Golden Globes, Elections, and The Colbert Report

Sense the randomness? Lots going on in my world this week and since I had little time to get back on my culinary tour bus through Seattle - bar food and beer was the great call last Friday night - I'd like to comment on a few things going on in our world.

First of all, the Golden Globes have been cancelled. With all the hullabaloo over crossing the picket line, many actors were not even going to show up anyway. I'm not sure how it all works, but also, who would write the pithy banter and musical sendups? So word on the street is that the awards will be annonced via an hour-long news conference (which the writers union is skeptical about as a wolf in sheep's clothing - there's also a whole other drama unfolding about whether dick clark productions is involved or not. I can't keep up with this "All My Children" incestuousness).

They'd better be careful: people may like this more no-nonsense format better if it means we get a reprieve from watching Jack Nicholson chew gum like a cow munching hay and from inarticulate acceptance speeches from people who speak for a living. We'll see.

The Hollywood Foreign Press is sad, the networks and advertisers are sad, and of course, imagine being Nikki Blonsky or Ellen Page as your dream of being nominated and possibily accepting a prestigious award has been dashed against the silent Mac keyboards and cobwebbed printers laying like ancient relics in writers' offices all over Hollywood.

My entertainment guru friend, Melanie, even brought up the point of all the money and promotion being lost by as-of-yet-undiscovered clothing and jewelry designers who get their chops by adorning young starlets. Don't cry too much, kids, you'll stain the silk chiffon.

In the grand scheme of all that is going on in the world, this is nothing, really. But it is a bit of fun, glitz and glamour that I am sad to miss out on. And who knows what this bodes for the Oscars come February?

On my second topic, did you guys know there are elections going on? No? Well, let me kindly remove that rock from your head and hose all that mud out of your hair. Maybe I'm more aware or go out partying less, but it seems I've never seen such pervasive primary coverage before. I don't remember ever being this involved and informed on what was going on at the caucases. Not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing. But I get hopeful when I see seas of people, smiling and energetic ,ready to rally around their candidate to see change in this country. Makes me forget all the comparisons to the downfall of the Roman Empire I keep hearing about. And no matter what side of the aisle you lay your hat, it is very exciting to see an African American and a woman be able to win presidential primaries. I'm so glad I'm seeing this in my lifetime, and quite frankly, it's about freaking time. One adorable old coot in Iowa even told a reporter, "Well, men have been screwing things up for 200 years. May as well give a woman a chance to fix everything." Classic.

One amusing note if you were listening to NBC's (or MSNBC's - honestly, I can never tell which of my 932 channels I'm watching half the time) coverage of the New Hampshire results. BTW, in case you seriously had not heard, Clinton won the Democratic vote and McCain won the Republican. Chris Matthews and Tom Brokaw were having some filler conversation as they awaited Clinton's victory speech. Matthews kept commenting on the surprise Clinton victory there, given all the polls and whatnot. And Brokaw smacked him down with a "That's the problem with this culture. We need to, as journalists, wait for the results to be in before reporting and speculating - and perhaps impacting - on what WILL happen. We need to report what DOES happen, since polls and guesses and such just do not factor in that humans will change their minds multiple times before making a final decision." Not an exact quote, mind you, but it was a total old school "booya" moment, as Brokaw schooled Matthews in the ways of being an actual journalist. You could almost hear Matthews whimpering as he slinked down under his desk. Felt like watching someone get lectured in the principal's office. Luckily, he was saved by the bell with a "Oh, look! Clinton's taking the stage. Let's listen." Brokaw's stock just tripled in my eyes after this exchange and I fear he is a dying breed.

Lastly, to come full circle back to the day to day impact of the writer's strike, I sadly lament not hearing the golden barbs of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert during this key political moshpit. But I saw that both TDS and TCR were on air with new episodes on Monday night. Not sure how they did it, but Colbert's show was about 80% past clips which might explain it. And lots of references to the strike itself. Amusing, but not the caliber we come to expect from these mad geniuses.

Writers, we miss you. You don't know what you've got until it's gone. Come back......please!