It might have been hosted by a Brit, but that was almost as far as British influence went at last night’s Golden Globes, as the British contingent left with only two wins. Despite being tipped for success and gaining seven nominations, The King’s Speech picked up just one award, with Colin Firth winning the best actor category. The LA-based Christian Bale was the other British winner on the night, winning the best supporting-actor award for his role in The Fighter.
The night’s main winner was Aaron Sorkin’s account of the founding of Facebook, The Social Network. Despite being criticised in some quarters – most eloquently by Laurie Penny – for its alleged misogyny (and inspiring a number of spoofs) the film took four awards, including best picture, best director and best screenplay.
The Golden Globe judges agreed with the New Statesman‘s Ryan Gilbey, who praised the film in his recent review, making it his film of the year.
Following in the footsteps of Helen Mirren and Judi Dench, Colin Firth found that the best way to win was to play royalty. After failing to pick up the best actor gong in 2010, Firth won for his portrayal of a stuttering George VI in this year’s surprise hit, The King’s Speech.
The other British success story of the night was supposed to be Ricky Gervais. After a slightly shaky reception last year, Gervais made no effort to change his act. With jokes about Charlie Sheen (“It’s going to be a night of partying and heavy drinking. Or, as Charlie Sheen calls it, breakfast”) and unnamed, allegedly (allegedly!) homosexual scientologists (“Also not nominated, I Love You Phillip Morris. Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. Two heterosexual actors pretending to be gay, so the complete opposite of some famous Scientologists then”), Gervais did not water-down his unapologetic comedy.
Gervais certainly seems to be living by his personal comedy mantra, which he revealed to Sophie Elmhirst in an interview in this year’s Christmas issue of the New Statesman.
“I don’t want to just do anodyne stuff [people] could do themselves. I don’t want to go out there and point out the bleeding obvious. I don’t want to remember the Seventies and get a laugh – it’s cheating.”
When asked whether Gervais would be invited back next year, the head of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who organise the Golden Globes, Philip Berk replied: “No comment.”
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