Golden Globe Rundown: Best Supporting Actress (or, oh, God, her again)

Hathaway teases us with
physically assaulting herself

You have to hand it to Sally Field.  She is going to have to eat humble pie every single damn time Anne Hathaway walks up on the stage to announce to the world that the dream she dreamt is actually happening (again and again and ...).  And, to add insult to injury, the cameras are going to be on Field even more whenever Hathaway name-drops her as her inspiration.  Keep your chin up Sally, you have less than six weeks to endure playing second banana at this dog-and-pony show.  The win was fighting for and holding onto the role, no?  (Click here and watch the video for a refresher; sorry I don't have the exact mark, but the whole hour is worth it.)  If they gave out awards for tenacity and bucking the system, it would be Field up there on that stage, never mind that she turned in the best supporting turn (of any gender) this year (and I didn't think Lincoln was all that, either).  But, we know awards aren't about "the best," hardly ever.  And, frankly, I kind of like that Anne will be an Oscar winner (at least, she'll shut up for a while).  Because, you know, the bigger they are ...

3rd: Helen Hunt in Dolce & Gabbana

Anyway, so now that the cinematic Golden Globe actresses have been chosen, let’s run them down and start with the Supporting group.  Hathaway, Field, and Helen Hunt have been leading the pack, with Hathaway as the obvious frontrunner, before she was even the frontrunner.  Field and Hunt are enjoying "movie comebacks" of sorts and their first Oscar nomination since their last Oscar win.  Hunt, who accrued a slate of detractors back when she took the gold for 1997, made a graceful return with The Sessions.  Field, who made "that" speech during her second win in 1984, almost lost her current role when there was a change in leading men.  She was ten years Daniel Day-Lewis' senior, where Abraham Lincoln trumped his wife by a decade. I was skeptical, but, now, it's like, they LOOK like a couple.  Like, I could now buy Field and Day-Lewis as a couple in real life.  Funny that.  Anyway, Amy Adams had an incredibly amount of good-will when The Master first hit during the Fall.  Some fallibly thought she had a chance to beat Hathaway.  Towards the end, she barely hung on to grab her fourth supporting nomination in seven years, her third in the last four.  It's obvious that the AMPAS nomination-love her right now.  But, you know, they once loved Julianne Moore in a nomination-kind-of-way too, remember.  And Glenn Close.  And Sigourney Weaver.  What's the expiration date with Adams?  And where is that Janis Joplin biopic?  This business can be so wonderful, yet frustrating and cruel.  They that giveth, taketh away.  Anyhow, Adams is about to break in a commercial way like she never has before with The Man of Steel as Louis Lane this Summer.  Will the movie be a stepping stone or is it an empty reward?  We'll soon find out.

Best in Show:
Nicole Kidman in
Alexander McQueen
with some great detailing

The fifth nominee, Nicole Kidman, was really a "never-ran."  Armed with a Golden Globe and SAG nomination, some prognosticators actually thought she had a chance with The Academy.  A) She peed on Zac Efron.  (And every asshole on the internet spoiled it for everyone months before the film even released.  So, what am I doing, returning the favor by repeating it?)  Yes, Oscar has a problem with this.  And, frankly, Kidman is not Adams.  They will give her an Oscar, but they will not nominate her for just anything.  If they would, she would have over double the three nominations she has presently.  Missing was her fellow countrywoman Jacki Weaver, who, in a weakish performance in a Best Picture nominee pimped by Harvey Weinstein, apparently, got trumped by Kidman's celebrity with the HFPA.

2nd: Sally Field in Alberta Ferretti

Megan Fox and Jonah Hill tried to provide a comic bit and failed miserably while they presented the nominees and winner.  You'd thnk the Apatow "alum" would arrive with better script.  When Hill tried to brush Fox off as part of their “number,” with a dismissive “babe,” it was an ew moment.  Gross.  

So, for our winner, we had predictably Ms. Hathaway, the favorite daughter of this year’s race.  It’s no surprise she took home the Globe, which she intends to use as a blunt device to self-mutilate herself with whenever she has doubts about her talent.  Hopefully, often.  With her speech, as well as Lena Dunham’s, it was Tina Fey and Amy Poehler who got us through middle school their speeches and the ceremony.  Sacha Baron Cohen also provided an acerbic edge during his brief, but efficiently executed stint.  But, if it wasn’t for those naturally comedic talents who don’t take these award shows (or themselves) very seriously (to our delight), this particular event would have turned into a group therapy session. Jennifer Lawrence and Adele, the former of which is younger than Hathaway and Dunham and the latter who is the same age as Dunham, both gave down-to-earth speeches and forewent a neon sign spelling out 'needy' hanging above their head, unlike the aforementioned less secure. 

Before going up, Hathaway kissed her husband, and hugged her director and leading man.  She started off by hitting a really flat note by referencing a signature Tiny Feyism (“blurg”) and then played the disbelief card while giving a shout out to her Oscar clip (no, Anne, you are not dreaming anymore; you dreamed a dream and it came true!  Wake up.).  She thanked the HFPA, acknowledged all the great talent in the room, and affirmed that she was going to start believing that she finally earned her place amongst them.  How telling, no?  Did she not just say to Spielberg, yes, I deserve to be directed by you in Robopocalypse?  And, Daniel Day-Lewis should be my leading man?  Would she have still said it if Meryl Streep was in the room, not home sick with The Flu?  She rattled off the list of her fellow nominees and then singled out her soul mother Sally Field. 

Now, she did this for a couple of reasons:

1) Out of her fellow nominees, Field, by far, has had the longest career and more Oscars than all of them. And, yes, Hathaway is partly in genuinely awe of the woman.  She's a legend.  Would she have done any differently if Maggie Smith and/or Judi Dench were in her category?  

2) Once upon a time, the former Gidget and Flying Nun was not taken very seriously as an actress until she released multiple-personality Sybil on television (for which she won an Emmy) and then Norma Rae three years later (and won Oscar).  She then infamously went on to win a second Oscar (in an albeit weak year) crying out during her speech, “You like me, you really like me!”  Those words would become a source of derision, haunting her for a while, and Field never came close to Oscar again until arguably ten years later, finally nabbing a slot three decades later this year (coincidence?).  So, Field had self-esteem issues of her own, but, ultimately, always maintained a solid enough fan base and respect, because, let’s face it, she’s talented.  But that she should have been ReOscared is a source of debate.  Hathaway seems to have unconsciously latched onto a similar desperate end of the validation spectrum.   (Though, I can't imagine Field really cares as much about winning now.)  The Golden Globes now have hit the "like" button on Hathaway's Facebook page.  How many times will Oscar?  And how insufferable will the experience be?  

4th: Adams in Marchesa;
I don't hate it

3) Though Hathaway won Oscar when she landed the Fantine audition, if she weren’t in play and the movie never went forward in 2012, Field would likely be the odds-on favorite.  She IS her competition.  And, what a shrewd move to continually acknowledge the actress at every opportunity.  She did it during the Hollywood Reporter Actress Roundtable (Hathaway declared that she wrote an espionage drama some while back and imagined Field as the protagonist), and she did it again in the first major precursor this awards season.  Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right? 

4) Sally is old and had her time in the sun!  "I’m young and unrecognized (but, humbled by this attention), but, let’s not forget, I’m no spring chicken.  I gave up Princess of Genovia’s crown nearly a decade ago.  It's MY TURN!"

Last & Least: Why didn't she just
wear a Chanel pantsuit?

But, what about the three roles Anne chose to single Field out?  Norma Rae, check.  Of course, that’s at the top of the list.  Mama Gump?  Well, Anne Hathaway was thirteen when Forrest Gump came out and that was the film that just about everyone in this country saw when it hit (I hated it at the time, but have grown to mildly "like" it in an ironic kind of way).  She got a few accolades for it.  But, top three?  For Anne (and maybe the rest of the country), I guess so.  Even I have to look up the character’s name for Field's second Oscar Places in the Heart (Edna Spalding).  And, Sybilwas way before Anne’s time (and TV).  Field was brilliant as Celeste Talbert in Soapdish, but that was a comedy, the genre Hathaway is specifically trying to avoid.  But, she chooses Mama Gump over M’Lynn Eatenton?  Okay, Steel Magnolias is greatness, but when you’re making a speech about wanting to be taken seriously, I guess you have to leave it out.  Understood.  She comes full circle with Mary Todd Lincoln.  And mentioning her work on Brothers & Sisters would have been blasphemy, because, gasp, as an adult actress, Hathaway does NOT do TV (not right now, anyway; talk to her after the roles dry up in a decade).  Even Julia Roberts, another progenitor, is going to HBO.  Every one of the nominees, including Field who blows her a kiss, appears to be generally touched (especially Adams and Hunt). 

She goes on to thank her mother (who, remember, played Fantine herself when Anne was a wee lass!), the creators of the show (no names!), the studios (names!), cast, crew, Hugh Jackman, director Tom Hooper (whom she specifies has a soft side, popular to contrary belief), family, husband (who gives her “the best string of yesterdays she has ever had”), and ends her 2:07 speech thanking the HFPA yet again. 

Fashion-wise, it’s actually Hathaway who faired the worse.  She looked like she took the band aid she wrapped her bald head around on her wedding day and pulled it down to her torso.  Not a fan.  Kidman was smashing.  Not crazy about her face, but that's something we have to just accept now, right?  The dye has been cast, right?  As long as she manages that trainwreck, we sit back and say little now, because there is nothing left to say, right?  All we can do is remember to point out the natural beauty of her similarly-aged peers and countrywomen Naomi Watts and Cate Blanchett, right?  Field looked amazing.  Hunt was okay.  But, I was kind of over the fleshy color Adams was parading around like every other woman that night.  

Stay tuned for my rundown on the Comedy and Drama categories for leading movie actress.