All That Glitters: Golden Globes This Weekend

You can't deny that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, all 93 members strong, puts on a good party with its annual Golden Globe Awards. They started out as film awards in 1943 and then -- in what I consider a genius move -- added television to the mix in 1956, so that the stars of the two media, who didn't necessarily hobnob all that much at the time, could celebrate together.

Throwing in the kitschy idea of a Miss (or Mr) Golden Globes, so that somebody attractive with Hollywood ties would grace the stage all night, also helped form the Golden Globes identity. Keeping the drinks flowing and the party atmosphere front and center didn't hurt, either.

This year's Miss Golden Globes is Sosie Bacon, the daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. She is probably hoping her appearance as Miss GG will jumpstart her career. It certainly didn't hurt the likes of Golden children past like Linda Evans, Melanie Griffith, Laura Dern, Freddie Prinze Jr, and Rumer Willis. If you have a Hollywood mom or dad, you get a step up. That's just the way it is.

The charming and entertaining Tina Fey and Amy Poehler will return as hosts, another smart move from the HFPA. Fey and Poehler were colleagues at Saturday Night Live, they've both fronted sitcoms on NBC, and they've both been nominated for Golden Globes. Fey won twice, while Poehler is nominated again as Best Actress in a comedy or musical TV series. They're hilarious and smart and they can't be hosts often enough to suit me.

So who will win at the 71st annual Golden Globes? It's hard to predict, given the whole 93 voters thing. To my mind, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association seems to favor British and European actors, which you will notice in their nominations. Also note that they have more categories than most and what they do cannot be seen as a barometer for the Oscars, no matter how much they try to spin it that way. Let's look at the contenders:

12 Years a Slave and Gravity are the favorites right now to win as Best Drama film, with other nominees Captain Phillips, Philomena and Rush relegated to the sidelines. Over on the comedy side, I look to American Hustle to prevail, with Her, Nebraska and The Wolf of Wall Street back in the pack and the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis as a major longshot.

And even though I think 12 Years a Slave will edge out Gravity in the Best Picture race, I'm predicting Gravity's Alfonso Cuaron will win as Best Director over 12 Years' Steve McQueen.

Pretty much everyone expects Cate Blanchett to take the Best Actress in a Drama prize for Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, although Sandra Bullock's performance in Gravity certainly has fans. Judi Dench (Philomena), Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks) and Kate Winslet (Labor Day) are much less likely. This category shows just how much the HFPA loves non-Americans, with an Australian and three British ladies competing against Sandra Bullock.

The Best Actress race is much tighter for actresses in comedy films, with Meryl Streep (August: Osage County), Amy Adams (American Hustle) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Enough Said) all potential winners. So who among them will take home the statuette? Gold Derby says the odds are with Amy Adams, but I say never bet against Meryl Streep.

Among the actors nominated for drama films, Robert Redford stands alone in All Is Lost and Matthew McConaughey made a huge impression in The Dallas Buyers Club. I still think this Globe is Chiwetel Ejiofor's to lose. His character went through endless cycles of hell in 12 Years a Slave, and Ejiofor made that feel personal.

Comedy/musical actors are more tightly bunched. The Golden Globes love them some Leonardo DiCaprio -- he's been nominated ten times and won for The Aviator -- but audiences have been turned off by the wretched excess in The Wolf of Wall Street. Bruce Dern has the older-star patina and his performance in Nebraska has been getting a lot of notice, including winning Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. Is that enough to impress the Globers? Or will they prefer Christian Bale in American Hustle, Oscar Isaac breaking out in Inside Llewyn Davis, or Joaquin Phoenix acting with Scarlett Johansson's voice in Her? I think it will be Dern.

I also think Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) will beat out Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave) for supporting actor honors, but I'm hoping Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) can hold off Jennifer Lawrence, the It Girl whose American Hustle performance isn't really all that special.

In the television drama category, Breaking Bad's explosive finale season should push it ahead of House of Cards from Netflix and Showtime's Masters of Sex, with Downton Abbey from PBS and The Good Wife from CBS, the only Big 4 network represented, looking on. The only comedy series I like among the nominees is Parks and Recreation, although newcomer Brooklyn Nine-Nine would also be acceptable. But I'm thinking a perennial contender like The Big Bang Theory or Modern Family will win. Please, Foreign Press people, do not give another award to Girls. I'm begging you!

That goes double for Lena Dunham as Best Actress in a Comedy for Girls, but I think Julia Louis-Dreyfus will pull it out for Veep, anyway. On the other hand, if it were to be Amy Poehler at long last, I would be cheering loudly. The TV drama actress category is a lot more interesting this year without last year's winner, Claire Danes from Homeland, even nominated. It's terrific that Tatiana Maslany got a nod for Orphan Black, but I am rooting for Kerry Washington, who continues to carry Scandal and its fabulously soapy goings-on. Juliana Margulies (The Good Wife), Taylor Schilling (Orange Is the New Black) and Robin Wright (House of Cards) are also worthy, however, making this one category where it's good news whoever gets the gold.

Among drama actors, I want Bryan Cranston to win for Breaking Bad's swan song, and I think he will. Still, Michael Sheen (Masters of Sex) and Kevin Spacey (House of Cards) have an outside chance, and James Spader (Blacklist) is weird enough to attract some votes. I don't think Liev Schrieber (Ray Donovan) is a serious threat, however.

For me, the comedy actor race is wide open, but the Gold Derby people think the odds are in Michael J. Fox's favor. I wouldn't count out Jim Parsons, who keeps on winning for The Big Bang Theory, but I also wouldn't count on Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Don Cheadle (House of Lies) or Andy Samberg (Brooklyn Nine-Nine).

Behind the Candelabra and lead actor Michael Douglas, who played Liberace in it, should coast to victory in the mini-series categories, as should Helena Bonham Carter, who packs the double punch of being British and playing a real person (Elizabeth Taylor) in Burton and Taylor.

The Golden Globes stick all the TV supporting actors together, meaning you have people like dramatic powerhouse Janet McTeer (The White Queen) competing against comedy siren Sofia Vergara (Modern Family). But I think Monica Potter deserves the award for her stellar year on Parenthood, so I'm going to pick her.

Among the men, it's hard to overlook Aaron Paul and his amazing run on Breaking Bad, although film actor Jon Voight (Ray Donovan) is just the kind of guy the Foreign Press likes, and Corey Stoll (House of Cards) and Rob Lowe (Behind the Candelabra) gave terrific performances that should not be overlooked. Josh Charles also had a standout year on The Good Wife. Still, I think it will go to Aaron Paul when all is said and done.

We'll see how I do when the Golden Globes air Sunday at 7 Central time on NBC.

Hooked on SCANDAL and Its Juicy Political Intrigue

OMG! Scandal shot President Grant!

Okay, that was last week. And if you watch Scandal, you know that I'm not talking about Ulysses S. here. This is President Fitzgerald Grant, played by Tony Goldwyn, someone I've always thought was handsome, but... Kind of opaque. If you're just catching up with Tony Goldwyn, I will tell you that my view of him was formed by his performances as Neil Armstrong in From the Earth to the Moon, the bad guy in Ghost and Goren's brother in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a lot of episodic TV (Without a Trace, The L Word, Frasier, L.A. Law, Murphy Brown, etc.), and most recently, playing slimy boss Sheldrake in the Broadway company of Promises, Promises. My feeling? Always hot, but kind of cold.

In Scandal, Tony Goldwyn is not cold. Not. Not. Not. Let's just get that out of the way. Goldwyn has been steaming up the small screen with Kerry Washington, who plays Olivia Pope, his former press secretary and a professional "fixer" who makes problems go away. The two fell in love and major lust when she was part of the crew running his presidential campaign, and they've had a really hard time keeping their hands off each other, in some very sexy scenes played out over the fifteen episodes of Scandal aired so far. The temperature rose even higher in last night's "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" episode that flashed back to some pivotal events in the Fitz-Liv relationship. Let's just say their method of writing a State of the Union speech is a little unorthodox.

Olivia may be a fixer, but for President Grant, she causes a whole lot of problems. He's already a mess, since, you know, he's President, he's married, his wife, the manipulative Mellie (Bellamy Young) is pregnant with "America's child," he has a scheming, ambitious, double-dealing VP (Kate Burton), and he only got elected because of a voting fraud conspiracy involving his chief of staff, Cyrus (Chicago's Jeff Perry, doing a terrific number as a Machiavellian politico), along with Olivia, Mellie, a Supreme Court Justice and a powerful business tycoon not above taking out whole office buildings to cover up his evil deeds.

As nosy folks get closer to uncovering the voting fraud, more people get mowed down. The stakes got even higher last week when shots rang out outside a presidential birthday bash, felling Fitz and his post-Olivia press secretary, played by Keiko Agena, AKA Gilmore Girls' Lane Kim. Fitz is clinging to life in the hospital, but Britta/Lane the press secretary didn't make it. Did Hollis, the billionaire pulling everybody's strings, call in a hit? Was it Mellie, tired of playing second fiddle to Olivia when it comes to Fitz's affections? Could the assassin really have been Huck, the scary, messed-up former spy on Olivia's payroll? What about the crazy Vice President, Bible-thumper Sally Langston, who pulled an Alexander Haig and told everybody she was in charge before the keys were out of the ambulance ignition? And what about poor Britta/Lane? Was she the real target in this assassination attempt because she knew something she shouldn't have about the rigged voting machines in Defiance, Ohio?

There's at least one more episode this year -- next week's "Blown Away" is billed in some places as the fall finale, but IMDB has another one, "One for the Dog," also listed for 2012 -- but you can pretty much bet we're not going to get answers to any of these questions anytime soon. Scandal creator/executive producer/writer Shonda Rhimes has shown with Grey's Anatomy that she knows her way around a cliffhanger, that she's not afraid to pile up a body count, and anybody and everybody is expendable. I'm figuring Olivia has to be around for there to be a show since she's at the center of it, but even President Grant could get taken out if Rhimes think there's more drama to be had with him out of the picture (or maybe with his brain preserved in a jar floating on a boat in the Potomac, like all the old conspiracy theories about Lincoln and Kennedy). That's part of what makes the show so addictive -- there's real suspense there as you wonder who might be in the next body bag.

I don't think I've ever been hugely interested in political thrillers, but the soapy aspects of Scandal make it very attractive to me. Well, that and Tony Goldwyn. It doesn't hurt that Olivia's other boyfriend is played by Norm Lewis, the Broadway star who lit up Sondheim on Sondheim with his amazing performance of "Being Alive."

You can catch full episodes at ABC if you want to catch up, plus there are some fun (free) podcasts available at iTunes for extra tidbits of info. After watching the episodes and listening to the podcasts, you'll definitely need to be there next week for "Blown Away," scheduled to air December 13, 2012, at 9 pm Central time.