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I don't even want to know the context

HistoryProf wrote:and this:

The not-so-subtle dig at Tom Cruise and John Travolta (we can presume) was met with boos and groans.

is flat out not true...it was met with laughter and "ooooooooh"s - as in "oh man, i can't believe he went there!"

Actually, just watching that clip again, I think there was a distinct air of disapproval at that joke in the crowd. Remember, there are LOTS of scientologists in Hollywood aside from Cruise and Travolta, and I'm sure some of them were among the crowd.

Anyway, LOVED De Niro's face when Gervais made the Hugh Hefner joke. In the next shot, 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld looks amused and embarrassed. Justin Beiber was probably somewhere going, "Huh?"

Johnny Depp appeared to laugh uncomfortably during the Tourist jokes. And I can only imagine what Jane Fonda was doing during the Cher jokes.

domino harvey wrote:

I don't even want to know the context

Christian Bale has become some weird amalgamation of Jesus and Charles Manson.

I can no longer distinguish between him and Patrick Bateman, except he now looks like a deranged homeless man.

domino harvey wrote:I don't even want to know the context

Are you sure? I think that was my favorite moment of the night.

Spoiler

Bale seemed to be literally realizing for the first time at that moment that Amy Adams and Melissa Leo were nominated against each other in the same category. It was right when they were reading the names of the Best Supporting Actress nominees and showing them in the audience. It apparently tickled the drunken bastard pink that they were up against each other.

Not sure how reliable an EW article is, but they seem to squash the rumor that the HFPA is pissed at Gervais.

the Hollywood Foreign Press Association released this statement to EW: “We loved the show. It was a lot of fun and obviously has a lot of people talking. When you hire a comedian like Ricky Gervais, one expects in your face, sometimes outrageous material. Certainly, in this case, he pushed the envelope and occasionally went too far. The HFPA would never condone some of his personal remarks. Overall, however, the show was among the best we’ve ever had and we were pleased.”

Here's the rest of the article.

i suspect it's a fair bit more reliable than "popeater.com" - just a guess though. the first article was clearly fully of hyperbole and an overabundance of exclamation points accompanying made-up quotes to generate page hits. If you watched last year, nothing last night should have surprised anyone - and it most certainly wouldn't have surprised the HFPA who asked him back after a similar performance last year. The "controversy" is made up and stupid.

Feego wrote:

domino harvey wrote:

I don't even want to know the context

Christian Bale has become some weird amalgamation of Jesus and Charles Manson.

I thought that was Tommy Wiseau

My impression was that Gervais was starting to get cold feet about half-way through (or maybe it was the drinking) and his timing began to suffer. It also didn't help that Downey, Jr.'s introduction for "Best Actress - Comedy/Musical" was naughty, very funny and delivered with impeccable timing, resulting in big laughs.

Was anyone else surprised that De Niro's acceptance speech was a stand-up routine? It almost felt like Rupert Pupkin was up there.

I think everyone is forgetting what an embarrassingly insulting awards emcee really looks like, but I'd block out the memory of Chris Rock hosting the Oscars too if I could

Oh please, Chris Rock was great. Bring on the insulting emcees. I know it's not a roast, but actors really need to figure out how to have a sense of humor about themselves.

Dissing Jude Law as a worthless actor without being intelligent enough to realize that the Academy, for whom he was performing, had already nominated him twice, was embarrassing-- you have to be smart to be a smart ass!

Accusing Chris Rock of not being a smart comedian is ludicrous.

Plus, there are writers galore for that material, there's no guarantee that the joke was even his. Besides, Jude Law was seemingly in every film that was coming out at that point.

Who is Jude Law? Why is he in every movie I have seen in the last four years? He's in everything!

Just brutal! His joke should have been "Jude Law is a very fine actor, and he has been recognized twice by this very academy! I hope to see him in every film I see for the next four years."

Theatre of Cruelty Despite the flawed and disconnected nature of last nights performance Mr.Gervais does still embody a certain tradition within both Theatre and Comedy!

LOL @ this thread at this point

But his joke was something like "Wait to hire a good actor. If you can only get Jude Law-- WAIT!" Rock honestly couldn't be bothered to know anything about Jude Law before making that joke and it showed how little thought he put into any of his material. At least Gervais' jokes were accurately targeted

Just a clunkily worded callback, hardly any evidence that Rock didn't actually know about Law's achievements.

Roger Ryan wrote:Was anyone else surprised that De Niro's acceptance speech was a stand-up routine? It almost felt like Rupert Pupkin was up there.

Almost? It was the King himself.

domino harvey wrote:Dissing Jude Law as a worthless actor without being intelligent enough to realize that the Academy, for whom he was performing, had already nominated him twice, was embarrassing-- you have to be smart to be a smart ass!

Thank God for Sean Penn to defend him later then, eh?

Oh, I'm not defending Penn's humorless defense of Law exactly, but I'm still glad someone called Rock on his comment all the same

mfunk9786 wrote:LOL @ this thread at this point

That is a rather confusing use of text language mfunk. The use of this symbol>@ after the abbreviated version of "laugh out loud" appears to be somewhat overemphatic!

ambrose, honest question: Are you a robot?

Is he an early model of that computer that they designed to compete in Jeopardy?

swo17 wrote:ambrose, honest question: Are you a robot?

Asperger syndrome

You have an intense fascination with molecular structure?

Wait.

Maybe I should read the whole article.