Those Parochial Golden Globes

One commonly assumes that movies and television shows that win industry awards are therefore the best movies and television shows, the apex of artistic achievement. With the new year approaching, the awards buzz starts again. The unveiling of this years Golden Globes nominations underscores that in some instances the best are being saluted. In others, Hollywood is celebrating its own sense of enlightened outrageousness.

In one sense, the Golden Globes is a bit of a (bad) joke. How many people know its a tiny operation run by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which consists of only 83 voting members, all heavily lobbied by studio brass? Its better to think of the nomination process not as a measurement of art, but as the Hollywood equivalent of a high-school popularity contest. And just like high school, the trendy, naughty stuff that shows a little skin and talks with a little titillation is more likely to prevail in any judgment of art.

For TV, the drama series picks were Foxs "24," ABCs "Lost," FXs "Nip/Tuck" and HBOs "The Sopranos" and Deadwood. If this is the very best in television, the Golden Globes underscores the miserable condition of the entertainment industry today.

Hollywood judging panels always bow and scrape toward HBO, hailed as the courageous envelope-shredding pioneer of pay-cable, even as The Sopranos vanishes and the dark, depressing Western drama Deadwood features a realistic though perfunctory F-word every thirty seconds. At least those shows have some production values and some vague sense of good and evil. You cannot say that Nip/Tuck has either of these. In fact, you can never say too much about how ridiculously offensive it is. Its long-running sub-plot about the female life coach sleeping with the 14-year-old boy (and her own teenage son, too) culminates upon the revelation that she was really a transsexual. Its this kind of plotting genius that is so appealing to the Golden Globes crowd.

The comedy nominees were Foxs "Arrested Development," ABCs "Desperate Housewives," NBCs Will & Grace and HBOs Sex and the City and "Entourage." Once again, these nominees all share one thing in common: they are also dark and disturbing, even when the humor is attached.

For example, one plot on Will & Grace this fall featured Grace joining Alcoholics Anonymous for the free food, even though shes not an alcoholic. If thats not cynical enough, Grace then jokes that she wants a beer because "Michelle was talking about having a cold frosty one before the state took away her kids." The laugh track ran a large guffaw at this "hilarious" joke about a family being destroyed by alcoholism; its thumbs-up stuff for the Golden Globes.

Then there are the movie categories. One thing you can no longer say about the Golden Globes is that theyre not a reliable indicator of who will win the Oscars. In early 2004, the Oscar winners and the Golden Globe winners were exactly the same in the major categories. Charlize Theron and Sean Penn in lead roles, check. Renee Zellweger and Tim Robbins in supporting roles, check. Lord of the Rings, best picture, director, and even best song and score, check.

It follows, then, that if the Golden Globes ignore a film, so will Oscar.

This may be why Mel Gibson decided to forego wasting his money on trying to get award consideration for his massive hit The Passion of the Christ. Not only was the Gibson film snubbed from Golden Globe nominations in every category, the exclusion was excluded from multiple news reports. There was no mention of the Passion snub in the AP story, or the Hollywood Reporter, or the New York Times, or the Washington Post.

While the Golden Globe movie picks arent as universally dark as the TV nods, its not surprising that the libertine left (or is it the libertarian right?) in Hollywood did find characters worth honoring with Golden Globe nominations. Nods of approval went to the sophisticated sexologist Kinsey and the abortionist title character of Vera Drake. These figures make better Hollywood heroes than the suffering but certain Jesus of Gibsons vision, a Jesus so unlike the confused horny-hippie Jesus of Martin Scorsese in The Last Temptation of Christ.

The Golden Globe may desire the cachet of being a global honor, but nothing is further from the truth. These awards are only parochial, with everyone involved in the festivities reflecting only the twisted values that rule in the 90210 zip code. Its comforting to know that over time, what the rest of America holds dear in their hearts will be remembered, and a lot of todays pointless sleaze, which the Golden Globes is honoring, will be forgotten.