THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210043
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: 90 lines
THE SPECTACLE of seeing Debbie Reynolds compete with Madonna for an award was, in itself, enough to make the show worth watching.
At this time of year, I invaribly get puzzled calls from people who ask ``What are the Golden Globes, anyway? Are they of any importance?''
The Golden Globes, which aired Sunday from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, are an annual force in what is commonly known as ``the Oscar season'' in the motion picture community. They take place right smack in the middle of the balloting for Oscar nominees and they often predict the winners. Likely Oscar candidates are told that they'd better show up at the Golden Globes - or else.
An added inducement is the fact that the Globes are a ripping good party, preceded by a cocktail hour and dinner. This is a change from the formality of the Oscars in which the stars have to be on their best behavior at every moment.
The stars turned out in force, dressed to the nines, or beyond, for the latest outing. Most striking outfits were those of Isabella Rossellini, Melanie Griffith and Sharon Stone. Among the guys, only Kevin Bacon looked like a slob, insisting on not wearing a tie.
This shindig is put on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group that has established a reputation for seeking attention. Nasty critics used to say that you couldn't get a waiter in any restaurant in Los Angeles on Golden Globe night because they were all attending; HFPA members often are freelance correspondents for newspapers in faraway countries and often have to have extra jobs to make a living. But with the newfound riches of NBC payments for television rights, the organization is getting rich. To protect its existing membership, it has set high dues.
In retaliation, a competing group of foreign critics has formed the International Press Academy, which gave out its first Golden Satellite Awards four days earlier.
But whether accurate or not, the Golden Globes make for quite a party, and quite a show, simply because the stars show up.
Perhaps the biggest laugh of the night came from John Lithgow, who won for best actor in a TV comedy series for ``3rd Rock from the Sun.'' He said he won because he played an alien and that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association ``resembles aliens - wandering around, getting things wrong, muddling along. We laugh at them, affectionately.''
The Globe winners this year were a puzzling mix.
Receiving the most nominations, and a definite front-runner going in, was ``The English Patient.'' As the evening progressed, though, it lost in category after category, except for its music scoring. Then, at the last moment, it came back to win the most coveted award of all, ``best dramatic film.'' Go figure.
The surprise winner for best director was Milos Foreman for ``The People vs. Larry Flynt'' who, in accepting, said he would reward the voters by letting them see the outtakes. And there, sitting in a wheelchair, was the subject of the film, pornographer Larry Flynt.
The biggest winner of the night, in number of awards, was ``Evita,'' which took the ``best musical or comedy'' award as well as the award for its song ``You Must Love Me,'' the first new movie song composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. Rice, who was present, perhaps referred to the feud between the two composers when he spoke for the absent Webber and suggested he wouldn't have had a chance to speak if Webber had been there.
Madonna won over Debbie Reynolds and Barbra Streisand in the best-actress category. Wearing a black gown, she made an attempt to be subdued and dignified - obviously trying to convince Oscar voters that she's ``best actress'' material.
Lauren Bacall, who began her movie career in 1944 when she was Bogie's baby, won ``best supporting actress'' for ``The Mirror Has Two Faces'' and pointed out that ``it's taken me a long time to get here'' and ``I'm not giving it back.'' She won over Joan Allen and Barbara Hershey, who had been critics' favorites.
On the other extreme of the age bracket, Edward Norton won for playing a young man accused of murder in ``Primal Fear.''
When Tom Cruise won for ``Jerry Maguire'' (in the ``actor in a comedy or musical'' category) it became suspicious that the Foreign Press was repeating its familiar trend - to honor the biggest names.
They rectified themselves, though, in the top dramatic acting awards. Both went to names that Americans wouldn't have recognized six months ago. Best dramatic actor winner was Geoffrey Rush as a mentally troubled Australian pianist in ``Shine'' and Brenda Blethyn as a housewife who learns that her abandoned baby daughter lives in ``Secrets and Lies.''
With the winners this varied, the Globes present no clear clues to how Oscar may go, particularly in a year devoid of big studio entries.
We must remember, though, that in recent years ``Scent of a Woman'' and ``Sense and Sensibility'' were Golden Globe winners, but neither went on to win the Oscar. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
HOLLYWOOD PICTURES
``Evita'' won for ``best musical or comedy,'' and Madonna beat out
Debbie Reynolds and Barbra Streisand as best actress.