The comedian Ricky Gervais muddled through his range of material on the Golden Globes last night. Humor made him rich beyond his dreams. He made me fall off my chair laughing when I was a young man with the original, British “The Office”. That was a few Golden Globes ago. But who is counting? Annual televised award shows are part of the public, critical disarmament. From our living room couches, we bond with stars who also laugh, admire, regret or are disappointed.
Our reward for watching the evening are the odd moments of dissonance. For example, those off-the-cuff instants we discover that many stars, without scripts, are gorgeous, empty pages. But where Hollywood really shines brighter is the determined effort of stars to deploy cosmetic surgery. And boy, was that not working last night. I vote for a billboard at the private jet terminal at LAX: Cosmetic Surgery SUX.
The camera is not kind to age, if all age can do is feign to be young. Isn’t there someone to advise the stars after morning coffee and before dressing, cosmetic surgery robs the face of emotion and grace? With age, our idea of beauty expands. We do not expect the movie stars who reflected our own hormonal youth to be cardboard in middle or advanced age. One cannot predict when the next batch of Botox or next pinch here or there or next hair clump inserted is simply going to amplify one’s age. Last night, too many middle aged stars, former objects of desire, looked awful. (Memo to Robert Downey Jr.: Stop it, right now!)
Michelle Pfiefer, Cher, Jane Fonda: O What Have You Done With Your Faces? Breathe in, breathe out: you cannot beat gravity. Then, Sylvester Stallone; a living museum of himself. The New Walk of the Stars is marked by pen dots of a cosmetic surgeon. Under these circumstances, the camera caught Matt Damon admiring Jeff Bridges, untamed by demon surgery. British actress Helen Mirren won the evening when she noted impulsively from the microphone, how many beautiful women there were in the audience. In her beautiful lined face, I knew what she meant.
ALAN FARAGO lives in south Florida. He can be reached at: afarago@bellsouth.net