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POP PSYCHOLOGY: Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globes nominations show funny idea of comedy

By Alex Goodman

Jan. 10, 2011 12:06 a.m.

This weekend, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will present the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards, in the midst of a long awards season dedicated to acknowledging those people almost anyone would recognize on the street over and over again. It’s like we’re beating a dead horse, except instead of horses, they’re rich and famous people, and instead of beating them, we’re giving them lots of applause and golden statuettes.

It’s easy to dismiss the Golden Globes, or at least to wonder why we need them a little more than a month before the Academy Awards. But really, can we blame the foreign press? Given the chance, I imagine anyone with a passion for movies would put together their own awards show.

I know this because so many of us already do. Every December brings a flurry of end-of-the-year lists from all the entertainment publications in the country, each of them its own tiny Oscar ceremony. And the non-published among us spend a good deal of time debating those lists, and oftentimes come up with a list or two of their own.

If we could, why not add a fancy venue, some shiny trophies and a bunch of celebrity guests, and put the whole thing on television so the world can witness our opinions?

So don’t knock the foreign press for hosting its own awards show ““ knock it for the nominees. More specifically, knock it for nominating the decidedly terrible “The Tourist” for three awards, all in the Comedy or Musical category.

To be fair, though, there were a number of good reasons to do that. First of all, if you nominate Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie for acting awards, there’s a good chance they’ll come to the ceremony. Just to make sure, you could always nominate Depp a second time for “Alice in Wonderland,” as the foreign press did ““ unless, of course, he thinks you’re joking and the whole thing backfires.

But that still doesn’t explain nominating “The Tourist,” a spy thriller, as a comedy. But maybe the foreign press is broadening the criteria for the category, to include movies that are unintentionally funny. However, they didn’t nominate Miley Cyrus for “The Last Song,” nor “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,” so that explanation doesn’t quite pan out.

Of course, the foreign press also stuck the comedy label to “Red,” Robert Schwentke’s action movie with Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren as middle-aged spies, so maybe the foreign press thinks espionage and violence is hilarious.

Or maybe the foreign press just didn’t think anything else in 2010 was funny. All of the good comedies last year ““ “Toy Story 3,” “Despicable Me,” “Tangled” and “Megamind” ““ were animated, so if you’re going to keep them in a separate category, as the foreign press does, that leaves “Grown Ups,” “The Other Guys” and “Jackass 3-D” as the top-grossing films actually trying to be funny. The foreign press could nominate “live-action comedies” as a whole, for being one big joke.

Actually, that might be the best explanation: Maybe the foreign press didn’t do the best job filling the gaping holes in the comedy category, but at least they realized there was one. After all, they did nab Ricky Gervais to host the Golden Globes ““ if anything can make up for a year of humorless movies, it’s Gervais onstage for a few hours, taking shots at his peers.

The foreign press has even given him the perfect punch line, assuming Johnny Depp comes to the show. And he really should ““ it nominated him twice.
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If you’re poring over your Golden Globes ballot late into the night, e-mail Goodman at [email protected]._

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