Copious Notes

Actor and director Ben Affleck, left, producer Grant Heslov, center, and producer George Clooney pose with the award for best motion picture – drama for “Argo” backstage at the 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards. (c) AP photo by Jordan Strauss.

Sunday night’s Oscars will be drenched in the usual glitz and glamour of Hollywood. But there, among the nominees, is some earthy authenticity that will be familiar to Kentuckians.

Most years, there is some rooting interest for the Bluegrass State in the Academy Awards. But this year, the odds and the status make it particularly interesting and promising for Kentucky.

Nothing may be more interesting than the race for best picture. As awards season started, it seemed Steven Spielberg had made a slam dunk in Lincoln, an invigorating tale of 16^th President and Kentucky native Abraham Lincoln.

But then a funny thing happened at the Golden Globe Awards. Argo, Ben Affleck’s well-regarded tale of the rescue of six American diplomats during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, won best dramatic feature. Affleck won best director. This came after the Academy’s well-publicized snub of Affleck in the best director category when the Oscar nominations came out the previous week.

At the time, I wrote it off as one of those Golden Globe-Academy splits. The Globes are a press award while the Oscars are given by artists and industry people. And the Globes are celebrity obsessed – to be polite – so of course they award Affleck.

But then Argo went on a roll.

It got the best ensemble cast prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Affleck, who again was not nominated for the director Oscar, won the award for direction of a feature film. The Producers Guild named it best picture. It won scads of critic polls.

Agro became a frontrunner.

Lest we think this would be a Kentucky loss, check the credits for the producers, who get the best picture Oscars: Affleck, Grant Heslov and George Clooney … is a beautiful man, the Kentucky for Kentucky folks have conditioned us to say. It would be Clooney’s second Oscar. (And we thought he had a quiet year.)

If Lincoln won, there are no Kentuckians that would actually receive the Oscar, but it would be the idea that biggest biopic of the Commonwealth’s No. 1 son won best picture that would give us a nice warm feeling.

But it just does not have that winning track record. Now Daniel Day-Lewis is a mortal lock to win his third best actor Oscar playing Lincoln, gathering up everything on his way to Sunday night. That will put him in extremely rare company with other three-time winners Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Walter Brennan, and Ingrid Bergman. And Day-Lewis will be the only one of that group to win all his Oscars – including My Left Foot in 1990 and There Will Be Blood in 2008 – for lead actor performances. That would leave him only one peer to look up to: Katherine Hepburn, who has four Oscars, all for leading actress performances. With Day-Lewis still a youthful 55, he has a shot at joining her.

Contemplate. Shudder.

But what will win best picture?

Despite Argo’s momentum, Lincoln still feels more like a best picture Oscar-winner to me. And the director snub really makes me hesitant to stamp Argo with a “will win,” because even if the best picture’s director does not win, he or she is usually at least nominated. But then the dominant narrative coming from experts like Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times’ Carpetbagger blog is the snub generated sympathy for Affleck and his film.

Here’s what ultimately persuades me to pick Argo: The Oscars are an industry award, and Hollywood likes movies about movies — last year’s The Artist, anyone? And Argo is about movies, or the specter of movies, doing something really good. Look for that beautiful man and his Argo compatriots on the podium at the end of Oscar night.

Oscar and Jennifer Lawrence. Are they getting together Sunday night? (c) AP photo by Chris Pizzello.

Now to another Kentucky rooting interest: that whippersnapper from Louisville, Jennifer Lawrence. She started the year – March to March — big playing reluctant revolutionary Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games and is ending it favored to win best actress for that act-off Silver Linings Playbook. And she has been gathering up the trophies on the way to Oscar night, including the Golden Globe and SAG best actress awards.

This is her second nomination, and she is only 22. Once again, watch out Kate Hepburn.

Our other rooting interest in all likelihood won’t have such a great night. Sally Field had the good sense to come to Lexington, hometown of her character, Mary Todd Lincoln, to prepare for the role. So we would love to see her win. But best supporting actress is where Les Miserables has been getting love for Anne Hathaway’s performance, and that will probably continue here.

That leaves us with two wildcard categories among the Big 6: best supporting actor and best director.

Best supporting actor has three very real contenders: Tommy Lee Jones in a highly-regarded turn as adamant abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens in Lincoln, Christoph Waltz (who had a much better Saturday Night Live turn than Jennifer Lawrence) in yet another supporting turn in a Quentin Tarantino film with Django Unchained, and Robert De Niro in a Silver Linings Playbook turn that reminded us he’s a great actor.

Oddsmakers are all over the place. Some favor Waltz, though as a winner in 2010 for Inglorious Basterds, it seems too soon for a repeat. There is a belief that how you act in awards season counts, and Tommy Lee Jones’ scowling through the Golden Globes probably did him no favors. De Niro, on the other hand, seems to have been revived by his Silver Linings performance and playing the game perfectly, so I am betting on him for the feel-good award of the evening.

Best director … If you think Argo will win best picture, then this field is open. Love for Lincoln with a Spielberg win? Honoring Ang Lee for wrangling the many elements of Life of Pi? David O. Russell as a great director of actors for Silver Linings? Or the surprises: Michael Heneke for the compelling quiet of Amour or Benh Zeitlin for the indie achievement of Beasts of the Southern Wild. I would love to see Zeitlin win for the most astonishingly original thing on this list. I will put my bet with Russell, because the biggest voting block in the Academy is actors, and with four acting nominations, there seems to be a lot of love for what he got out of the Silver Linings cast.

And, I take a deep breath, because this feels like one of the most unpredictable Oscar races in years. But if it goes this way, three Oscars for a film starring a Kentucky native, who wins herself; the other top acting Oscar for a man playing our most celebrated son; and another Kentuckian taking home one of the prizes for best picture, this would be a very Kentucky Academy Awards.

 Recap:

• Best picture – Argo
• Best director – David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook
• Best actress – Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
• Best actor – Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
• Best supporting actress – Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables
• Best supporting actor – Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook

George Clooney, left, and Shailene Woodley in "The Descendants." © Fox Searchlight Films photo by Merie Wallace via the Associated Press.

Click here for a list of Oscar nominees.

George Clooney’s two Academy Award nominations solidify his status as a perennial Oscar nominee and distinguish him a regular multiple nominee.

In this year’s nominations, announced with considerable charm by Louisville’s Jennifer Lawrence Tuesday morning, Clooney was tapped for best actor for his performance as an out-of-touch dad in The Descendants, also a best picture nominee, and he received a nomination for best adapted screenplay for The Ides of March, a taut political drama filmed primarily in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky areas. While it was considered a contender in other categories such as best picture, best director and best actor for star Ryan Gosling, the screenplay award was the only major category nomination Ides received.

Still Clooney will go to the Academy Awards Feb. 26, like he did in 2006, with more chances to win – which he did then, picking up the Oscar for best supporting actor in Syrianna. He was also nominated for best director and best original screenplay that year for Good Night, and Good Luck, his film about legendary TV newsman Edward R. Murrow.

And once again, Clooney is considered to be in the hunt for the actor honor. On NPR Tuesday morning, longtime Hollywood reporter Kim Masters framed the acting race as between Clooney and fellow Hollywood hunk Brad Pitt, nominated for his performance as Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane in Moneyball, who also received a best picture nomination as a producer of the film and could be named as a producer nominee for Tree of Life.

On the Today show, Pitt said it would not be strange competing against his good friend, Clooney.

“It’s more fun to have a freind there,” Pitt said. “No one does it better that George. I say, give him all the trophies, and when you run out of trophies, make some new ones and give him those too.”

Pitt and Clooney will face a formidable contender in Frenchman Jean Dujardin, star of The Artist, the silent Hollywood homage that received 10 nominations and is currently considered the frontrunner for best picture. Also nominated are  Demián Bichir for A Better Life and Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Joining The Artist, Moneyball, The Descendants and The Tree of Life  in the best picture race are five other films: Warhorse, Midnight in Paris, The Help, Hugo, which has the most nominations with 11, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Among pleasant surprises, the Academy seemed to get a bit more youthful and lightened up with nods for Jonah Hill as a best supporting actor nominee in Moneyball, who is primarily known for his work in bawdy comedies, and a pair of major nominations for the bawdy comedy Bridesmaids: Melissa McCarthy, who won an Emmy last year for her role in the sitcom Mike and Molly, and best original screenplay for Saturday Night Live star Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo.

A little sign of hope for announcer Lawrence, a best actress nominee last year for Winter’s Bone, to possibly be in the running next year was a best actress nomination for Rooney Mara for her performance in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Lawrence will be the heroine leading another action-drama series when The Hunger Games opens in March.

Joining Mara are Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs, Viola Davis for The Help, Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn and Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady. Two-time winner and 17-time nominee Streep is considered a frontrunner to pick up her first Oscar since 1983, when she was honored for Sophie’s Choice.

It was not too long ago George Clooney had not even attended the Academy Awards. The Lexington-born, Augusta-raised Kentuckian  said he was not going to go until he was nominated.

George Clooney accepts the award for best actor in a drama for his role in "The Descendants" during the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012 in Los Angeles. © NBC photo by Paul Drinkwater via AP.

Now, Clooney is an Oscar winner and something of a perennial – at least biennial nominee. Sunday night, he won one of the bellwether honors for the Oscars: the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama for his performance in The Descendants. That begged the question, is Clooney in line to add another Oscar to his trophy case, which includes the 2006 statue for best supporting actor in Syriana?

In a normal year we’d say yes. But the Oscars-Golden Globes equation is a little off kilter this year because everyone in Hollywood seems to be in love with The Artist and its star, Jean Dujardin, which won the Golden Globes for best motion picture comedy or musical and best actor in a comedy or musical, respectively.

The French film, which has not played in Lexington yet, created instant buzz as a silent and black-and-white movie that showed decades after its demise the format is still a delightful forum for storytelling. It is the sort of film and performance Oscar loves – different and kind of gimmicky. Given the buzz out of Hollywood, you have to think Dujardin is the frontrunner for the Oscar for best actor. But Clooney should be part of the conversation, if he is not Giamattied.

Here’s the omen: The Descendants was written and directed by Alexander Payne who also wrote and directed Sideways in 2004, which featured a widely praised performance by Paul Giamatti. To this day I feel like an idiot anytime I drink merlot thanks to Giamatti’s performance as Miles, a struggling author and wine snob whose life is unraveling.

When the Oscar nominations were announced, certainly Giamatti was going to be in the hunt. But noooooo. In what is now viewed as one of Oscar’s great snubs, Giamatti was not even nominated in the year that Jamie Foxx won best actor for his performance in Ray. 

With a lot of praise for his performance as a Hawaiian land baron who’s fallen out of touch with his family and that Golden Globe in hand – accepted, like his 2006 Globe for Syriana, with a dash of locker room humor – Clooney looks like a safe bet to be named when the Oscar nominations are announced next Tuesday by Louisville’s Jennifer Lawrence. He will probably have more chances too as he is likely to receive nominations for writing and directing The Ides of March, which is also mentioned as a best picture contender, and Gorgeous George didn’t do a bad acting job in that one either.

So Clooney could add to his Oscar total this year. But in the best actor race, this will probably be the year for another artist.

UPDATE: The Artist opens Friday, Jan. 20, at the Kentucky Theatre. Shame, which had previously been announced, has been pushed back and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy will be held over.

Getting on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine is a time-honored dream of rockers. But as Kentuckians like Johnny Depp have demonstrated, RS also puts its fair share of movie stars on its treasured cover.

The forthcoming issue will boast Kentucky’s own George Clooney, featured in conjunction with his current film The Ides of March and forthcoming The Descendants. Both films have had good notices and appear poised to put Clooney back into the awards-season mix.

In the story, Clooney reportedly says of the Alexander Payne (Sideways) written and directed Descendants, “If it’s not nominated for best picture, I’ll be shocked. It’s that good.” Of Ides, which Clooney wrote, directed and starred in, he says, ”It’s not designed for everybody to see, but I don’t give a —-. I don’t need to be more famous and we shot it for $12 million, so anything we do is nice.”

Stone’s press release also details a few other items from the Lexington-born, Augusta-raised star we can’t repeat here on a family newspaper blog, but if you read the feature on Eddie Murphy in the last Stone, you know they don’t have similar restraints.

Suffice to say, the cover signals what will probably be a steady stream of Clooney coverage the next few months.

Patricia Neal during a 2006 visit to Frankfort's Grand Theatre when she was in the state for the the Kentucky Book Fair. Copyrighted file photo by Frank Anderson | Herald-Leader

In the short-attention span of popular culture, Patricia Neal’s stage and screen career is unfortunately now lost on several younger generations. But you only need to take a glance at her storied body of work to see she made arts history.

For 41 years, Neal stood as the only Kentucky native to win an acting Academy Award for her performance in 1964′s Hud until George Clooney took home the gold in 2005′s Syriana.

Patricia Neal in her favorite film role, 1957's "A Face in the Crowd."

But that was merely a highlight in a career that made her 2007 Governors Award in the Arts seem overdue. As we mourn Neal’s passing Sunday at age 84 in Martha’s Vineyard, Kentuckians can take pride in a star who was a tribute to her home state.

Neal was born in 1926 in Packard, Ky., a Whitley Co. mining town that no longer exisits.

“I’d like to go back in time and see what’s not there.” Neal said when she visited Frankfort in 2006 to sign copies of Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life, Stephen Michael Shearer’s biography of her, at the Kentucky Book Fair.

Though she moved from Kentucky to Knoxville when she was 3, Neal said she often came home to visit relatives when she was growing up in Tennessee.

“We used to go back twice a month to visit my grandfather, who was the Packard doctor,” said Neal. “My Aunt Maude lived in Williamsburg, Ky., and twice a month I went to be with her, and, oh, did I love it.”

During that Frankfort visit, she noted that even late in life, she still went back to visit her parents’ graves in Williamsburg. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported Neal had planned to travel to the site of Packard, Williamsburg and Knoxville this week.

Not long after getting her first taste of the stage in Knoxville, Neal was off to New York, getting her second role in the Broadway production of Lillian Hellman’s Another Part of the Forest. Under Hellman’s direction, at age 20, Neal earned a Tony Award for her portrayal of conniving Regina Hubbard.

Hellman was the first of many legendary stage and screen artists Neal would work with, including Elia Kazan, Robert Wise, Robert Altman, Blake Edwards, Audrey Hepburn and Paul Newman.

Neal made unintended headlines through her affair with Gary Cooper, her married and much older co-star in her second film, an adaptation of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.

That film marked the first of a string of personal crises over her career. She and her husband, children’s book author Roald Dahl, suffered through a serious injury to their son Theo and the death of their daughter, Olivia. Then, in 1965, shortly after winning her Oscar, Neal suffered a devastating stroke. Triumphantly, she returned to the screen and earned a best actress nomination for The Subject was Roses in 1969.

Back home, Neal later helped establish and was active with the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center for people who have suffered strokes and spinal cord and brain injuries in Knoxville.

That will remain one of Neal’s lasting legacies, along with her many great movies.

While awards certainly are sign posts marking success in a career, a true measure of greatness can often be found in the work that was not rewarded, buth has endured. And from the original The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) to Cookie’s Fortune (1999) Neal amassed a timeless body of work. When we asked her about her favorite of her own films in 2006, she cited Kazan’s political media drama A Face in the Crowd, a film that is as relevant today as it ever was, as her favorite.

Neal’s death is a sad occasion, but also an occasion for some very rewarding film appreciation.

Jeremy Renner, left, and Anthony Mackie are shown in a scene from, "The Hurt Locker." Photo from Summit Entertainment.

Expanding the field for the Academy Award for best picture from five films to 10 has made a major difference in this year’s Oscars: Instead of three movies no one is talking about, there are eight.

Even if the field had stayed small, this would still be a David-and-Goliath battle between all-time box-office champ Avatar, directed by Titanic’s James Cameron, and the scrappy indie flick The Hurt Locker, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Cameron’s ex-wife.

Neytiri, voiced by Zoe Saldana, left, and Jake, voiced by Sam Worthington in "Avatar." Photo from 20th Century Fox.

The inclusion of some populist fare like The Blind Side, Up and District 9 might create a perception to casual viewers that these films are serious contenders. But everything you read out of Tinseltown says this is between Kathy and the Giant.

That’s what we say today. If something totally unexpected happens Sunday night like, say, football flick The Blind Side drives up the middle of a split vote and captures the top prize, then there might be all sorts of renewed chatter — and controversy — about this new format on Monday morning. But right now, it feels like the same ol’ party with a few more guests.

Best picture

Yes, Avatar is the top-grossing movie of all time; has the cachet of Cameron, who has already won Oscars for best picture and best director; and will probably launch dozens of jokes about blue people from hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

But the movie and its fans will have to be content with that, and a bunch of technical awards. There are two big reasons why The Hurt Locker should win this battle.

First, while Avatar won the Golden Globes for director and motion picture-drama, those awards are voted on by journalists. When it comes to actual filmmakers’ honors, The Hurt Locker has been getting all the love. The Writers Guild gave it best original screenplay, the Producers Guild gave it best producer and the Directors Guild named Bigelow best director.

Second, when you look at the nominations, Hurt Locker just looks like a best picture, and Avatar doesn’t. The big Kahuna is a science-fiction fantasy film, a genre that always has had a hard time winning upper-echelon Oscars. And the only other upper-tier award it’s nominated for is best director. It didn’t even get a screenplay nomination.

Meanwhile, Hurt Locker, about a bomb-defusing squad in the Iraq war, is nominated for two other major awards: original screenplay and actor, for star Jeremy Renner. Being based on actual events, it also has a stronger Oscar pedigree.

While Avatar looks like a towering giant here, Hurt Locker has the stones to win.

Best director

Cameron and Bigelow were married from 1989 to 1991, and now Bigelow is probably the best prospect ever to break the glass ceiling of the best director trophy and become the first woman to win the prize.

Three women have been nominated: Lina Wertmüller in 1976 for Seven Beauties, Jane Campion in 1993 for The Piano, and Sofia Coppola in 2003 for Lost in Translation.

This time, it would be even more surprising if Bigelow lost best director than if Hurt Locker lost best picture. You have the glass-ceiling factor, pretty harrowing stories about making the movie, general love for the film, and then that little ex-versus-ex story.

Read the rest of this entry »

Centre College music professor and trumpeter extraordinaire Vince DiMartino applauds fellow Governor's Award recipient Robert Brock, a University of Kentucky graduate who is now director of Kentucky Repertory Theatre in Horse Cave, at the 2008 ceremony. Photo by David Perry | Herald-Leader.

The Kentucky Arts Council is accepting nominations for the 2010 Governor’s Awards in the Arts through March 1. The awards recognize extraordinary achievements in the arts or outstanding contributions to the arts. The categories are:

■ Milner Award, for outstanding philanthropic, artistic, or other contributions to the arts and their role in the economy, community and culture of Kentucky

■ National Award, for a Kentuckian who has received national acclaim in the arts

■ Artist, for lifetime achievement by an individual artist

■ Business, for a businesses that shows interest in and support of the arts

■ Community arts, to an organization or individual who has made a positive impact on a community through the arts

■ Education, for an individual, school, school district or organization’s contributions to arts education

■ Folk heritage, to an individual or group that has made exceptional efforts to perpetuate Kentucky’s artistic traditions

■ Government, to a government entity or leader who has made significant contributions to the arts

■ Media, for a Kentucky journalist or a media organization in Kentucky that has made outstanding efforts to bring the arts to the public’s attention

Recent winners from the Lexington area have included trumpeter Vince DiMartino, visual artist Arturo Alonzo Sandoval, actor George Clooney and arts-supporting business The Liquor Barn.

Nominations are due by March 1. For information and nomination forms call Dan Strauss at (502) 564-3757, ext. 474 or visit the Arts Council’s website. Gov. Steve Beshear will present the 2010 Awards at a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in October.

George Clooney, left, and Vera Farmiga are shown in a scene from "Up in the Air." Both are Oscar nominees, and the film is up for best picture and several other honors. Photo by Dale Robinette | Paramount Pictures.

Lexington native George Clooney is once again an Oscar nominee, this year for Up in the Air, a movie that got a lot of love from the Academy when nominations were announced on Tuesday morning.

The film, about a man who has untethered himself from any personal commitments, also got nods for best picture, best supporting actress for Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, best director for Jason Reitman, and best adapted screenplay for Reitman and Sheldon Turner. It is the third acting nomination for Clooney, who won best supporting actor in 2005 for “Syriana” and was also nominated for best actor in 2007 for “Michael Clayton.” He was also nominated for best director and screenplay in 2005 for “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

In addition to “Up in the Air,” Clooney’s “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” was nominated for best animated feature.

Jeff Bridges. Photo by Matt Sayles | AP.

If precedent-setting awards are any indicator though, Clooney will probably end up applauding Jeff Bridges on Oscar night, March 7. The veteran actor, who filmed two movies in the Lexington area in the last several years, “Simpatico” (1999) and “Seabiscuit” (2003), has already picked up the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award among several other honors for his performance as an aging country musican in “Crazy Heart.” The movie, which is scheduled to open Friday in Lexington, also has Kentucky ties in writer and director Scott Cooper, who grew up in Somerset. Maggie Gyllenhaal, who plays a reporter who interviews Bridges’ character, also earned a nomination for best supporting actor.

That’s the local interest in Oscar, though the world will be buzzing about the Academy’s new 10-feature slate of best picture nominees, and which blockbusters made it in along with the art-house fare that has dominated the category the past decade.

Among the surprises was “The Blind Side,” Sandra Bullock’s based-on-a-true-story film about a man who rises from poverty to become a professional football player. The hit joined “District 9″ and “Up,” also nominated for best animated feature, as films the Academy hopes will draw more viewers to Oscars, which have suffered declining ratings in recent years.

Kathryn Bigelow. Photo by Matt Sayles | AP.

The best picture contest though seems to come down to a David-and-Goliath race between James Cameron’s “Avatar,” now the all-time box office champ, and his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow’s low-budget “The Hurt Locker.” If Bigelow beats her ex in the best director race, it will be the first time a woman has won the Oscar for best director.

Despite 10 nominees for best picture, there are some notable snubs, primarily “The Hangover,” which was a surprise winner of the Golden Globe for best picture comedy or musical. It also would have brought some populist interest to Oscar as “Hangover” is the highest grossing R-rated comedy in history. Of course the whole 10-picture, let’s-get-more-blockbusters-in-the-race thing started when critically acclaimed Batman film “The Dark Knight” was shut out last year. This year’s well-received “Star Trek” reboot was expected to be the best shot at a franchise film making it into the race, but it was left out of the running.

More reading: ‘Avatar’ and ‘Hurt Locker’ lead nominees.

Tina Fey arrives at the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010, in Beverly Hills, Calif. AP Photo by Matt Sayles.

Maybe I’m just not checking the right pulses, but I don’t sense the excitement about “Avatar” for best picture it seems like I  should be feeling.

This is the awards season Oscar has been saying it wanted for a dozen years: A year like 1998, when James Cameron’s “Titanic” was No. 1 by several hundred million at the box office and movie fans were excited to see it add some award-show cred to its huge profits. Again, we have a James Cameron pic, “Avatar,” his first since “Titanic.” And again, he picked up best director and best picture at Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards. But it rang a little hollow.

James Cameron, winner of best motion picture drama and best director for "Avatar," on stage during the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Photo by Paul Drinkwater | NBC.

Maybe it’s because, unlike “Titanic,” “Avatar” doesn’t have any on-screen talent in the awards race like 1998, when Kate Winslet was a nominee, and many thought Leonardo DiCaprio should have been. Maybe, being more of a sci-fi genre film, it’s not attracting awards-show-friendly audiences the way the more classic-Hollywood “Titanic” did. Maybe, at the Globes, it was because Cameron seemed more interested in talking about his bodily functions.

Maybe it’s just too early.

As we get closer to Oscar night, March 7, maybe the excitement will build — the nominations will pop up at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 2.

“Avatar” could have also suffered from being the big winner on a pretty ho-hum Golden Globes.

Ricky Gervais was the first actual emcee in recent memory, but the main thing we’ll remember about him is how a recurring joke of him pushing his own shows got really tired.

Goldie often gives us train wreck speeches courtesy of Moët & Chandon, but the closest we got tonight was Robert Downey Jr. accepting his trophy for best actor in a comedy or musical for “Sherlock Holmes” saying, “If you start playing violins, I’m going to tear this joint apart.”

That seemed to stem more from personal bravado — and probably some annoyance at an orchestra that seemed bent on playing people off before they could say, “Thank yo … ” — than getting a kick from champagne.

There were some other cute lines, like Paul McCartney, presenting the award for best animated feature saying he is now known as, “that guy from ‘Rock Band.’”

Animated feature seemed to portend a routine evening on the movie side, giving Pixar’s “Up” the trophy despite strong competition from “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” “The Princess and the Frog” and “The Fantastic Mr.  Fox” — bad omen for “Fox” star George Clooney. Hollywood’s favorite Kentuckian also came up short in the race for best actor in a drama for critic’s darling “Up in the Air.” Four-time Oscar nominee Jeff Bridges won for “Crazy Heart” and is emerging as a sentimental favorite for the Academy Awards — I’d give it to him for “The Fisher King.”

In Oscar’s best actress category, it looks like Sandra Bullock for “The Blind Side,” who won the drama award, vs. Meryl Streep for “Julie and Julia,” who won the comedy/musical award. That Bullock would be facing off against Streep would have seemed as unimaginable a few years ago as an actual comedy winning the best comedy-musical award.

The last few years, the award and most of the nominations have gone to musicals or “serious” comedies such as “Lost in Translation” (2003) or “Sideways” (2004). Then,there was 2006, when it went to a drama, “Walk the Line,” that just happened to have music in it. But Sunday night, an unqualified comedy, “The Hangover,” won. It was immediately controversial on Twitter, with posters such as Entertainment Weekly’s Dave Karger incredulous.

Here at le blog, we say bravo Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and we don’t say that much. Comedy really gets the short shrift this time of year, but filmmakers deserve recognition for something that is simply laugh-out-loud funny without having to make a profound statement about the human condition or possess the cachet of a name like Woody Allen atop the marquee. Maybe “The Hangover’s” win will be a bellwether of more open mindedness by the HFPA.

Is it a sign “Hangover” will be a finalist for Best Picture when Oscar nominees are announced Groundhog Day? Who knows. Film fans need something to get excited about for Oscar night.

Join me in following the Golden Globe Awards on Twitter tonight. How will our own George Clooney and “Up in the Air” do? How will Ricky Gervias do as the host? Will he be allowed to drink and host, or are you only allowed to drink and accept awards? Will James Cameron become “King of the World” again – or the world and Pandora?

Of all the award shows, the Globes are usually the most unpredictable, so let’s chat in real time. I’ll be using the hashtags #Globes and #GG. Click here to go to my Twitter profile, or follow tweets in the green window on the far right.