What I’ve learned from the Golden Globes red carpet special
Nancy O’Dell: Red Carpet Softball Interviewer or Medieval Warrior Princess?
1. The Golden Globes are apparently “the party of the year”; I know this because host Nancy O’Dell of Access Hollywood said it approximately every 45 seconds.
2. Peter Gabriel is the most honest man in Hollywood: He said he was happy to be at the Golden Globes because “it’s short, there’s food and there’s alcohol.” Not only does his song “Down to Earth” (from the brilliant “WALL-E”) deserve to win, he should get a medal for truthfulness.
3. If the New York Giants hadn’t lost so horribly today to the Philadelphia Eagles, I would feel sorry for Tiki Barber. I mean, he actually just asked Steve Carell, “Can you do something wacky for me right here?” I can’t speak for Tiki, but I would rather take a shattering smashmouth hit from Ronde than look as uncomfortable as Tiki does out there asking “How does it feel to be nominated?”
4. Nancy O’Dell wants to be a medievel princess. Her outfit and hairdo looked like it came straight out of an episode of “Xena: Warrior Princess” or “Legend of the Seeker.”
5. Did someone outlaw color before tonight’s awards show? Nearly every woman’s dress is nude, off-white, winter white, muted silver, dull gold or pale green. Kate Winslet broke up the monotony by wearing … black. Even Maggie Gyllenhaal’s leopard print dress is black and white leopard print. I couldn’t even listen to Blair Underwood’s interview, since I was mesmerized by his wife’s forest-green dress. Wow, color!
Several of the stars seem to be compensating for the lack of color with huge chunky necklaces that look big enough to serve as the collar of a particularly chic elephant.
6. Apparently, the trend is to dresses that don’t quite fit. Blake Lively’s dress looked too snug around the midriff. America Ferrera’s dress was attractive but seemed a bit too big at the bust; the darts didn’t seem to fit properly. To be fair, some did look great in perfectly fitting gowns; Sigourney Weaver’s steel-gray gown looked perfect, if a bit neutrally colored.
7. Steve Carell looks really, really great in a beard.
8. Can somebody please ask about something else besides Heath Ledger’s death? Aaron Eckhart got asked twice about it, Maggie Gyllenhall got quizzed about, and Rachel Griffiths just got randomly asked “Did you know Heath?” We got it, guys, he tragically passed away, he’s nominated tonight and favored to win. And shockingly, everyone thinks his dying young of a drug overdose is … sad. Insightful.
9. Denis Leary brought his whole family, including his wife and two kids. That’s awesome.
10. There are three hosts on this special, and they really want to know of all the big stars and talented actors is “How are you most looking forward to seeing tonight?” Wow, penetrating questions.
This started out as a top 10 list, but it’s so darn educational, I’ve added more:
11. I’m still not sure if I totally buy the whole mercury poisoning story from Jeremy Piven, but just seeing him on the red carpet, he definitely looks like he’s been sick. He seemed very thin and pale.
12. I’m grateful to Dustin Hoffman for hijacking his dull red carpet interview with O’Dell. Whether he was pretending or really couldn’t hear her questions, I’m glad he took the notecard out of her hand and just started making stuff up. That little bit of laughter gave me the courage to go on.
13. I give thanks also to Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell of “In Bruges” for their fun interview, which has raised my opinion of Farrell dramatically. And Eva Mendes certainly seems to be, um, getting into the spirit of things, just sneaking up on Colin while he was being interviewed and starting a chat with him. I just think that the more of the these insipid interviews we can hijack, the better. (And judging from the chemistry between Gleeson and Farrell, I definitely need to see “In Bruges.”)
14. Nancy O’Dell needs to know her limitations: She attempted to interview Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr. and his lady and Sting and his wife all at the same time, and they defeated her. Tom went easy on her for a minute or two, but Downey decided if he couldn’t hear the question, he was just going to walk off. When she tried to move on to Sting, she asked how it felt to be nominated, and guess what, he’s not nominated. Just because you’re dressed like a warrior princess, doesn’t mean you can take on the whole red carpet crowd at all once, Nancy.
15. I think Pierce Brosnan’s wife Keely is beautiful. And Pierce may think singing in “Mamma Mia!” was a piece of cake, but it wasn’t exactly sweet on the ears.
Conclusion: Most of these interviews were disrupted or were simply disastrous because no one could hear what the questions were over the screams of the crowds surrounding the red carpet area. Could the producers not foresee this problem? I’m sincerely hoping the show itself is better planned. I would hate for the canned banter and babbling acceptance speeches to be any more awkward than they are already destined to be.
Live-blog of the show coming up. Stick around to read my running commentary of the Golden Globes.
-BAM
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