The official Golden Globe nominations were held last Thursday. You know what that means: award season is upon us. Yay?
If you're starring in one of the movies nominated: fun! For the rest of us, as their recent ratings can attest, the Golden Globes and Oscars are just another snoozefest of self-congratulatory Hollywood crap. Every few years there might an upset, in which someone like Diablo Cody struts off with an award, but usually the awards shows highlight only "serious" thespians who practically scream "ACTING!" in every film (Philip Seymor Hoffman, I'm looking at you).
At least during the Golden Globes, which award both dramatic and comedic performances, there is a little leeway for goofiness. Still, it isn't enough. Who says that musicals have to get lumped in with comedy? Didn't anyone see Les Mis? Shit is sad.
If it was up to us, the Golden Globes would fracture their categories even further, until the real heroes of 2008 got recognized. Sure, the addition of our special awards would drag the ceremony out another 2 hours, but that's just more time for Sean Young to get wasted and start screaming at Julian Schnabel again.
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Russell Brand as Johnny Depp's brother in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Rumors were afloat, now they are sunk, but hey crazier things have been going around. Like Zac Efron being offered $10 million for the role.
Russell Brand, that saucy British bloke who had a minor part in the Apatow-produced Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and who somewhat inexplicably ended up hosting the MTV VMAs this year, certainly has a penchant of sticking his nose into trouble.
The sexy/hideous (point is still up for contention) Brand is most famous for his comedian/rock star shtick, and has written a book about his drug addiction and struggle with recovery. But even after several years of solid sobriety, the guy just can't seem to get himself together. First he pissed of Jonas Brother fans everywhere by making fun of the trio's virginity and their promise rings at the VMAs, and now he's in it deep in his own country after a prank phone call during a radio broadcast went terribly wrong.
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Besides knowing that the world is an increasingly depressing place, if you watched the Video Music Awards last night, you know they briefly morphed from a tedious insult to America's intelligence into an impromptu back-and-forth about premarital sex.
After host Russell Brand mocked young, Christian superstars the Jonas Brothers for their "purity rings," signs of their virginity, American Idol winner Jordin Sparks interrupted her scripted appearance to mew that some people wear promise rings because they don't want to be "a slut."
MTV had its Video Music Awards last night and yeah, Michael Phelps was there though no one knows quite why he was asked to present. And freaky scarecrow sex-man Russell Brand hosted though no one knows quite what he was doing there, either.
Oh well, the real story here is about Britney Spears and her triumphant return to the stage after last year's debacle where the once tween queen appeared overweight and on the verge of mental and physical collapse.
This year Britney looked fine and healthy (if a bit wooden on the dialogue, but a Lexapro/Wellbutrin cocktail will do that to you), though the same couldn't be said about the show's audience, unfortunately:
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We thought Larry Rudolph put an end to the rumors about Britney Spears performing at this weekend's VMAs, but MTV won't shut up about it. According to the network, Brit will be opening the show, but "it is not a performance."
If anyone saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall, the highlight of the film was Russell Brand's character, Aldous Snow. What could have been a one-dimensional role as a egotistical, sex-obsessed rock star was actually given depth and humor by Brand's portrayal of Snow as a recovering alcoholic with a little more self-awareness than perhaps any of the other characters in the Apatow factory churn-out.
American audiences might not have been in on the joke, which is that Brand himself is a comedian and musician, and that his public persona of a disheveled, disorderly rock star was never just an act; the Brit has struggled with a heroin problem, alcoholism, and sex addiction, all of which he has "kicked with professional treatment." But with Amy Winehouse having to phone in her Grammy performance earlier this year, and Britney Spears' infamous performance at the VMAs in 2007, why have producers pegged Brand to be the host of the MTVs Video Music Awards this year? And more importantly; who is really in on the joke:
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