The entertainment biz is a buzz tonight about Sunday’s Golden Globes, the scandals, and Ricky Gervais. There are so many different versions of the story by now, who knows what’s going on?
I had two interactions with HFPA president Phil Berk last night. Before the show started, he came out in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton and asked me rhetorically, “Why don’t the people come in and eat the food? No one is eating!” After the show he came up to me and said, “Great show! We put on a great show!” It’s as if he’s Martin Landau playing Ed Wood playing Phil Berk. He loves being famous even if it means he’s a joke.
One Hollywood blog, called thewrap.com, is gung ho about the scandals of the Globes and the Hollywood Foreign Press. They’re writing about it constantly. Another, Deadline.com, has turned into such a suck up machine that they’ve abandoned the subject entirely. They’ve never reported on the lawsuit filed by Michael Russell against the HFPA. They do lob ad hominem, personal attacks against everyone else (so and so is an a-hole, etc).
Then there’s the new HFPA press rep, Ken Sunshine Associates. No one is better at spinning a story than Ken Sunshine, who I count as a friend. Thanks to Ken and his office, any of the following things are possible: the HFPA loved Ricky’s monologue or hated it. the dreadfully boring Phil Berk loved or hated it. Ricky will or will not be invited back. Ricky does or doesn”t care what people think. All of these things exist as true simultaneously now in reports. Ken is brilliant.
Also: does anyone aside from the real press care about the HFPA scandals? Conflict of interest? Bribery? Under the table deals? Fraud? In Hollywood, these things are considered admirable! Just the fact that the HFPA has gotten away with it all has made them seem cooler to this lunatic town.
For example: I found out that one of the more miserable members of the group went to Vegas an on all expense paid trip over New Year’s. Who paid? Possibly someone from a nominated film. When I asked Berk about it, he was eager to rat out the member. There’s no honor among thieves! As Robert DeNiro noted, they fight among themselves!
See the video of Ricky Gervais’s monologue below.
