Click ‘view video’ to watch Ricky Gervais’ opening speech at the 2012 Golden Globes.
Three time's the charm - if that's not the wrong word for Ricky Gervais' third year as scathing steward of the Golden Globes.
Or maybe the word is "f-word" - which Gervais blurted out, and which was bleeped, as he introduced presenters Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek late in the show.
"They're ridiculously gorgeous specimens, they're extremely talented and probably very interesting," Gervais declared. "I'm not sure," he went on, as censors instantly bleeped out the rest of his wisecrack, which declared, "I couldn't understand a f**king word they said."
Later, when he came back on stage with wine glass in hand, he said it was great having a job that allowed you to get drunk and say whatever you wished and still get paid.
Gervais' monologue didn't shock quite the way it did last year, but it had its share of barbs.
"Nervous? Don't be," he grinned at the room-full of glitterati at the top of the show, aired by NBC on Sunday. "Tonight you get Britain's biggest comedian, hosting the world's second-biggest awards show on America's third-biggest network." He corrected himself: "It's fourth."
"The Golden Globes are to the Oscars," he went on, "what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton - a bit louder, a bit trashier, a bit drunker and more easily bought - allegedly."
p>"No profanity..., no nudity...., no smut or innuendo and I'm not to liable anyone and I mustn't mention Mel Gibson this year,” said Gervais of the rules he was supposed to abide by this year.
“Not his private life, his politics, his recent films and especially not Jodie Foster's Beaver. I haven't seen it myself... I've spoken to a lot of guys here, they haven't seen it either, but that doesn't mean it's not any good."
After last year's shindig, when Gervais insulted nearly everyone in sight, an invitation back for the British wag seemed doubtful.
But the Globes loves to court outrageous behaviour. That meant another turn for Gervais as host. He explained he had been warned by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association that were he to insult anyone on hand, or "offend any viewers, or cause any controversy whatsoever - they'll definitely invite me back next year as well."
Then Gervais went on to praise a nominated HBO series, Boardwalk Empire.
"I love that show," he said. "It's about a load of immigrants who came to America about a hundred years ago, and they got involved in bribery and corruption and worked their way up into high society. But enough about the Hollywood Foreign Press."
AP / 3 News
source: newshub archive
