Malibu Resident’s Film Takes Top Honors at the Golden Globe Awards

BY JEREMY WALKER

Hollywood’s got it all worked out: the whole point of the handful of’televised award shows leading up to the Oscars is to spark and frame’debate, providing the competitively-minded with new reasons to visit the cinema and Academy voters a chance to size up how any one nominee might react if he or she were to win the big prize a few weeks from now.
As such, Golden Globe winners have a few seconds to speak directly to those voters. And in those few seconds, an honoree can set the record straight, appear magnanimous by thanking and praising others, appear pious and humble by thanking God, or, with presumably lower stakes on the table, appear scattered and overwhelmed (thank you, Drew Barrymore).
The first award of the night was presented to Mo’Nique for her widely praised performance in “Precious,” the latest and most acclaimed film by envelope-pushing producer and director Lee Daniels.
An actress and performer who over the last decade has built an empire around such overlapping domains as hip-hop, comedy, television and now movies, Mo’Nique lit up the blogs and urban radio very early in the initial release of “Precious” by telling the New York Daily News “I couldn’t eat that Oscar. Everybody needs money, baby. That’s how we survive, right?” which seemed to acknowledge rumors that she’d asked to be compensated for making publicity appearances on behalf of the film.
Mo’Nique used her Globes moment to keep her eyes on the prize with laser-beam focus, pointing out that she didn’t prepare a speech and that “I’m in the midst of my dream,” managing to reconcile art and commerce, humility and self-confidence. She also shared her award with “every person that’s ever been touched. It’s now time to tell, and it’s OK.”
With the help of host Ricky Gervais, Sunday’s ceremony cemented the Globes’ reputation as not just the booziest televised awards show of the season,but also the chummiest.
Gervais was an ideal choice: the same mischievous, deadpan sensibility that created the original version of “The Office” for British TV helped him get away with some candid takedowns of NBC, the network broadcasting the Globes and the same company that pays him a reported $50,000 an episode to broadcast the American version of “The Office.”
Throughout the ceremony, Gervais made a point of stealing sips from a glass of an amber-colored liquid that culminated in his introduction of the movie star who would present the trophy for best director, a star who also happens to be one of Malibu’s more infamous residents. “I like a drink as well as the next man,” Gervais offered. “Unless that man is Mel Gibson.”
In his acceptance speech Globe winner for Best Director, “Avatar’s” James Cameron noted that he and Gibson live next to each other (in Malibu) and suggested, “We should have done this in my neighborhood.” He also rather affably used his Globe moment to acknowledge that his main competitor in the category was his ex-wife, “The Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow.
The Globes seemed to make an effort to acknowledge the work of showbiz veterans who lack for nothing when it comes to fame, riches and clout but for whom kudos have been elusive. I’m thinking here of Mo’Nique and Sandra Bullock (honored for her work in “The Blind Side”), Jeff Bridges and T Bone Burnett (“Crazy Heart”) and on TV Chloe Sevigny and Drew Barrymore (HBO’s excellent “Big Love” and “Grey Gardens” respectively).
It was also nice to see Peter Rice, a year ago the Fox Searchlight Pictures president who oversaw the “Slumdog Millionaire” juggernaut that ultimately claimed the Oscar for Best Picture, collect kudos as Fox’s new president of television with the crew behind the hit show “Glee”
“Avatar” director James Cameron, accepting the Globe for Best Picture, summed up the evening’s vibe of tempered self-congratulation by saying, “We all have the best job in the world.”
Unless, of course, you happen to work at NBC.