14 DAY TRIAL // The 2011 Golden Globes Awards were last night. As usual, the ceremony included plenty of hysterically funny bits, but also moments when an awkward silence seemed to take over the entire audience, labeled by The Washington Post’s Celebritology as the biggest fails of the night.
The e-zine says that there were plenty of such moments, so it’s started a new topic on Twitter under the hashtag #globesfail so that fans can add their own.
Still, it seems to consider host Ricky Gervais’ jabs at Robert Downey Jr.’s past drug use as the most awkward and lame because they were simply uncalled for – and also very dated.
Unlike other media outlets, the Post admits that Gervais had moments when he was extremely funny – but they came interspersed with those when he’d put his own foot in his mouth.
Which is precisely what happened when he joked about Downey’s stints in rehab of many years ago. “Many of you in this room probably know him best from such facilities as the Betty Ford Clinic and Los Angeles County Jail,” he introduced Robert by saying.
Downey’s reply was brilliant, the e-zine says, because it showed that, first of all, it’s hard to shake up the actor and secondly, that you have to be prepared to get your own share of jokes if you’re willing to get into the ring with him.
“[It] was delicious. So all in all, it made for quality TV, but still counted as a decided fail on Gervais’ fault. Nobody puts Iron Man in a bad punchline,” the Post writes.
On the fashion side, the e-zine considers Helena Bonham Carter’s dress and mismatched shoes as a fail (though, for the sake of argument, this particular actress seems to get a rise out of dressing this way and has trademarked this look) and Scarlett Johansson’s hair, which reminded of Madeline Kahn’s do in “Young Frankenstein.”
The Post also considers Robert de Niro’s acceptance speech a bit too odd, like it had been written for him by someone else and he simply didn’t care about it, so he read it either way.
Speaking of speeches, the way producers cut acceptance speeches when they ran for too long was also one of the biggest fails of the night – not to mention disrespectful.
“Right off the bat, Christian Bale’s mic got turned off because he spoke a bit too long. But other speakers also either got cut off or seemed to feel great concern about potentially getting the hook. It’s an awards show. If it runs over by 10 minutes, really, it’s okay,” the Post writes.
On the other hand, producers made it a point of showing off power couple Brangelina, constantly cutting to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in an extremely obvious and quite annoying manner throughout the night.
“Gratuitous celeb-crowd reaction shots are a Globes specialty. But this year, the producers went a bit overboard, especially with the perpetual close-ups on Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. See Jolie fixing Pitt’s tie. See Jolie snuggling up to Pitt during the ceremony. See Jolie putting on lip gloss. See viewers around the country rolling their eyes at all the Brangelina attention,” says the Post.
If you feel other important fail moments at the Golden Globes 2011 were left out of the above article, please feel free to share them with us in the comments section below.