the boring but cool awards

Because of the writers' strike, which you all should be supporting, the Golden Globe Awards this year consisted of a boring half-hour long press conference. Good thing about this: totally short awards. Bad thing about this: not enough drunk people. Seriously, the Golden Globes is all about the open bar and watching celebrities get their awards at the end of the night while being totally drunk. Or, you know, stuck in the bathroom as one winner did a few years ago.

At least Mary Hart is still looking good after all these years. I think it's plastic surgery, Aaron thinks it's just good genes. Maybe she's got some Dorian Grey-type portrait in her office at Entertainment Tonight or something.

As for the awards themselves, I give them an "eh" for being blah. First, the only Office nomination was for Steve Carell as best actor and he lost to David Duchovny. What the hell is this -- 1999? Not that I'm complaining considering David is making a new X Files movie and is easy on the eyes. But other than that, I just don't know. I read Ian McEwan's book Atonement a few years ago and didn't much care for it so I don't plan on seeing the movie so who cares if it won best drama? I may have to see Sweeney Todd now at the theater and same with Mad Men on my Tivo.

But other than that, I'm surprised I missed making fun of drunk people in hideous dresses. I thought I was less superficial than that. Apparently not.

the oscars aren't dead

They're merely departed. Ok, who else was so freaking excited that The Departed won best picture? I was so geeking out when they announced that. Yeah yeah yeah!!!!!

Other highlights:

-- Martin Scorsese winning best director. Not only was it cool, but you knew it was going to happen as soon as Coppola, Spielberg, and Lucas came out to present the Oscar. It was so awesome! You could tell he really is loved by the movie people and it's not some showy kiss ass thing.

-- Alan Arkin winning best supporting actor. If you haven't seen Little Miss Sunshine, get your ass out there and find a way to watch it. Such a great movie and Alan did a great job.

-- Helen Mirren is hot. I mean, hot. I hope I look that good when I'm her age.

-- Loved the musical number about not getting nominated as a comedic actor. Will Farrell, Jack Black, and John C. O'Reilly were all great in that!

-- Speaking of singing numbers, who else loved the Dreamgirls performance? I'm sure one of those songs would have won an Oscar, but with three in the same category, they split the vote. That being said, Melissa Ethridge's song was great.

-- I saw Al Gore on The Daily Show when I went to a taping of the show years ago. He was hilarious and I remember Jon Stewart asked him "Why weren't you this funny during the campaign?" He brought the funny again last night and I loved his little thing when he was about to announce something and then the orchestra played him off.

-- Ellen's fangirl schtick where she gave Martin Scorsese a script and had her picture taken with Clint Eastwood.

Disappointments:

-- I was really pulling for Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg to win. Mark's performance was awesome in the movie. As for Leo, that guy deserves an Oscar win sooner or later. He may be a cute guy that all the 14-year-old girls love, but don't let that fool you. He really is an amazing talent.

-- My Tivo cut the show short because I only programmed it to add an hour. What the hell was up with that? Long show.

So go see The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, and The Queen. You're welcome.

gram of grammys

Did anyone else watch the Grammys last night? I did, but learned a valuable lesson when I rewatched it with the husband. It would have been a much better idea to just let the Tivo tape the show and then watch it. Seriously, I was able to reduce a four-hour Grammy show to a half hour with Tivo.

Now don't get me wrong, there were some highlights like:
-- The Police reunited!!!!! [YouTube link here]
-- Justin Timberlake's two performances
-- Mary J on fire as always

But then there were some...I don't know how else to describe it except complete crap performances like:
-- Chris Brown "performing" a song that he sang probably ten whole words of the whole time while dancing the rest and letting his back-up singers do the heavy lifting
-- Ludacris rapping a song about some runaway girl [yes, I understand that some kids live troubled lives, but there's a difference between bringing attention to their plight and over doing it just to have people think you're a "serious" rapper]
-- Shakira's performance was ok, but you have to wonder how interesting a two-hour concert is when all she does is shimmy around the same way over and over again. Not only do her hips not lie, but they don't shut up, which would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that they say the same things over and over and over again

The big winners last night were the Dixie Chicks and I do like that one song about not wanting to place nice but all those Grammys were too many. Justin Timberlake should have at least gotten a few that went to the country chicks. As the husband and I talked about later, it's always weird with the Grammys. More than any other award show, when an artist starts to get momentum in the first hour of the award show, you know they're going to sweep everything. Even the Oscars aren't like that.

So yeah, did anyone even pay attention to this or was it just me?

actors awarding actors

Yeah, it's definitely one of those "scratch my back and I'll give you a SAG" kind of thing, but the Screen Actors Guild had their own awards show last night with a few surprises. First among them was the fact that Little Miss Sunshine won for best movie ensemble, beating out casts from The Departed and Dreamgirls among others. If you haven't seen Little Miss Sunshine, you need to. That being said, I still don't think it has a chance at the Oscar this year, but that's just me.

On the other hand, a few shoe-ins were shoe-ins again last night. Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson won for their work in Dreamgirls and Helen Mirren won for The Queen. All deserved. And dare I say it, but Helen Mirren is pretty awesome.

On the TV side, well, all you have to know is The Office won for best comedy ensemble. That really is all that matters. If you're not watching The Office, something is seriously wrong with you. Watch it now if only because John Krasinski looks hot in a tux.

Little known fact: those SAG statues are 12 pounds. That's alot of pounds.

oscar the grouch

The Oscar nominations came out today with a few big surprises.

First, "Dreamgirls" was nominated for eight Oscars, making it the highest nominated. That being said, it is NOT up for Best Picture. Yeah, that's right. Best picture is not one of its potential wins. Quite a shocker.

So what happened? The Academy this year decided to nominate a few dark horses. First among them was "Little Miss Sunshine," which I can't say enough good things about. The movie was nominated for best picture as well as supporting nods for Alan Arkin and adorable Abigail Breslin. I'm sure she's not going to win this year -- she's up against Cate Blanchett and shoe-in Jennifer Hudson -- but she's still so good in that movie.

The Best Picture nominees are "The Departed," "Babel," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine" and "The Queen." I've only seen one of these so far so I have to get on the train and start checking all of them out, starting with "The Queen" this week. I just hope they bring "The Departed" back and have some of the smaller films make their way to the middle of Indiana. And is anyone else surprised that "Letters From Iwo Jima" was nominated, but not its English companion "Flags of Our Fathers"?

I'm getting all kinds of excited for this year and will be pulling my tiara out for whatever local party I'm going to. YEAH!

Edited to add: Did anyone see the list for Original Song? Prince won the Golden Globe for that and didn't even get nominated for the Oscar. Meanwhile, there are three songs from Dreamgirls nominated, one from Cars, and apparently a song written specifically for Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." Really? We'll see how this category shapes up. All five nominated songs are performed at the Oscars [it's the music portion of the movie awards show] so this should be quite interesting. At least there's no 3 6 Mafia this year.

And in the documentary category, Al Gore could win an Oscar and what's better: Being President of the United States or an Oscar winner? That being said, he's up against a movie called "Jesus Camp" so this could be quite the interesting category.

Full list of nominees is here.

red carpet interviews

I love watching all the pre-show coverage before the Golden Globes or the Oscars to see what people are wearing or hope I catch a glimpse of one of my favorite actors or singers getting interviewed. But as I watched all the entertainment coverage on Monday, I realized that there are certain criteria to get a job being an red carpet interviewer. First, you have to look pretty. Second, you have to dress pretty. Third, you have to be a vapid idiot.

For example, let's say I'm given the chance to do a red carpet interview with Leonardo DiCaprio at the Golden Globes. Here are some things I would ask:

-- The Departed is your third movie with Martin Scorcese. Why do you like working with him so much?
-- How did you learn the accent you used in "Blood Diamond" and how long did it take you to get it right?

You know, things like that. Instead, these were the questions that Leo was asked.

-- Who are you wearing?
-- How long did it take you to get ready today?
-- Who is your date?

Really? That's all you can come up with? It gets worse when the different outfits make celebrities look stupid with hokey pokey garbage. These things would include:

-- The rotating platform that Entertainment Tonight made people stand on while being interviewed by Mary Hart.
-- The Glam Cam on E!. Make sure to stand still while we take a full body shot of your outfit as we zoom up your legs to your crotch, your cleavage, and finally, your face as an afterthought.
-- The Insider Confessional Cam! Confess your darkest secrets, Sheryl Crow, or you won't get free Moet champagne.
-- The Insider Two-Way Mirror. Because wouldn't it be embarassing if a celeb's dress was accidentally tucked into her underwear before she went it?
-- The E! Post-Show Interview Lounge with an open bar! It started lame and then the chick from E! put Helen Mirren's Golden Globes on some stupid stand that rotates around and accidentally dropped one. Yes, she dropped Helen Mirren's Golden Globe. Awkward.

So yeah, it's times like these when I'm glad I have a Tivo and a mute button. I will admit, I Tivoed all the shows mentioned above, but I was also admit that it only took me 20 minutes to get through three hours of that crap before deleting it forever.