Tina Fey and Amy Poehler should be allowed to do whatever they want: star in funny TV shows (despite meh ratings), make movies, write books, act as spokeswomen for the modern-day feminist movement. Heck, they could even run for office. They are, right now, America’s best gal pals, the two women we’d rather watch awards shows with (in sweatpants) than watch them endure the indignity of having to host the Golden Globes. The best and oddest part of Sunday night’s show came more than two hours in, when a radiant but extremely nervous Jodie Foster came out of the closet. And announced her retirement from show business. Or something like that. Foster, accepting a Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at the ripe old age of 50, gave a rambling but heartfelt acceptance speech about everything under the sun: being in show business all her life, guarding her privacy, being a mother, being a daughter. It was very moving - and utterly baffling. Amid all the Golden Globes’s noisy chatter, bungled cues and awkward technical glitches (real-life “Argo” agent Tony Mendez couldn’t be heard during his moment onstage) that have come to define this opening rite of the awards season, Fey and Poehler administered the requisite stage slaps at Hollywood with fairly tame jokes that came at completely affordable expense to James Cameron and James Franco, as well as Meryl Streep, who, Poehler said, “is not here tonight. She has the flu - I hear she’s amaaaaayzing in it.” And, of course, there was a joke about the host of the previous three Golden Globes, Ricky Gervais, who “could not be here tonight because he is no longer technically in show business,” Fey said. “We have no intention of being edgy or offensive tonight,” Poehler added, “because, as Ricky learned the hard way, when you run afoul of the Hollywood Foreign Press [Association], they make you host [the Golden Globes] two more times.” Perish the thought, ladies. You’ve done your duty. Making this event look glamorous is one of Hollywood’s most stunning achievements in special effects. And every year it seems to get a little better by just getting sloppier. It’s the awards show our culture most deserves.
