Who Cares About The Golden Globe Awards?

Back in the Seventies when I was the kid TV critic at the Hamilton Spectator I never had to cover the Golden Globe awards.
They were a joke then and still are today.
Back then no self respecting TV network would carry the ceremonies.
Instead a tape of the show would get bicycled from station to station in the middle of the night weeks after the actual ceremony.
I mean this is an awards show that gave statuettes to the likes of Pia Zadora and Esther Williams.
The show sprang up in the 1940s from the obscure Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of 98 journalists many of whom have day jobs as taxi drivers and waiters.
Jack Nicholson appropriately once mooned the ceremonies in a defiant gesture.
But telecasting the ceremony brings in big bucks in advertising even if many of the actors have to be dragged kicking and screaming to the ceremonies.
Unlike competing ceremonies the nominees are seated at tables very close to the TV cameras so you can watch every twitch and nuance.
Ricky Gervais who insulted stars left and right will be back at it again as host which means the Globes had trouble getting somebody more main stream.
But look the Oscars get things all wrong, too. How could a film as tame as last year's The King's Speech win as best picture over the challenging The Social Network?
Golden Globe acting honors in movies are divided into dramatic and comedy categories which really makes more sense.
Having just caught The Iron Lady I'm curious to see if Meryl Streep will win as best drama actress. Or will it be Viola Davis for The Help?
And sometimes the Golbes are very right when Oscar went horribly wrong.
After all the Globes gave Francis Ford Coppola the award as best director for Apocalypse Now when Oscar chose Robert Benton for Kramer Vs. Kramer.
However, there are also stories of studio largesse being bestowed on the 98 journalists resulting in some bizarre nominations like The Tourist getting a whole heck of nominations in 2009.
I'll be watching just to see the celbs up close who've had more than a couple and are caught with their guard down ever so slightly. And also to catch Ricky Gervais's zingers.
THE GOLDEN GLOBES ARE ON NBC AND CTV SUND. JAN. 15 AT 8 P.M.