Reflections in a Golden Globe

1. Suspended animation:
A comment from John (“animation is my life”) Lassiter, whose gas-guzzling “Cars” beat out the eco-friendly “Happy Feet” as winner of the Globe’s new Best Animation category, convinced me that the genre has hit a dead end. “Life’s about the journey,” he revealed to us (his wife told him this), “not about the destination.”

2. Iraq and a hard place:
Peter Morgan, screenwriter of “The Queen,” was cut short before he got two sentences into a comparison between the demonstrations that got Elizabeth II to participate in the public mourning of Princess Di with the lack of the same for “something really important,” presumably the War in Iraq. He just looked up and maybe saw a couple of guys in sunglasses with shackles and an orange jump suit and said, “Bye.” Meanwhile, Sacha Baron Cohen, accepting the award for Best Comedy or Musical for “Borat,” went on at grueling (though at times hilarious) length, almost as long as the scene in the movie, describing the anus and testicles (“wrinkled golden globes” ) of his co-star, Ken Davitian. The conclusion, I suppose, is that a discussion of rancid, thirty year-old flatulence is more acceptable to the public than comments on the Administration’s current surge strategy.

3: Award for Best Acceptance of an Award:
Meryl Streep has won so many awards at this point that a small volume could be published of her acceptance speeches. And it would make fun reading. Like the one from last night accepting the award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for “The Devil Wore Prada” that began: “We had snakes -- but then we moved to the East Coast.” Witty, weird and consummately graceful.

4. Hanks a million:
How many times did Tom Hanks use the word “balls” in his introduction of Cecil B. DeMille Award Winner Warren Beatty? As often as he said “Best Newcomer of 1962?”

5. “Babel:” less alienating?
It might not compel me to watch the film again or reassess it, but one of the show’s highlights was Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu accepting the award for Best Picture from Arnold Schwarzenegger and saying, “My papers are in order, Governor! I swear!”