The 2013 Golden Globes have just wrapped up.  I only watched the last hour of the ceremony because the Globes no longer have their awards season power due to voting schedule changes.  Reading tweets and Facebook posts, it seems like it was a fairly entertaining show (keep an eye out for Jodie Foster‘s acceptance speech for her Lifetime Achievement Award).  As for the winners, they were very “Globes” in that they were more populist choices that are unlikely to have much bearing on the Oscars.  Argo may have had a good night at the Globes by winning Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director, but I still think Lincoln is the picture to beat when it comes to the Academy Awards, especially since Ben Affleck was snubbed for the Best Director Oscar nomination.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

The nominations for the 2013 Golden Globes have been announced.  The Golden Globes are a “legitimate” award simply by virtue of A) They’ve been around for so long; B) Stars like attending because it’s a laid-back version of the Oscars where people can get an award, schmooze with other folks in Hollywood, and enjoy a nice meal.  The Golden Globes are doled out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is a phony organization that can easily be swayed through pandering.

Most of the nominees are the usual suspects (especially in the TV categories), and there weren’t too many surprises among the film categories either.  Movies that have been doing well among critics organizations–Lincoln, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Silver Linings Playbook–all received their due.  The only surprise was the love shown towards Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which racked up nominations in the Comedy/Musical category for Best Actor (Ewan McGregor), Best Actress (Emily Blunt), and Best Comedy/Musical.  With nominations in these categories, I’m surprised it didn’t pick up a nod for Best Supporting Actress for Kristin Scott Thomas, who has the movie’s standout performance.  Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  The 70th Golden Globe Awards will air on NBC on January 13, 2013 at 8pm EST/5pm PST. [Update: We've updated the article with a promo video for the awards featuring hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.]

Some of the best comedy to be seen on NBC comes from the minds of Tina Fey (30 Rock) and Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation).  Now, the comedic duo is teaming up to take on the 70th Annual Golden Globes as hosts of the award show.  Fey, a Golden Globe winner, and Poehler, a nominee, have previously worked together on Saturday Night Live, Mean Girls and Baby Mama.  Their comedic timing and chemistry should make for quite an entertaining show.

The 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards will air on NBC Sunday, January 13th from 8-11pm, EST.  Hit the jump for the full press release.

I’ve just spent the past three hours watching and live-blogging the 2012 Golden Globe Awards.  My brain feels mushy.  After the jump and presented without comment is a list of this year’s winners. If you don’t even want to hit the jump, The Artist and The Descendants won Best Comedy/Musical and Best Drama, respectively.  If you want to awards prognosticate, I’ll save you the trouble: both were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.  Those nominations haven’t been announced yet, but they were nominated.  Trust me.  I’m a professional.

Also, feel free to sound off on the winners and losers.  Lord knows I’ve been doing it for the past three hours.

The Golden Globes are a bit of a silly ceremony and that’s part of what makes them so fun.  They used to have a modicum of influence over the Oscar nominations, but then deadlines were changed and now it’s just a fluffy ceremony where celebrities eat, drink, be merry, and receive recognition for performances and programs that will never be touched by the Emmys and the Oscars.  There’s some freedom to that and so we can cheer when The Hangover wins Best Comedy/Musical or Johnny Depp wins Best Actor for Sweeney Todd by virtue of being Johnny Depp.   And all of tonight will be made better by having Ricky Gervais as our host.

Click here for a list of the nominees and hit the jump for my on-going live-blog and be sure to keep refreshing the page for my comments.  You can also follow me on Twitter for more Globes commentary.  The 2011 Golden Globe Awards air at 8pm (EST) on NBC.

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve taken a look at the awards prospects of The Muppets and Bridesmaids; two films that, while critically and commercially successful, aren’t necessarily your typical awards season fare. Today we thought we’d consider the awards status of another impressive film from 2011: Drive. Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s violent genre pic premiered as a little independent film at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. The movie blew audiences away, and Refn nabbed the Best Director prize.

The film finally opened to general audiences this past September with plenty of advanced buzz and stellar reviews. While Drive didn’t exactly break box office records, critics and cinephiles fell in love with the peculiar drama, and now the film is headed into a very crowded awards stretch. Hit the jump to see our take on how Drive will fare during this year’s awards season.

Admittedly, I have fallen off of the beaten path with regards to checking out awards season contenders in the theaters this year. That said, I’m hoping to begin turning all of that around this afternoon as a matinee of director Jason Reitman’s Young Adult is currently on my Saturday itinerary. While I can’t claim to be a huge Diablo Cody fan (I tend to think her characters all sound the same…as in, exactly like Diablo Cody), I’m almost always happy with Reitman’s work. Moreover, Charlize Theron looks to be in rare comedic form (an arena she doesn’t always find herself in, but one she undoubtedly has the chops to pull off). All in all, here’s to hoping that my Young Adult screening is just the tip of my awards season iceberg. In the meantime…

…In this week’s “Top 5″ installment, you’ll find a slew of interviews for Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, a number of new assets from director Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man, a recap of this crazy week in trailers, a rundown of the 69th Annual Golden Globes nods, and a light musing regarding Bridesmaids‘ awards season chances. Hit the jump for a brief recap and link to each of the above.

The 2011 Golden Globes nominations have been announced.  I don’t pay them much attention as an awards barometer since their nominations can be purchased (the Globes are run by the shoddy Hollywood Foreign Press Association) and the event is more to get a bunch of celebrities in a room together and hand them an over-valued award.  But that doesn’t mean it’s not a fun show to watch and this year should be plenty entertaining with Ricky Gervais returning to host.

As for the nominees, you’ll find the usual suspects: The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo, The Help, and Midnight in Paris.  I have to give the Globes credit for having a separate comedy category, which allows actors like Brendan Gleeson (The Guard) and Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids) to get nominated.  As for “snubs” (again, it’s tough to take the Globes nominations seriously), nothing from The Muppets was nominated for Best Song .  Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  Winners will be announced on January 15th.

The Muppets returned to theaters this year in a big way with director James Bobin’s aptly named The Muppets. While the film could have easily become a heavy-handed and groan-worthy kids movie, Bobin and Co. delivered a sweet, funny, and ultimately touching flick that is just as effective for 7-year-olds as it is for cold, cynical cinephiles. When the Oscar hosting gig was once again up for grabs earlier this year, a campaign to have our lovely Muppets take up the duties gained some significant traction. While producers ultimately went with Billy Crystal, the whole idea got us thinking: what awards could the film actually win?  Hit the jump for our take on The Muppets’ chances in this coming awards season.

The first time Ricky Gervais (The Office) hosted the Golden Globe Awards in 2010, he was the first British host in 14 years. The last time Gervais hosted, he took on a hailstorm of criticism (mostly from the celebrities he razzed in hilarious fashion). Now that the comedian is slated to host the Globes in 2012, there’s no way to know what we can expect…unless we ask the man himself.

In a recent blog post, Gervais talked about the decision to come back as a host “for a third and definitely final time” and what made him decide to agree. The comedian is currently at work on his performance for the Globes, saying, “Started writing gags for that today by the way. I should apologise to everyone now; but I won’t apologise after so what’s the point? Much more from Gervais after the jump.

Because there hasn’t been enough talk about awards show hosts and controversies lately, it now looks like Ricky Gervais will be returning as the host of the Golden Globes. As you probably remember, Gervais hosted the ceremony last year and came under fire for being too much like Ricky Gervais. Personally, I didn’t even think Gervais was that “controversial”, but more than a few celebrities in attendance apparently took offense and the Office actor has been talking about it ever since. Showblitz reports that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has voted to have the comedian return.

Gervais revealed this past February that organizers had asked him to consider returning, but the HFPA responding with a resounding “false”. It looks as though they either changed their mind or were so embarrassed by Gervais’ outing of their proposition that they decided to lie. An official deal isn’t yet in place, but both parties are in agreement and Gervais is poised to host what’s sure to be an interesting ceremony come January.

Back in March we learned that the British comedy series Life’s Too Short from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the creators of the UK version of The Office, would feature some great guest stars like Jerry Seinfeld and Johnny Depp alongside series star Warwick Davis (best known for playing Wicket the Ewok and Professor Flitwick in the Harry Potter franchise). The series won’t hit HBO until sometime next year (though it will air across the pond before then), but now we have an absolutely hilarious clip of Johnny Depp meeting Ricky Gervais and absolutely tearing him a new one about his jokes during his hosting stint at the Golden Globe awards. Of course, it’s all in good fun as Depp has his fedora handed to him a couple times as well. And if there’s one thing you’ll learn from this clip, is that Depp is quite a big fan of a certain 90′s sitcom star. See the clip from Life’s Too Short after the jump.

Ricky Gervais caused a minor uproar last month because his abrasive humor hosting the Golden Globes didn’t sit well with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and their attempts to ply celebrities with expensive booze and cheap awards.  It looked unlikely that Gervais would be invited back to host a third time even though he was the only thing that made that Globes watchable this year.  However, since the ratings went up, Gervais is now writing on his website [via Vulture],

“organisers asked me to consider a third year.  I don’t think I should.  I don’t know what I could do better.  I certainly couldn’t get more press for them, that’s for sure.  You know me.  Two seasons is enough.”

Hopefully, he’ll reconsider or at least do a Golden Globes Christmas Special. [Update: HFPA Head Phil Berk has responded in a statement [via THR], “There is no truth to this rumor. We have not asked him to come back. Nice try, Ricky.” I suppose Berk will try to get a host next year who embodies the HFPA’s mission statement of sucking up to celebrities.]

For once, it wasn’t the red carpet fashion dos and don’ts that overshadowed the Golden Globes but host Ricky Gervais’ politically incorrect jokes. And while the majority of viewers found him funny, Judd Apatow clearly wasn’t amused by his caustic humor, tweeting “I thought Joan Rivers did a wonderful job hosting the Golden Globes tonight” and “Ricky Gervais should do an episode of extras where he hosts the golden globes and is out of tune. Cut to female friend looking disappointed.”

The director felt that the Brit had gone too far in his quest to deflate some overinflated Hollywood egos. So he asked his Twitter followers to send him funny but less mean-spirited jokes for his stint as host of the untelevised PGA Awards, Check them out after the jump.

I have just endured three painful hours of the Golden Globes.  Thankfully, folks who deserved awards got them (except for Community, which wasn’t even nominated, so way to screw that up, Hollywood Foreign Press Association).  You can click here to check out my live blog of the entire ceremony, but if you just want a listing of who won what, then hit the jump.  The Social Network took home four Golden Globes including Best Score (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross), Best Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin), Best Director (David Fincher), and Best Motion Picture (Drama).