Golden Globes Overview

Golden Globes

OVERVIEW

The Golden Globe has truly proven to be worth its weight in that 24-karat metal in recent years. Its kudocast is the second-highest-rated awards show on TV (after the Oscar) and the prize has achieved a precious, sexy luster.

Rosalind Russell never won an Oscar or New York film crix kudo, but she's the biggest champ among actresses at the Golden Globes (5 wins, including best actress for Auntie Mame) where she never lost a race. Jack Nicholson reigns as the biggest overall champ,having 6 Globes for his film work.

It's Hollywood's hippest kudo because its voters (90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) aren't afraid to do what the Oscars so far have flinched at: they've given acting trophies to Madonna, Tom Cruise, Jim Carrey and Brad Pitt. Its ceremony is also Hollywood's grooviest party since it brings together the town's film and TV titans in a once-a-year fete that's still held over filet mignon and champagne — just like the Oscars, Grammys and Emmys used to be. The celebrants can be bawdy. Rat Packers Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr., used to storm the stage in the old days and orchestrate the good times. Both Joan Crawford and Bette Midler commandeered the podium (in different years), shook their chests and told the crowd, "I'll show ya a pair of Golden Globes!"

"The Golden Globes are fun," Warren Beatty once said. "The Oscars are business."

Golden Globe co-champ: Doctor Zhivago is tied with four other films as the biggest winner (5 awards).

It isn't easy to be more specific when comparing the two kudos. The Globes have twice as many awards as the Oscars, since they dispense separate trophies for dramas and comedies/musicals. Over the past 60 years, 44 Oscar Best Pictures had won a Best Picture Globe a few months earlier. Many of them had been completely snubbed by the critics' awards earlier, including The Greatest Show on Earth, An American in Paris, Gigi, The Sound of Music, Lawrence of Arabia, Oliver!, The Godfather, The French Connection, Platoon, Rain Man, Out of Africa, The Last Emperor, The English Patient, Titanic and Shakespeare in Love. In the past 30 years, 22 of Oscar’s Best Actors (73 percent) and 25 Best Actresses (83 percent) were previous Globe winners for the same roles.

But the Globes have also stood their own ground, making stellar choices overlooked by the Oscars, including such Best Pictures as American Grafitti, Arthur, Babe, Becket, The Defiant Ones, Doctor Zhivago, East of Eden, E.T., The Exorcist, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Lion in Winter, The Player, Sunset Boulevard and The Sunshine Boys.

The Globes were first bestowed for films made in 1943. Today its nominations are usually unveiled on the third Monday in December (so that its contenders can flash their golden bids in their holiday-season newspaper ads).

CONTACT INFO:
Hollywood Foreign Press Association,
646 N. Robertson, West Hollywood, CA, 90069
Tel. 310) 657-1731.

TRIVIA

Check out GoldDerby.com's database of Golden Globe nominees and winners at ...

http://www.goldderby.com/lostmind/index.html