‘Look on my works’
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Excerpt from the poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I’m not here to roast you. And how could I? You’re all so famous, so talented, so powerful. I mean, you could really do anything…
Excerpt from host/comedian Nikki Glaser’s monologue
at the 2025 Golden Globes awards ceremony
The two epigraphs above are exercises in irony. Shelley’s poem describes an inscription below two trunkless legs of stone standing in a desert. “Nothing beside remains,” says the poet. “Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare the lone and level sands stretch far away.” In other words Ozymandias, who imagined that his conquests and his empire would endure for the ages, is long gone and forgotten. Despite the unending glory he imagined for himself, he might as well have never existed.
Glaser followed up her ostensible flattery of and imputing of vast power to the expensively dressed Hollywood A‑listers in her audience with, “…except tell the country who to vote for.” In other words, you may fancy yourselves the culture’s leading lights and arbiters of right thinking, but the common people—and ultimately history (for better or worse)—may have other ideas.
The 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards will forever be remembered—at least by me—as the Ozymandias Globes.
A couple of days ago I was sitting here, asking myself, am I really going to compose yet another series of rants about this totally fabricated, discredited, canceled, uncanceled awards show, as I have done every year since the first month of George W. Bush’s presidency and right up until last year? Maybe this would be the year that I finally make good on my perennial threat (feared by absolutely nobody) to do what I keep urging everyone else to do: just ignore the damn Globes. But no, against my better judgment, I knew I would be compelled to do what I have always done and write up my reactions, opinions and impressions of the awards ceremony.
Then something happened. God intervened. Okay, God didn’t actually intervene, but within days Los Angeles was visited by what truly looked like some kind of divine retribution of Old Testament proportions. Huge numbers of people lost their homes and businesses, and some lost their lives. It was not missed by the broadcast media that some of the places devastated by Santa-Ana-winds-driven wildfires were home to entertainment celebrities.
Normal people reacted with compassion, concern, sympathy and maybe even support for everyone affected. Odd people like me, however, couldn’t help but also think back to one of Glaser’s funnier bits on Sunday night which, in hindsight, seems a bit grim. Somewhere around the telecast’s midpoint, she commented that the evening’s acceptance speeches had been “on fire,” and then she presented a tally of who had been getting the most thanks in the winners’ speeches. Cast and crew members were in the top spot, followed by moms and also one nod to Access Hollywood host Mario Lopez.
“God, creator of the universe … zero mentions,” she quipped, “no surprise in this godless town.”
In the reporting that followed the ceremony, my ears ached at hearing the standard unfounded assertion that the Golden Globes are somehow a harbinger for actual credible industry awards, including the Oscars. Well, this year they kind of were—if you buy into the idea that they provoked the deity’s wrath. The live presentation of the Screen Actors Guild nominations was canceled. Announcement of the Academy Awards nominations was pushed back two days. Other postponements included awards from the Producers Guild of America, the Critics Choice Awards and the American Film Institute’s awards luncheon. Various scheduled movie premieres were postponed, and several series at Universal Studios suspended production.
The tragedy in Southern California provides some needed but unwanted perspective. You can take it as either reassuring or depressing that once again people will get through this experience—just as the Globes and everything else survived Covid—and then things will go back to normal—until the next time.
For the record, I thought Glaser did a good job. Despite her protestations to the contrary, she had the merciless venom of Ricky Gervais. She may have served it up with a sunny smile, but she was unsparing—like when she mentioned Eddie Redmayne’s nomination for The Day of the Jackal. “It’s about a top-secret elite sniper who no one can see—because he’s on Peacock.”
You want to know who the really good actors are, the ones truly deserving of awards? They’re the ones at these ceremonies who can convince you that they’re honestly enjoying getting this kind of ribbing. Few actually pull it off.
Personally, I’m glad that Hacks won Best Comedy Series and that its star Jean Smart got Best Actress in a TV Comedy (both for the second time). It’s a funny, engaging show that is well written and which smartly observes contemporary differences between the generations.
It is also one of the series were production is halted at Universal because of the wildfires. God giveth and God taketh away.
-S.L., 9 January 2025
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