14 DAY TRIAL // The nominations for this year’s Golden Globes were announced on December 14 and, since then, talk hasn’t ceased about how flawed they were for including critically-panned movies like “Burlesque” and “The Tourist” with the nominees.
A possible explanation for that could be that Sony Pictures, which distributed the former, bribed voting members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for the nod in the Best Picture, Comedy / Musical category.
In a recent piece in LA Times’ The Envelope, Patrick Goldstein hints that the voting members had a little more incentive than the very movie for the inclusion in the aforementioned category.
As he’s debating the importance of the Golden Globes, which, apparently, is non-existent, Goldstein goes to attack the voting members, who more than one put themselves in the hot spot by accepting small “presents” from promoters of the films in the race.
This also seems to have been the case with “Burlesque,” Goldstein says, which would explain how the film, a decent hit with audiences but a miserable flop with critics, made it on the list.
The “Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. [has] many flaws, including nominating for best picture for comedy / musical such critically drubbed clunkers as ‘The Tourist’ and ‘Burlesque’,” Goldstein writes.
“For years, reporters have published embarrassing stories about the HFPA, whose 81 voting members are for the most part obscure foreign entertainment journalists with little of the cachet of the 6,000-plus voting members of the Motion Picture Academy,” the says.
The parallel between the Globes and the Oscars is necessary because the former are hailed as the closest thing of an indicator of the winners at the latter ceremony – which is also a false assumption, Goldstein argues.
“Globes voters have been involved in all sorts of scandals and gaffes over the years. If you talk to the top award-season consultants, they can barely disguise their lack of respect for the HFPA members, who often put themselves in indelicate situations,” he says.
And then he adds, “as with this year’s crew, which took a Sony-sponsored trip to Las Vegas to see Cher in concert, then gave her film a stunning best picture nod.”
Clearly, he’s saying that, number one, the Golden Globes are overrated and, number two, that “Burlesque” literally bribed its way to a nomination with tickets to leading star Cher’s concert in Vegas.