Same time, next year: the last two years I’ve met Ricky Gervais in the same spot right after he finished hosting the Golden Globes. Last year he was sweating and nervous, and looked like a man on the lam from the authorities. This year he was glowing, happy with his performance. It included lovely swipes at the Hollywood Foreign Press, all the movie stars, and a funny one about Justin Bieber and a turkey baster. Some people thought he restrained himself, in fact. But at the adjoining table, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, dining with Clive Owen, said Ricky was great. “Australians know how to take the piss all the time,” Nicole said.
And Ricky? “I think the audience was ready for it. They were less shocked. Also, nothing was gratuitous. They were all things that made sense. You couldn’t disagree with them.”
Instead of dreading the outcome, Ricky– who was not quite sober by the time he reached HBO but still quite coherent and hilarious as always–was accepting all kinds of kudos. Among the heavyweights who crowded around at the HBO party– a great one in the annals by the way–Jane Fonda and Richard Perry, Harrison Ford and Calista Flockhart, Lea Thompson, Michael Fassbender, Evan Rachel Wood, Guy Pearce, Jeff Garlin, producer Jerry Weintraub, Elizabeth McGovern (celebrating her “Downton Abbey” win) with director  “My Week with Marilyn” Simon Curtis–also her husband.
PS Fassbender told me didn’t mind George Clooney‘s jokes about his nude scenes in “Shame” Â during the show, by the way. “If they’re from George Clooney, they’re ok,” he said.