Okay, let’s talk about Jerrod Carmichael’s Shelly on Tuesday night 40 Miscavige Joke Golden Globes
. If my Twitter feed is any indication — and I’m well aware most of it isn’t — it’s what people are discussing on the globe. That and pianist Chloe Flower, who didn’t play the winner on stage in the middle of the show.
So Carmichael comes out with three globe figurines in his arms.
“Backstage, I found these three Golden Globes returned by Tom Cruise…” Carmichael said. The star audience laughed appreciatively. “Look, I’m just moderator, temporarily or something, but I have a suggestion: I think maybe we take these three things and trade them for the safe return of Shelly Miscavige.”
Several listeners gave an “oh”. Two or three giggled. The dominant sound, though, is silence. That’s not to say the audience didn’t get the joke. Those in the Beverly Hilton ballroom were well aware that Shirley Miscavige, wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, was in 00 hasn’t been seen in public for years, either because she prefers to live a private life or… for other reasons. It was a biting joke, delivered in Carmichael’s affable style, and I’m sure a few people were offended, a few were scared, and many were too shocked to know how to react.
This ratio is not bad. I respect the joke and, as always, respect what Carmichael said. But as the telecast started to drag on, I started thinking about the joke, who it was aimed at, and why Carmichael was able to pull it off. The joke was about Scientology, which allegedly played a role in Shelly Miscavige’s alleged disappearance and Hollywood’s silence and even complicity. But that’s no reason to joke about it. What opened the door was when the Los Angeles Times published a report highlighting various misconduct and failures within the foreign press in Hollywood, Tom Crewe Stanley is one of the only actors in town to announce that he is returning the gadgets given to him by the HFPA.
Did he actually return the award? How would I know? Is there hypocrisy in the things Cruise condones versus the things Cruise condemns? Seems to be right. But when Cruise hears about the dark side of the Golden Globes — or sees reports about them — he actually responds , and contributed to the whole joke. , at least in the spirit of his promise, he wasn’t in the ballroom Tuesday night, even with Top Gun: Maverick’s string of awards. Was Cruise’s snub a vote response to the same public backlash? Of course I don’t know. But on the night the stars returned to the Globes as if nothing had happened, Cruise was absent, allowing the show to do some preparation with the kind of public onslaught it might have been banned five years ago.
The theme of the telecast wasn’t exactly “denial”, but it was definitely “tactical circumvention”, and if you’re a conspiracy theorist, crack Cruise, maybe even Brendan Fraser’s loss was similar. HFPA and Globes are somehow prepared to look bad, but… there is a limit too.
Maybe that’s why Carmichael’s opening monologue, while decidedly awkward in some respects, is laser-focused.
“I’ll tell you why I’m here: I’m here because I’m black,” he said, beginning to explain the reason for the HFPA controversy on that corner — as of that LA Times When the story was released, they had zero black members – and his realization that the show was using the way he made the public see that things had changed. He talks about his awkward conversations with the new head of HFPA and his friend/sounding board “Avery,” and reservations that may have been partially mitigated by the huge checks and changes made by HFPA. But then he explained that the real reason he was on the show was, “It’s a night we can celebrate, and I think the industry deserves it.”
Oh. So this monologue doesn’t really make fun of the HFPA for having issues with its membership diversity, or for its changes being superficial. The monologue is about why Carmichael accepted the gig, and it’s set against the backdrop of a controversial corner. Grounds, not evisceration or whipping. There were brief references to this late in the show, but only fleetingly, either because the producers didn’t want to stick around, or because once the awards were handed out, this was easily the most diverse early winner in the show’s history List – Ke Huiquan ! Angela Bassett! Quinta Brunson! Tyler James Williams! Michelle Yeoh ! — There are other things to focus on. The second half of the show was dominated by more predictable Globes-y winners and absentee winners, but hey… something changed!
I’ve been outspoken about the fact that Ricky Gervais’ mockery of the HFPA has become increasingly repetitive and perfunctory after his first few hosting stints, but Gervais undoubtedly knows the following: There are always plenty of reasons to make fun of HFPA. But as far as the 40 Golden Globes are concerned, only one is fair game. The lack of black membership revealed in the LA Times report is bad, but the number of other ethics violations is even greater, and I still don’t believe it Solutions to many problems are already fully in place. But if you watch the telecast, last year the Globe wasn’t televised because the HFPA didn’t have black members, and now they have, so this year it’s televised. Huzzah?
Carmichael’s monologue is not bad. Absolutely not. This is partial. I kept waiting for him to pick up the topic and continue the conversation. Instead, it was easier to make fun of the Oscars, so we got multiple Will Smith jokes, one from Carmichael and one from winner Eddie Murphy. The reason we’re talking about the Shelly Miscavige joke, though, is that in a toothless telecast, that joke has teeth. Otherwise, I’d just write that Carmichael has seven outfit changes, and his various blazers, long coats and even a rain cape are spectacular.
Highlights:
Speech with passion. Nearly 00 Ke Huy Quan’s joy at finding himself winning is still contagious almost 00 years after his screen debut and subsequent disappearance. His speech dovetails with Bassett’s, and especially Yeoh’s, marvel at arriving in Hollywood and being told she’s a minority, amazed at how surprised people are that she can speak English and find herself in this position11.
Has a well-structured presentation. Colin Farrell has a story that connects to each of his co-stars, and it’s charming, precise, and yet gives the illusion of rambling. Quinta Brunson gave multiple talks, each celebrating her collaborators, her inspirations, and the chance to be funny in moments when we need humor.
There are drunken speeches. Mike White wanted to express his white lotus acceptance in Italian, he claimed, but he was too drunk. And found a way to blame viewers for passing on his HBO hit. Guillermo del Toro is just more Guillermo del Toro. Was Jennifer Coolidge drunk? who knows? Like del Toro, she is who she is, if not more so. Remember, drunken speeches are always the most reliable speeches at the Golden Globes.
There is a speech by Ryan Murphy. While accepting the Carol Burnett Award, Murphy used the time to sing tributes including Michaela Jay Rodriguez, Matthew Bomer, Jeremy Pope and Nessie Nash in the Breakthrough collaborators within. He talks carefully about the opportunities he’s given them, but the moment the spotlight falls on him, Murphy steers the spotlight on the others with grace and depth.
There are one or two nice “segments”, some planned, some improvised, some ambiguous. Natasha Lyonne’s musing at the end of the show — “Honestly, the only real villain here is time itself, the Chariot of Death” — is great. The storm in Santa Barbara was bad, but Regina Hall’s rage over Kevin Costner’s shelter-in-place was still hilarious. And Amanda Seyfried’s absence because she’s “deep in the works on a new musical” is the stuff of future memes and past AOL IM “leave” notifications.
Has Chloe Flower. Flower’s classic piano arrangements for various TV and movie themes were early TV highlights, and she’s a Twitter belle, even if no one knows her name.
Low Light: 80
Then the TV broadcast threw Chloe Flower under the bus. As usual, the show kicked off almost immediately. It ended up running for 15+ minutes, which means playing tricks on people. For whatever reason, it was decided to play them with piano music, so the immediate assumption was that Flower was playing people. Even then, she’d just do what the producer told her to, but various recipients began benignly teasing the pianist specifically, and Yang even challenged her. It turned out that they had to change the playoff music midway through and Carmichael had to come out and excuse Flower and explain that it was a recorded track. Flower had to explain on Twitter that, in fact, she didn’t unilaterally decide to start playing music during Michelle Yeoh’s speech. It’s embarrassing and takes away a good thing.
Oh my gosh, it’s been a long time. A couple of sincere speeches and everything goes off track and all of a sudden you’ve got the winner of the non-English film category, probably with 15 Let’s talk about the importance of democracy. TV producers ended up stuck because while you can always take on the producers of
House of the Dragon – tonight’s winner The silliest and most HFPA-y of the bunch – if Steven Spielberg wins multiple awards, you let Steven Spielberg talk as long as he wants. Ditto Ryan Murphy. Ditto Jennifer Coolidge. The rhythm becomes a horrible thing, sometimes there is no rhythm at all, sometimes you have Glenn Powell and Jay Ellis doing… whatever they are doing. Passed 00: On the East Coast, Harvey Guillén and Salma Hayek still playing tricks? No.
The telecast is sloppy. One winner after another sits at the back of the ballroom, wasting precious stage time. I can’t count all the cutaways that blur people or who the director intended to be in the shot. The most positive explanation I can give for “loose” is that people have a long way to go to get on stage because so many winners are surprises and surprise winners make for good telecasting? No.
It wasn’t the worst disaster imaginable, but it wasn’t a good telecast either. In shying away from its absence, the Ballon d’Or made a very convincing case, as no one noticed whether they might also be there next year.
(HFPA, which states that the Golden Globes are owned by Eldridge Industries. The Hollywood Reporter is owned by PME Holdings, LLC, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge.)
80
