A few days before tonight’s Golden Globes, the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom was having a little work done.
Crystal chandeliers are being hung from the ceiling, where they’ll illuminate stars including Jennifer Lopez, George Clooney, Dustin Hoffman and dozens more Sunday night. Workers on cranes are rigging up the 16 cameras that will capture the action inside the ballroom for worldwide TV audiences, and seating charts are being meticulously planned for maximum celebrity interaction.
But by showtime, the ballroom will be beautiful, and veteran live-TV producer Barry Adelman and director Louis Horvitz say they’ll be ready for whatever the 70th annual Golden Globe Awards may bring.
“Because of Tina and Amy, we immediately have a fresh start,” said Adelman, executive producer of the show.
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler - both Golden Globe nominees for lead actress in a TV comedy - are hosting the show. Producers gave the pair free reign to put their comedy touch on the ceremony.
“They’ve been here, so they didn’t need a lot of guidelines,” Adelman said. “The hardest part is to find the time within everything that’s going on to allow them to shine, which we have found and they will shine.”
“They do television, so their sensibilities are really great for what’s going to play well, not only for the room but especially for the viewers at home,” Horvitz added, though neither man saw the duo’s material until Thursday afternoon.
The hosts said in an interview that they’re hoping for some spontaneous moments to riff about onstage.
“That would be really great, so we’re trying to plan that,” Poehler said.
“We have a lot of spontaneous things planned,” Fey added.
Adelman said something unexpected is guaranteed to happen during the three-hour show.
“It’s the globes, so something’s going to go wrong,” he said. “It just means anything can happen - and always does.”
The best picture nominees at Sunday’s ceremony are “Argo,” ‘’Les Miserables,” ‘’Django Unchained,” ‘’Zero Dark Thirty,” ‘’Lincoln,” ‘’Life of Pi,” ‘’Moonrise Kingdom,” ‘’Silver Linings Playbook,” ‘’The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” - many of which also earned Oscar nominations Thursday. The Globes also honor achievements in television.
Megan Fox, Jessica Alba, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Garner and Jennifer Lopez are among the A-list presenters.
Jodie Foster will receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the show, joining past recipients such as Walt Disney, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand and Steven Spielberg. Robert Downey, Jr. will present the award to the actress-director.
“They are very close friends and he has something special planned,” Adelman said.
Meanwhile, Adelman and Horvitz are putting the other finishing touches on their worldwide telecast, set to air live on NBC.
*The Golden Globe Awards red carpet airs live on E! at 3am Monday (repeated at 10pm).
