The Golden Globes or Raining Stars

And so we come to the day of the Golden Globes of which I have attended quite a few and of which I have fond memories. There was the year where I managed to sneak into the photographers’ pit and partake in the ritual of guessing who the star standing in front of you is. Think a form of Chinese whispers or desperate enquiries going ever further down the line asking if anyone had any idea of which B-list star it was preening on the carpet. This all took place as Cate Blanchett quivered like an exhausted race horse who couldn’t take another flash bulb and Minnie Driver found a few steps on the far side of the entrance over which she draped herself like some silent movie star. Then there was the 2007 version where, thanks to strike threats, the Golden Globes were paired down to a bare bones event and the atmosphere inside the Beverly Hilton Hotel was like being inside a war bunker where Renee Zellweger entertained the troops with her bright red lips and laughs. I have also attended the Oscars, I will have you know. I remember the time where we were told no cameras in the journalists’ pit at the side of the red carpet. Realizing that everyone else had one, myself and a Spanish reporter went into the attached Highland Hotel’s gift shop and bought two disposable cameras with the words Kodak plastered across them in bright yellow letters and stood taking pro photos of the stars in close up, until one Uma Thurman could be seen glaring at me through the other side of the lens in horror. (The shots turned out fabulously.) There was the year when I was sent, rather embarrassingly, to track down Martin Scorsese for The Hollywood Reporter upstairs at the Governers’ Ball and ask him how he felt about not winning again. And that was probably the year when I realized that being backstage, after sitting on the carpet for hours on end, was akin to sitting on a long-haul flight packed with 400 journalists sitting elbow to elbow with their laptops, all eating airline-style food. That may have been the year that I realized that awards ceremonies were best watched at home and left to see the end of it from my sofa. And so it was that I spent my Golden Globes this year letting everyone else get caught up in all of the fun and games and practicing dance twirls on the deserted beach in the pouring rain, not giving two hoots that stars were being rained on only twenty minutes away.