My Golden Globe Nomination Reaction

So the HFPA decided to throw a couple of curveballs after all. If you look below, you'll see why I am not paid to prognosticate, the choicest example being that I completely forgot the Best Supporting Actress category. That's what happens when you blog into the wee hours of the morning. I slept for about 90 mins before waking up at 4:55 to head into the office, which lucky for me, is only a block away. A group of four brave souls huddled around a computer watching CNN.com's live feed of the announcement before the big categories were shown on TV. The first call was first-time nominee Nikki Blonsky at 6:10. Over the course of the day I had the pleasure of speaking to: John Travolta, Ryan Gosling, James Schamus, Aaaron Sorkin, Ellen Page, Diablo Cody, Russ Smith, Todd Black, Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Todd, Adam Shankman, Walter Parkes, Jim Brooks, Cristian Mungiu, Jonathan Sehring, Marc Forster, Marjane Satrapi, Tom Wilkinson, Christopher Hampton, Ronald Harwood, Michael Brook, Alberto Iglesias, Dario Marianelli, Jamie Cullum, Christina Applegate and the one and only Jeremy Piven. It was a pretty hectic day. I started to crash around 11:30 and by noon I was back home, sound asleep in bed.

Looking at the predictions, Into the Wild was dealt a crushing blow in its Oscar hopes, missing out on being one of 7 Best Picture, Drama nominees. Swap out that one for Eastern Promises and I would have been dead-on. The Best Actress, Drama category was the easiest to predict and I went 5-for-5 there, as well as in the Best Foreign Language Film category, where The Counterfeiters didn't make the cut while Persepolis did, although it was snubbed for Best Animated Feature Film, along with Beowulf, in favor of Bee Movie and The Simpsons Movie, the latter of which was completely deserving. Not sure why I didn't go with my gut last night.

In the Best Actor, Drama category, James McAvoy rode Atonement's momentum to snag a spot from Emile Hirsch. McAvoy is excellent in the film, but for some reason I thought the HFPA would take a cue from Paramount Vantage's ad campaign and vote with their hearts, but oh well. My Juliette Binoche prediction proved futile in the Best Actress, Comedy/Musical category, where the HFPA also chose to snub Laura Linney, who for my money gave one of the best female performances of the year in The Savages. However, the org did single out Philip Seymour Hoffman for his fine work in that film. The HFPA also somehow left The Savages out of the Best Picture, Comedy/Musical category, instead choosing to reward Across the Universe, which came as a bit of a surprise considering how divided critics were over the Julie Taymor art film.

In the Best Director category, the HFPA decided to recognize Ridley Scott for American Gangster over Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood, a truly inexplicable move if there ever was one. Sean Penn was also left off the list in both the Directing and Writing cateogories despite Into the Wild being his best film.

I can't really argue with the Globes' love for John C. Reilly in Walk Hard, as he truly carried that movie, though I am a bit surprised they ignored the gifted Steve Carell for Dan in Real Life, a movie that a lesser actor would have walked through in their sleep.

I'm totally Golden Globe'd out so I'm going back to bed before I check out a midnight IMAX screening of I Am Legend. I'll be praying in my dreams that it's not as bad as I've heard. As Ahnuld once said, I'll be back..