Sure, some of the speeches were interesting and a few upsets kept things spicy, but the real story of the 67th Golden Globe Awards was the shocking ineptitude of the direction and production.
Think about it: Every five seconds, a camera lurched awkwardly around a table, cut to the wrong person, or gave us an unflattering shot of someone's back or elbow. Every time a winner tried to collect a prize, he or she had to navigate an impenetrable sea of tables and chairs. And then there were the slapstick bits, like a production guy stepping on Chloe Sveigny's gown and Matthew Morrison tripping up the stairs when he went on stage for Glee's big award. (Morrison's fall wasn't the show's fault, of course, but it was a good metaphor for the entire night.)
I've decided, however, that the glass is half full. If we tilt our heads the right way, then we can see five upsides to last night's amateurish Golden Globes telecast...
(1) When the panel she was supposed to step through didn't open, presenter Jodie Foster had to hike around the side of the set, creating a moment where it seemed like she wasn't going to show up. That arguably made her seem like a grande dame, shrewdly forcing her public to wait for her arrival.
(2) When Jeff Bridges' name was announced as a nominee for Best Performance By an Actor in a Motion Picture --- Drama, the camera cut to Leonardo DiCaprio. Some viewers may have momentarily believed that they were seeing a case of Hollywood plastic surgery gone shockingly right.
(3) Despite the fact that they were sitting in their assigned seats, the cameras couldn't find nominees Kyra Sedgwick or Kathryn Bigelow when their names were announced in their categories. This may have been perceived as a sly political statement about the marginalization of women in Hollywood.
(4) After making a big deal of announcing that Ricky Gervais would be the official host of the Golden Globes, the producers never created a natural space for him in the telecast, forcing him instead to pop up at random intervals, make a few jokes from behind a podium, and slink away. If he plays his cards right, then Gervais could spin this into his latest comedy about painfully awkward social moments.
(5) In the wake of this disaster, the Tony Awards now seem like a polished entertainment machine, even if you include the year they broke Bret Michaels' nose.
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