ANALYSIS
So, how much ammunition did Golden Globe voters give Ricky Gervais with their nominations on Thursday morning?
When he hosted the Globes last January, you might recall, the biting comic directed some of his most pointed barbs at "The Tourist," which the 80-odd members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association had embarrassingly gifted with three nominations, including Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical.
And to their credit, there's nothing on this year's slate of nominees that cries out for a Gervais punchline quite as clearly as those nominations did.
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Still, one can imagine the British actor mulling the possibilities. Three individual nominations for George Clooney, plus a fourth for the movie he directed, "The Ides of March?" There's certainly a joke in there about the HFPA's penchant for chasing star power above all else.
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Angelina Jolie, a year after being nominated for "The Tourist," returning as the director of a Best Foreign-Language Film nominee, "In the Land of Blood and Honey?" A serious movie, but that doesn’t mean Gervais can't find a way to poke at Angie muscling into this category.
Read also: Golden Globes Nominations Make It Clear: Clooney Is King
An acting slate that includes Jonah Hill and Kristen Wiig but overlooks Gary Oldman, Woody Harrelson, Max von Sydow, Vanessa Redgrave and Nick Nolte? Sure, that's ripe for the mocking.
And how about that Best Song lineup, where a parade of big names (Elton John, Madonna, Glenn Close, Mary J. Blige and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell) took away slots that really ought to have gone to the witty and beautifully integrated songs from "The Muppets?"
If Gervais doesn’t give the HFPA a hard time for that, I will.
Still, that's the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for you. They're a full-service organization: Not only do they hire a host, they also give him a head start on his monologue.
To be fair, this year's Globe nominations also contained their fair share of pleasant surprises. It's unlikely that many people expected to find Viggo Mortensen in the Supporting Actor category for his subtle performance as Sigmund Freud in "A Dangerous Method," but the actor is eminently worthy of the nom.
Read also: 10 Burning Questions -- and Answers -- About This Year's Oscars
Michael Fassbender ("Shame") and Tilda Swinton ("We Need to Talk About Kevin") are also richly deserving nominees from films that may not have been the HFPA's cup of tea. Brendan Gleeson is a bigger surprise in a friendlier film, "The Guard" -- though as an alum of the "Harry Potter" saga, he also serves as a reminder that the final film in that series came and went without a mention.
And despite the happy surprises, it's hard not to be annoyed by the people and the films that weren't mentioned on Thursday morning.
