YES, RICKY’S BACK!
After weeks of rumours it’s finally official—Ricky Gervais will be back to host the Golden Globes for a third year, the HFPA president Dr. Aida Takla O’Reilly has announced.
The association voted overwhelmingly for the controversial British comedian’s return and NBC’s senior vice president of special events and late night programming, Doug Vaughan, said: “Ricky is delighted to be coming back. He said the G0lden Globes show is the most fun he has ever had.”
In a video interview with England’s Daily Telegraph Ricky says he does not care what people think of his performance as host.
“I made a decision last year that I shouldn’t be doing it for the 20 egos in the room, I should be doing it for the 200 million people watching at home and I’m going to do that this year. I’m not beholden to those people in the room so I can say exactly what I want.
“So, I’d say to people in the room, be afraid,” Gervais warned.
The 69th Golden Globe Awards will be held on January 15 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills.
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MORGAN FREEMAN TO RECEIVE CECIL B.DE MILLE AWARD
Morgan Freeman is th
is year’s recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille award which will be presented at the Golden Globes ceremony in January.
The announcement was made at the Beverly Hilton by Amy Adams and Pedro Almodovar who were introduced by Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Dr. Aida Takla-O’Reilly (right).
The award is given every year by the HFPA for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.
The calm and authoritative Morgan Freeman, 74, had already had a long and venerable career by the time he became famous.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, he made his acting debut at the age of nine in a school play, won a state-wide drama competition when he was 12, performed on a Nashville radio show while still in high school, danced at the 1964 World’s Fair and first appeared on screen in 1965 as an extra in The Pawnbroker.
He worked in small basement stage productions in New York City and for six years was a staple of children’s television in PBS’s The Electric Company.
After more than 20 years as a working actor he was finally catapulted into national prominence with the role of the volatile pimp Fast Black in 1987’s Street Smart, that earned him Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.
He won a best actor Golden Globe in 1990 for Driving Miss Daisy and was nominated three more times, for The Shawshank Redemption, Million Dollar Baby, for which he won an Oscar, and Invictus.
He has portrayed former Wayne Enterprises board member Lucius Fox in all three of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, played an assassin in the comedy-thriller Red, co-starred in this year’s family drama Dolphin Tale and will soon begin filming the thriller Now You See Me.
The Cecil B. DeMille was first given in 1952 to the filmmaker whose name it bears and other recipients have included Walt Disney, Joan Crawford, Robert Mitchum and, more recently, Warren Beatty, Anthony Hopkins, Steven Spielberg and Robert DeNiro among others.
Read More »MUPPETS MEET THE HFPA
Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog stopped by to meet the Hollywood Foreign Press and talk about their movie comeback after ten years out of the public eye.
They have been resurrected for Disney’s The Muppets, a star-studded PG-rated $40 million musical comedy in which they reunite and join new Muppet Walter to try to save the original Muppet Theater from being demolished by an evil oil baron.
The story calls for Miss Piggy, with blond hair perfectly coiffed and a string of pearls around her neck, to have a climactic showdown with a rival who is trying to take her place.
“There is only one Miss Piggy” declares the porcine movie star.
Read More »HFPA JOURNOS ARE FINALISTS IN PRESS AWARDS
Barbara Gasser
Ruben Nepales
Congratulations to Barbara Gasser and Ruben Nepales. The two HFPA members are among the finalists in the National Entertainment Journalism awards given by the Los Angeles Press Club. A national contest, it is aimed at entertainment reporters and editors, film and television critics across the country, including foreign journalists, and is open to all U.S.-based entertainment journalists for work published or disseminated between January 1 2010 and June 30 2011.
Barbara Gasser, a German language reporter based in LA and a frequent winner of previous LA Press Club awards, is a finalist in two categories—news print and radio, while Ruben Nepales, from the Philippines, is one of five finalists in the print columnist category.
The awards will be presented at a gala evening at the Biltmore Hotel on Nov 17 when Playboy founder Hugh Hefner will receive a lifetime achievement award.
Read More »‘AN ICON OF POPULAR CULTURE’
HFPA 
members participated in a lecture on Hergé, real name: Georges Prosper Remi, the creator of one of the world’s most endearing cartoon characters, TINTIN.
At the Belgian Comic Book Center in Brussels the contemporary cartoonist Bart Hofman (photo) introduced the delegation to the history of the cartoon series which lasted from the late Twenties to Hergé’s death in 1983 and sold over 350 million copies until today.
The members attended the premiere of TINTIN in Paris, France, where Steven Spielberg called his film an homage to „one of the great icons of popular culture“.
Read More »WAYNE’S GOLDEN GLOBE FETCHES $143,000 AT AUCTION
The Golden Globe won by John Wayne for his role in the 1969 Western True Grit was sold for $143,000 at an auction of his personal memorabilia in Los Angeles.
The 700 items sold for a total of more than $5 million, with the beret that Wayne wore in The Green Berets selling for $179,000 and the eye patch the actor wore while portraying the iconic Rooster Cogburn fetching $47,000. His last driver’s license earned $89,625.
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HFPA PRESENTS PLAQUES TO BIFF
HFPA-Pres
ident Aida Takla-O’Reilly presents commemorative plaques to the Presidents of the Korean Film Reporters Assn. (KOFRA), Kim Ho-Il and of theBusan Filmfest (BIFF), Lee Yong-Kwan.
A small delegation of HFPA members was invited by both KOFRA and BIFF to participate in the 16th Busan Film Festival.
The plaques were given as a token of appreciation for the hospitality of the festival organizers and the Association of Korean Film Journalists.
In a press conference with international reporters the HFPA members made statements and were interviewed about three issues: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Golden Globes (answered by Aida Takla-O’Reilly), the activities of the Korean Film Commission in Los Angeles (explained by HJ Park) and the state of the current Korean cinema seen through the eyes of a Western journalist (commented on by Elmar Biebl).
The opening of the Festival saw dozens of stars and filmmakers from predominantly Asian markets. The ceremony served as the debut event for the recently finished Busan Cinema Center, a futuristic and expansive construction, fitting for one of the most important film festivals in Asia (right).
Read More »A THANK YOU FROM THE LEVANTINE CENTER
Dear friends of the HFPA,
Thank you for voting once again to support the Levantine Cultural Center with a grant for our New Voices in Middle Eastern Cinema series!
Bringing together Arabs and Jews through film and other arts is our human value.
Sincerely,
Jordan
–
*** Celebrating our 10th Anniversary presenting Middle Eastern/North African arts and educational programs in Southern California. Online at levantinecenter.org ***
Jordan Elgrably
Levantine Cultural Center
Bridging Cultures Since 2001
5998 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles CA 90035-2657
310.657.5511 vox
310.657.5522 fax
JOHN WAYNE’S GOLDEN GLOBE UP FOR AUCTION
The Golden Globe John Wayne won for his performance as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit goes up for auction in Los Angeles.
The Globe, which he won in 1970 for Best Actor, is one of more than 700 items of Wayne memorabilia that include cowboy hats, costumes and saddles.
Among the items in the collection are the iconic black eye-patch Wayne wore in True Grit and the cowboy hat he wore in the1975 sequel, Rooster Cogburn.
The auction will take place at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles and online, Oct. 6-7, 2011.
“My father’s fans were very important to him. He was open and accessible to them, and making these items accessible to the public is something that feels right,” said Ethan Wayne, President of John Wayne Enterprises. “Museums have large collections of my father’s personal property, and our family has had a chance to select and keep items sentimental to us. There is no need to keep this memorabilia locked away when it can be enjoyed by his fans.”
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