Three reasons to be excited for the Golden Globes: 1.) Tina Fey may give a speech; 2.) Ricky Gervais may enjoy the longest broadcast chucklefit since Ed McMahon left the air; 3.) Every once in awhile, the Golden Globes award the right people and the Oscars don't. Join us for a stroll into Golden Globe past, where it turns out the HFPA sometimes -- sparingly, mind you -- executes better judgment than AMPAS.
Crash wasn't even nominated for the Globes' Best Picture (2005).
2005: The year Oscar felt like betraying everyone. Brokeback Mountain was the odds-on favorite to win top honors (and it took Best Director), but Paul Haggis's overblown After School Special about racism, "multidimensional" characters, and a staircase-beleaguered Sandra Bullock nabbed the crown in the eleventh hour. The Hollywood Foreign Press had the good sense to award Ang Lee's gorgeous drama and the Bernie-Taupin-penned original song "A Love That Will Never Grow Old." Oscar favored "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp."
Sigourney Weaver won Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl (1988).
1988: The year Oscar decided Sigourney Weaver would just keep losing. Ellen Ripley was nominated for two Academy Awards in '88, for Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl. While she won the Golden Globe for Working Girl, she lost the supporting Oscar to a woman the Hollywood Foreign Press didn't even mention -- Geena Davis in The Accidental Tourist. Pardon me, Oscar: Katharine Parker was the handsomest antagonist ever to wear a giant vermilion blazer and scare the hell out of the nation's administrative assistants. Respect.
Tom Cruise beat Michael Caine for Best Supporting Actor (1999).
Michael Caine's performance in The Cider House Rules is heartfelt, but no one could've imbued Magnolia's Frank T.J. Mackey with unhinged zeal like Tom Cruise. While many felt the insane part marked a departure for Tom Cruise, I'd say it's the first time we saw the dimpled maniac channel everything in his being.
Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler" Wins for Best Original Song (2008).
Slumdog Millionaire ruined all suspense before the Academy Awards its year, dominating every ceremony in its trajectory and setting itself up for a predictable Oscar triumph. One category it shouldn't have owned was Best Original Song, where Bruce Springsteen's searing "The Wrestler" took home the prize at the Golden Globes. Come Oscar season, the tune didn't even earn a nomination, and Slumdog's hokey anthem "Jai Ho" picked up the hardware.
Rosalind Russell won five Golden Globes -- and zero Academy Awards.
And finally, the most unforgivable slight of all: Roz Russell's career teems with fascinating, unforgettable roles -- Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday, Lavinia in Mourning Becomes Electra, and the titular powerhouse of Auntie Mame. None of them earned her an Oscar, and Hildy wasn't even worth a nomination (though Premiere magazine listed it at #28 in its admirable list of 100 Greatest Movie Performances). In fact, Russell was on the losing end of one of Oscar's strangest surprises: She was favored to win for Electra but lost to Loretta Young in The Farmer's Daughter. Oscar attempted to compensate by awarding Russell the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1972, but the years of oversight sting just the same.