Sun. Jan 5th, 2025
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We’re two days and change into the new year and we’ve already had the “Best Day Ever!” (at least according to the Rose Parade). It can’t be all downhill from here, can it? Well, the Golden Globes are Sunday, so … maybe?

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter.

It is Friday, right? Just making sure.

Golden Globes are Sunday. Will you be watching?

I’ll be watching. In fact, I’ll be watching and having a written conversation — live! — during the ceremony with my old friend, Times columnist Mary McNamara. Will there be anything of interest to bat around? Fingers crossed. The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. has been dissolved, but the newly constituted Golden Globes Assn. still has credibility issues. Awards are only as noteworthy as the group giving them. And this group is noteworthy for all the wrong reasons.

But the Globes do have a broadcast television partner. So the winners, chosen from a bloated set of nominees, will have a prime-time moment to shine and promote their films, which isn’t nothing as movies for grown-ups are still facing an uphill climb at the box office.

Comedian Nikki Glaser will be hosting, the first woman to go solo for the gig. I’m not optimistic that she’ll come close to matching the sharp humor that Tina Fey and Amy Poehler brought to the show as hosts. Judging from her act and this interview we recently published, it looks like she’s turning to Ricky Gervais’ stint as host for inspiration, though she did get some advice from Poehler and Fey.

“Their advice made me feel like you could only get this advice from two mothers,” Glaser said. “I’m so glad to have them co-sign on this because it’s a really big social event. The first of the year. The first of the award season, and everyone is seeing each other after a long Christmas break of having plastic surgery.”

Again … not optimistic. But please join Mary and me on Sunday night as we anchor our coverage, which will be extensive because, yes, it’s televised and it’s first. And the show has to be better than last year’s train wreck, even if it can’t be The Best Day Ever because that’s already happened.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler host the 78th annual Golden Globe Awards in 2021.

(NBC)

Oscar predictions for supporting actress and actor

A month before our December awards vote, the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. launches a group email thread for members to advocate for their favorite films and standout work. The idea is to help everyone close any gaps in our viewing as we plow through screeners and links in a hopeless attempt to see everything before we vote.

Sometimes the discussion veers into other areas, often focusing on whether a particular performance should be considered lead or supporting. Who’s the true lead in “Emilia Pérez,” Karla Sofía Gascón playing Emilia Pérez, the character that drives the narrative, or Zoe Saldaña, who has the most screen time as the attorney helping her? Or are they co-leads? Netflix doesn’t think so, campaigning Gascón in lead and Saldaña in supporting. (It should be noted that these decisions are made with the actor and their teams.)

You could argue that Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande should be considered co-leads of “Wicked” too. But the musical is really Elphaba’s story, with Grande’s Glinda along for the ride as her best frenemy. So Universal pushing Erivo in lead and Grande for supporting doesn’t seem egregious.

And what about Kieran Culkin going supporting for “A Real Pain,” an odd-couple road movie about two cousins, played by Culkin and the movie’s writer-director, Jesse Eisenberg, traveling to Poland to visit the childhood home of their late grandmother? Culkin has almost as much screen time as Eisenberg, but the story is told from the point of view of Eisenberg’s character. (Same with Saldaña, which is why, for some, her placement has raised eyebrows.)

At our L.A. Film Critics vote, we tackled lead performance first, and Culkin came close to making the final round. Supporting came next, and it was immediately clear that even the people who thought Culkin was a lead weren’t going to be deterred from voting for him, and he won the award with Yura Borisov from “Anora.” A publicist friend texted me afterward: “That’s where Culkin belongs. If you gave him lead, you’d be saying that he was trying to pull a fast one by going supporting.”

Where he belongs remains up to Oscar voters, who don’t have to follow the studio’s suggested placement. And on rare occasions, they haven’t. The Weinstein Co. campaigned Kate Winslet in supporting actress for “The Reader” at the 2009 Oscars, looking to avoid competing with her lead turn opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in “Revolutionary Road.” The Golden Globes and SAG Awards nominated Winslet for supporting, but film academy members put her in lead. And Winslet wound up winning the Oscar. (She made a point of not thanking Weinstein in her acceptance speech.)

It’s hard to see voters making such a category shift with Culkin or Saldaña or Grande this year. Who might be joining them in the supporting categories? I took a look in a recent column. The supporting actress category does offer one bit of intrigue at Sunday’s Globes with Saldaña and Grande running pretty even. (I think Saldaña takes it.)

Zoe Saldaña poses for a portrait while sitting at a table.

Zoe Saldaña, a standout from “Emilia Pérez.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

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