasionally, I'd force myself in front of the TV just to catch a glimpse of what someone looked like. I discovered that Sophia Loren, Paul McCartney, Harrison Ford and Pierce Brosnan appear to be aging very well indeed, but I couldn't be enticed to stick around for much more. The acceptance speeches were the usual cringe-inducing embarrassments, proving that many actors can barely manage to improvise "hello" without a script in front of them. There were several of the standard "I didn't think I'd win, so I didn't prepare a speech!" yarns that must have seemed stale and insincere when Mary Pickford was still box-office queen. Ricky Gervais was fairly amusing as host, making a few memorable one-liners. ("I like a drink as much as the next man - unless the next man is Mel Gibson", he said while swigging beer and introducing the scandal-plagued Gibson). There were also plenty of jokes at the expense of NBC, which telecast the event, and most of them related to the on-going Jay Leno-Conan O'Brien debacle. Network execs must have smiling on the outside but hitting the bottle as soon as the ceremonies were over. One highlight was the DeMille award to Martin Scorsese, though I could have sworn Scorsese was given this honor about five times already. Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio presented the honor. The legendary director made a gracious and classy speech about the importance of preserving film and made references to cinematic legends that half that the airheads in the audience probably never even heard of. Scorsese was refreshing because he managed to get through his speech without having to use obscene jokes or references to the toilet in order to prove how "edgy" he can be, as virtually every other person on stage seemed compelled to do. He also informed us that the Hollywood Foreign Press, the farcical "news" organization that sponsors the Globes, actually does help in preserving films. So there's your proof they do
something other than throw lavish parties for themselves. James Cameron won best director and
Avatar copped best drama, the two big awards of the night. Cameron may be a genius behind the camera but the first line of his acceptance speech informed the worldwide audience that he really had to pee. Nice. Can you imagine Hitchcock or Ford using an awards show to make such a poignant observation? Rather than drone on,
click here to read Nikke Finke's no-holds-barred coverage of the snoozefest. With the Globes finally over (they did end right on time, to the producer's credit), I can now turn my attention to something far more entertaining like a Lorne Green Film Festival.