The countdown to "The Hunger Games" is on (the battle begins March 23 in theaters), and the film's young stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth are spilling the beans on how they kept things light on location with some twisted on-set pranks.

When you think of Sigmund Freud, you immediately think of hunky actor Viggo Mortensen, right? Well, that's whom director David Cronenberg wanted for his kinky psychoanalytic drama, "A Dangerous Method." Even then, if it weren't for a circus elephant, Mortensen might never have played the part.

Here, the 53-year-old actor discusses tackling the role and learning some odd facts about the father of psychoanalysis.

Did you get this role because you'd worked with David Cronenberg before?
He offered me the part the year before we shot it, which was flattering but somewhat surprising. But I couldn't do it. He ended up casting Christoph Waltz, and, I guess fortunately for me, Christoph decided to drop out and do a studio movie ["Water for Elephants"]. So David contacted me again and told me he always thought I should do this part. I had a little window so I said yeah. I mean I had some trepidation. Obviously, physically, there's not many directors who would have thought I was right for the part without knowing me.

Did you learn anything about Freud that was surprising?
He was very engaging and very funny, also sometimes quite self-deprecating. He was the sort of person who tells you a joke, and it might be quite subtle and not everyone would get he was telling a joke.

So a Bill Murray type.
Yeah, maybe.

Wouldn't it have been funny if he told dick jokes?
It would be funny. He did enjoy silly humor. He was also an admirer of Mark Twain. The two met, and they smoked cigars and cracked jokes.

Have you ever been to a shrink?
I only had one experience when I was about 24. I went for a short time. For me, it was helpful. I think it's a great idea -- the idea that you can go and confess everything, your deepest fears, your insecurities, your strangest thoughts to someone and know that it won't go any farther than that room. If you don't find some way to discuss or recognize what's going on inside you, it can come out in other ways that are self-destructive.

Your most famous role is Aragorn in "Lord of the Rings."
That series was a stroke of luck for everyone involved. Anyone who says they knew it would be the hit it became is not being honest. The fact that it did so well helped everyone involved to get more opportunities for work. Obviously I wouldn't have gotten to do "A History of Violence" if I hadn't been someone that was bankable and somewhat of a name. You do need to get lucky, no matter how talented you are. It's really what you do with it, which, for me, was looking for good scripts.

Is your name popular in Denmark?
It's a really old name. You find it in some of the sagas. You know how names go through phases of popularity? In my generation, it was pretty odd. It'd be like being called Oswald.

In one of Kanye's patented Twitter rants, he divulged that he was going to create a design firm named after his late mother, Donda. With this company, Kanye's hoping to give the people what they need and want simultaneously.

Kim Kardashian and sister Khloe Kardashian are speaking out against accusations made this week in the New York Post claiming the Kardashian family's fame is quickly plummeting.

"We face adversity every week and as you all know, we have always tried to take the high road and continue to work hard," Kim wrote on her blog Friday. "But when the media try to manipulate things and write things that are untrue about our business ventures and our shows, it's time to step in and correct the lies."

Kim is referencing the Post's article that claims the reality TV family's brand -- including their paid promotional appearances and reality show ratings -- is losing its popularity.

In addition to calling out the Post, the former Mrs. Kris Humphries thanks Forbes for their favorable article, in which they break down the accusations and set the record straight about the Kardashian brand. In fact, an E! spokesperson told Forbes that ratings for "Kourtney And Kim Take New York" are up 43 percent since last season.

Kim continued to defend her family's brand on her blog.

"As a family we work extremely hard and we are very proud of what we have achieved, and it’s disappointing to see people try to tear that down," she wrote.

Kim's sister Khloe, who has dealt with rumors saying she's not actually a Kardashian this week, also blogged about the accusations.

"As I'm sure you all know, recently our family has been receiving a lot of criticism, which of course has hurt, but luckily we’re a strong bunch and we always have each other’s backs so we didn’t let it get to us too much," she wrote, adding that the article was "really just the straw that broke the camel’s back for me."

So whether you like them or not, it seems the Kardashians are here to stay for the time being -- wedding, divorce and daddy drama included.

Betty White has a lot to celebrate!

Not only does the 89-year-old actress have a big birthday coming up -- which will be accompanied by an NBC special and a new prank series, "Betty White's Off Their Rockers" -- but TV Land has officially picked up "Hot in Cleveland" for a fourth season. That's 24 more episodes of TV Land's first original sitcom for White and her co-stars Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick.

"With the show's recent win at The People's Choice Awards and Betty's recent SAG Award nomination, it's clear that the fans love and want more of 'Hot in Cleveland,'" said TV Land president Larry W. Jones revealed at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour.

Besides the fourth season, "Hot in Cleveland" is also officially getting a spinoff. TV Land picked up "Have Faith, " its fifth original sitcom, which stars Cedric The Entertainer as his "Cleveland" character, R&B-singing Rev. Boyce "The Voice" Ballentine. TV Land has ordered 12 episodes of "Have Faith," which will premiere in June 2012. Created by Cedric and "Cleveland" creator Suzanne Martin, the sitcom will also star Niecy Nash ("Reno 911") as the reverend's wife, Lolli.

In October, Cedric talked to Wendy Williams about the spin-off, which was originally announced as a pilot in April, even before Cedric's first "Hot in Cleveland" episode aired.

"The show that Cedric and Suzanne have created is a fantastic family sitcom that you just don't see as much on TV today," Jones said of "Have Faith." "From the moment he appeared on 'Hot in Cleveland,' we knew we wanted to work with him in a greater capacity... TV Land is growing in a major way, and these pickups are just the tip of the iceberg."

"Hot In Cleveland" is now in its third season, airing Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on TV Land.

Portlandia's second episode of season two was a geek's dream thanks to it's Battlestar Galactica storyline. The entire episode was posted online shortly after the new year in order to build excitement for the new season, which it most certainly did. But we thought it was worth posting this stand-alone gem from the episode, featuring Eddie Vedder as his deliciously cool self.

What is not cool, however, is a bad tattoo of Eddie Vedder playing tambourines. We're beginning to wonder if Carrie will ever find the right guy in Portland.

January Jones carries her adorable son Xander while out on Friday (January 13) in Los Angeles.

The 34-year-old actress grabbed some food to go from Panda Express and also made a stop at Jamba Juice.

From Gerri Miller and Mother Nature Network:

Tim DeKay, who returns to USA in new episodes of "White Collar" on Jan. 17, is building a new home, "and we're going completely green. The house that's there is beyond help, and instead of demolishing it we're deconstructing it, taking it apart and sending everything that's salvageable to Habitat for Humanity and things like that." The new home will be built along LEED guidelines. "We're going to go the ultimate platinum. We're putting in a gray water system. We're using recycled denim for the insulation. We have wood salvaged from an old barn in Ohio. We have to deal with the city and all of that, but we hope to be finished by December of this year."

On "White Collar," sprung-crook-turned-FBI asset Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer) may gain his freedom, "and that's what the second half of the season is all about," says DeKay, looking ahead to season four. "We have a general scope of what it's going to look like, and it's exciting," he promises. "We know there's going to be one big arc and smaller moments that we're working towards," adds Bomer, whose on-screen relationship with Sara Ellis (Hilarie Burton) will heat up in the new episodes. "I think they have a really grown up, mature relationship in a lot of ways," muses Bomer. "They have fun together, there are sparks, they enjoy each other mentally and physically and they're like, 'Let's see what happens.'"

Bomer used his last hiatus to make "Magic Mike," a movie about male strippers due out in June starring Matthew McConaughey and Channing Tatum and directed by Steven Soderbergh. He learned about that world from members of the troupe Hollywood Men, and put on 15 pounds for the part, but other than a gym trip or two during a portion of the shoot in Tampa, Bomer trained solo, not keen on getting into a best abs competition with buff castmates. "I didn't want to get too big. I was like, 'I'll be the lithe one, the one with the swimmer's build.'" The coming-of-age story follows the relationship between a veteran (Tatum) and a young newcomer (Alex Pettyfer), and Bomer plays "one of the dancers who's bringing the kid a little deeper into what it means to be in that Dionysian world."

At home, Bomer is planning to put in a solar panel for his pool, and notes that all the kids in his extended family received reusable water bottles with their names on them for Christmas. "Rather than waste a bunch of plastic bottles, they have their own canteens," he says.

Check out Mother Nature Network's celeb section and watch Ecollywood videos.

Edward Burns, the Tribeca-based filmmaker, is fast becoming a New York treasure. With Newlyweds, which premiered last week at the Crosby Street Hotel, Burns zeros in on a kind of Gotham Everyman -- at least the subset that lives below 14th Street -- exploring with disarming accuracy, humor and charm how a promising marriage can be sabotaged by the demands of family.

Amazingly, Burns made this rondelay about embattled couples and their relatives over 12 days and at a cost of $9,000. Yes, you read that right. Shooting within what looks like a three block radius of Tribeca, the triple threat Burns (writer/director/actor) and his two-man crew used mainly available light, along with friends' lofts or the backs of restaurants open for business, capturing locale better than on a set. Burns is showing the way to a new generation of filmmakers by turning out terrific films on a micro-budget and then opting for a multi-platform release (Newlyweds was available from video-on-demand Dec. 29, and opens theatrically in Chicago on Jan. 12, and Huntington, Long Island Jan. 27). Burns's savvy strategy offers indie filmmakers a promising alternative to groveling before Hollywood suits who these days puts their muscle into deafening sequels of franchises that assume a mentally challenged audience.

In Newlyweds (which wrapped the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival) freshly married Buzzy (Burns) and Katie (Caitlin Fitzgerald) are confident the second time round they've really got the marriage thing down. For one thing, taken up with their jobs in that New York workaholic way (he's a trainer, she owns a restaurant), they "never really have to see each other." That way "you can go the distance," Buzzy drolly confides to the viewer in one of many asides the characters deliver that break the fourth wall. In contrast, the 18-year empty-nest marriage of Katie's older sister Marsha (Marsha Dietlein) and her troll-ish husband (Max Baker) is plainly fraying at the edges, prompting Marsha to project onto Buzzy her suspicions regarding the lying ways of straying husbands. Then Buzzy's estranged half-sister Linda (Kerry Bishe), an L.A.-based hottie and nut case, blows into wintry New York (minus an overcoat) to reclaim an old lover. Parking in bro Buzzy's pad, Linda triggers a shootout at the OK Corral between marital versus family needs.

The dialogue of Newlyweds is the most natural and least actor-ly you're likely to hear on a screen this season. Burns nails the sound and snark of New Yorkers in love and work so you find yourself smiling in recognition. "She gave me attitude," says Linda, after Katie objects she uses all the towels. "Can we like talk about a checkout date here?" Katie asks Buzzy regarding Linda's plans. "I don't think of it as withholding sex," Katie says to her randy husband, "just as an incentive for her to get the fuck out of my house."

The characters' asides to the viewer lend a pseudo-doc flavor, as they convey what they were really thinking or feeling beneath the diplomatic language. In the monologues Burns cleverly borrows from the novelist's arsenal and ability to expose characters' motives and psychology; the asides are also, come to think of it, a cost effective way of doing flashbacks and backstory.

Though the entire cast is aces, best is the really cool persona Edward Burns has fashioned from himself. For one thing his scratchy voice is to-die-for sexy, matched only by that of Valeria Tedeschi Bruni (French movie star and sister of Carla). In Buzzy he's fashioned a kind of Irish mensch - rather original, considering that Mister Nice is often neglected in cinema in favor of flashier types, such as the sex maniac (Shame); or a wheelman prone to bashing heads with a wrench (Drive). I mean, who would not love a man who, like Buzzy, says, "When I married you I inherited your family, I just want to do right by everyone"? Unlike the heedlessly monied types of Woody Allen, there's a blue collar, outer-borough tang to Burns's ensemble, an awareness that money is hard to come by -- in fact in Newlyweds, it's the two sisters who own the apartment and the business.

One quibble: could we maybe put a moratorium in movies on the Psycho Sister who crashes at a sibling's apartment (see Carey Mulligan in Shame). Also let's ankle the loony ladies who campaign to win back a now-married boyfriend (Linda in Newlyweds; Charlize Theron in the lamentable Young Adult).

As I circulated at the after party, sipping champagne and nibbling spring rolls among the likes of Brian Williams and Calvin Klein, I confess to a worry: where was Edward Burns's wife of eight years, model and filmmaker Christy Turlington? You so like the guy you want all in his world to be well.

It's time for some girl power on "LIVE! With Kelly" (Weekdays, syndicated on ABC).

Kristin Chenoweth, a star of ABC’s upcoming midseason drama, "GCB," will join Kelly Ripa for the daytime talkshow's week of female guest co-hosts, launching Jan. 23, and she’s not alone.

Grammy-winner Mary J. Blige, "So You Think You Can Dance" host Cat Deely and "Dancing With the Stars" judge Carrie Ann Inaba are also taking part in "LIVE's" Female Co-Host Week.

Expect reality star Kim Kardashian to kick off Female Co-Host Week, joining Kelly Ripa on Mon., Jan. 23. Kardashian recently announced on her blog that she'll be guest-hosting "Live! With Kelly" on Jan. 23rd. She and Kelly will interview "Glee" star Kevin McHale.

Brad Pitt is nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama, but it wasn't always so serious on the set of "Moneyball."

In this blooper outtake from the film's DVD/Blu-ray, the star can't keep a straight face while trying to shoot a scene in an office in the home ballpark of his character, Oakland Athletics' general manager Billy Beane. Perhaps it had something to do with his dialogue partner in the scene: while Jonah Hill played the entirely serious stat geek Peter Brand (and earned his own Golden Globe nomination for doing so), he's much more well known for his comedic chops. And if you watch through the end of this clip, you get a feeling Hill's "preparation" for the shot leaned more heavily on his humor talents than straight acting ability.

Hopefully Pitt is able to stay composed if he finds himself up on stage late Sunday night, accepting a big trophy.

WATCH (via Hollywood Elsewhere):

The tables turned at one of Hollywood's most prestigious luncheons on Friday.

Amidst a week packed with glitzy galas, The American Film Institute feted its award winners with a low-key luncheon that invited some of Hollywood's biggest names to kick back and act like their adoring fans: stars got to eat some good food and watch some TV and movie clips.

The AFI honored what its members chose as the ten best American movies and TV shows of 2011, showing video highlights of each to the A-list guest list, which included George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Viola Davis, Rooney Mara, Brad Pitt, Rob Lowe and Jessica Chastain, amongst many others.

Think of it as a hang out session between (very beautiful) friends, watching clips on Hulu and YouTube of their favorite flicks and episodes. And in the interest of pretending like you're hanging out with your favorite stars, check out videos from the 20 films and shows, as well as the two special foreign made movies, that were honored on Friday. And then, below that, check out the photos of all the stars hanging out, no black ties involved.

Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony are together again -- promoting their new Spanish reality talent show at the Television Critics Association winter press tour.

In October, the leading Spanish-language network Univision, picked up "¡Q'Viva! The Chosen," a Latin American reality talent competition from "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller, Jennifer Lopez, her soon-to-be ex-husband Marc Anthony.

The celebrity couple, who split up last summer, appeared on a stage to promote "Q'Viva! The Chosen," which premieres on Univision later this month.

"The Chosen" will follow Lopez, Anthony and show director Jaimie King as they travel through Latin America in search of talent in a number of disciplines, including singing and dancing, with the help of YouTube and Facebook. Last summer, the public was allowed to submit suggestions for talent via Facebook, and the hopeful performers could submit their auditions on YouTube.

"There are good ideas and there are great ideas, and great ideas are when everybody wins," Anthony told the crowd, of the newest entrant onto the singing competition genre. "We had many things to consider project-wise, and it was about time to take (this) on," he said, via Zap2it.

"Working together has been great," said Lopez at the panel, via a tweet from The Insider's Jarett Wieselman. "We have a ball."

Anthony helped Lopez up the stairs to the stage, and later admired her ring, reports the Associated Press. The former couple even sat side-by-side onstage, giving each other an awkward high five after the panel's end.

Unfortunately for the critics and reporters who attended the morning conference, Lopez and Anthony answered only two questions, sparking a few angry tweets from critics.

Before leaving, reports the Associated Press, Lopez told reporters that, "We have a great time working together."

The show, produced by Fuller's XIX Entertainment, will air on Univision in the United States, Televisa in Mexico and Caracol TV in Colombia.

Take a look at the tweets below to get the inside scoop on the "Q'Viva! The Chosen" panel.

The 69th annual Golden Globes will be held Jan. 15 and the nominees are busy getting ready to walk the red carpet and prepping their acceptance speeches should they be lucky enough to win an award.

We'll be seeing lots of stars as Hollywood's A-List gathers together this awards season, but let's not forget that these actors and actresses had lives long before they made it in Tinseltown.

Snakkle.com has uncovered photos of some Golden Globe nominees from before they were famous, including a photo of "Parks and Recreation" star Amy Poehler as a high school junior in Massachusetts and "Moneyball" star William Bradley Pitt -- he's just Brad Pitt to us now -- as an eighth grade student in Missouri.

Check out the photos of Amy and Brad below. and see the entire gallery of Golden Globe stars at Snakkle.com.

PHOTOS:

We revealed the decadent menu for this year's Golden Globe awards, and the news that the show's attendees will literally be eating gold has anti-hunger activists none too pleased.

Only the finest ingredients will used for the trio of chocolate delice almond crunch terrine with acacia honey, caramel, and fresh berries, executive pastry chef Thomas Henzi told Reuters -- the chocolate will be flown in from Switzerland, the acacia honey caramel will arrive from France, the Tarragon hazelnuts come from Italy, while Valencia almond paste from Spain.

"It's a rich dessert," said Henzi of his dish that will be sprinkled with 23-carat edible gold flakes and a white chocolate ball sprayed with gold dust.

"In today's market, gold costs $1,600, $1,700 for an ounce, sometimes up to $2,000, so it's expensive," he explained. "We're looking at $1.20 per plate just for the gold flakes. And we're preparing 1500 plates!"

If you do the math, -- $1,800 -- it's no wonder activists are angry. Joel Berg of New York City Coalition Against Hunger told the UK paper The Guardian, "I resent that a wealthy society allows its neighbors to face hunger."

Berg explained that he doesn't resent the wealthy eating well, but against the backdrop of a country where nearly 50 million Americans are experiencing "food insecurity," learning that there are people actually eating gold, leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

"I don't want to bring the rich down, I want to bring everyone else up," he said. "However, this is an irony that the people who need it the least often get free food wherever they go, but we still make it extraordinarily difficult for people to obtain government food benefits."

In September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that about one out of every six Americans, or 14.5 percent of the population had trouble coming up had trouble coming up with enough money to buy food at some point in 2010.

With comedian Ricky Gervais once again ready to rip everyone to shreds, we wonder if the award's extravagant meal will be on his list of targets to take down.

The entire menu for Sunday night's 69th annual Golden Globe awards:

Whether he gets that that Oscar nomination or not, it looks like Uggie the dog won't be going home empty pawed this award season.

Dog News Daily, the news service that covers Hollywood canines, has announced that they will be jumping into the busy trophy-giving fray by presenting the first ever Golden Collar Awards. The awards will honor the past year's Best Dog performances in five different show business categories, three in film and two in television. The big screen prizes will go to Best Dog in a Theatrical Film, Foreign Film, and Direct-to-DVD Film; the small screen awards will fete Best Dog in both a Reality Television Series and a scripted Television Series.

Uggie, the canine star of "The Artist," whose playing dead, face-pawing, brave galloping and muted barking helped bring a sense of old Hollywood sparkle to the black and white silent film, has received remarkable support from internet fans eager to see the Academy Awards acknowledge his on-screen prowess. He's even been sent on a goodwill tour, traveling to Britain this past week to make appearances on two of the nation's biggest shows, "BBC Breakfast" and "The Graham Norton Show."

In fact, Uggie is being held in such high esteem this year that he will be co-announcing the nominees with his "Artist" (human) co-star, Penelope Anne Miller, at a press conference in Hollywood on January 18th. The awards will be presented at the dog-friendly Hotel Palomar in Los Angeles on February 13th.

Cosmo, the dog from the Ewan McGregor/Christopher Plummer indie hit "Beginners," should also receive a nod in the Best Dog in a Theatrical Film category; in fact, perhaps both Uggie and Cosmo can be honored if "The Artist," with its French director and stars, is deemed a foreign enough film for this ceremony. Who else do you think deserves a nomination?

Betty White only turns 90 once. To celebrate the momentous occasion, NBC gathered some of TV's biggest and funniest names to party the night away with the "Hot In Cleveland" star in a televised special no less.

"Betty White's 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America's Golden Girl" (Mon., Jan. 16, 8 p.m. EST on NBC) will feature comedy luminaries such as Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, Carl Reiner, Tina Fey, Ellen DeGeneres and Amy Poehler honoring White in the best way possible: with jokes. Other guests include White's "Hot In Cleveland" co-stars, her former "Mary Tyler Moore Show" castmates, Joel McHale, Ray Romano, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Hugh Jackman.

When asked what she wants for her birthday, White, who turns 90 on Tues., Jan. 17, told AOL TV in November she has a simple wish: "Just to keep things going as they're going now. It's one of the highest spots of my life."

But what do you get the woman who seems to have everything she could ever want? That's what White's "Hot In Cleveland" co-stars were trying to figure out.

"The gift we gave her last year for her 89th birthday, she absolutely adored," Valerie Bertinelli told The Huffington Post on the "Hot In Cleveland" premiere red carpet in November. "We rescued an elephant in Africa and we got her a hand-painted dish of her dog, Pontiac, that we got a picture of without her knowing. She absolutely loved it, so we're S.O.L. right now for her 90th! I don't know what we're going to do."

In the exclusive clip above from the birthday party, White is swept off her feet in a song and dance number by some very well-dressed men.

Following the birthday special, NBC will air a sneak peek at White's new hidden-camera prank series "Betty White's Off Their Rockers."

"Betty White's 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America's Golden Girl" airs Mon., Jan. 16, 8 p.m. EST on NBC.

At the elegant National Board of Review's Awards Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street this week, fine films were respectfully feted, with Hugo winning Best Picture, its director Martin Scorsese honored. Christopher Plummer, Best Supporting Actor for Beginners, and Will Reiser for his 50/50 original screenplay were among those honored. But, those speeches! On this occasion coming up on the Golden Globes weekend, a subtext emerged. Were they thinking about Oscars?

Viola Davis, reluctant spokesperson for the Best Ensemble award, and backed by a lovely Greek chorus from The Help including Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Emma Stone, marveled at the popularity of this movie given that no one in it has sex.

A clever pairing of presenters, Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan, each in a volatile relationship with Spotlight Award recipient Michael Fassbender, in A Dangerous Method and Shame respectively, introduced the versatile actor. Knightley said, "If I had to be spanked by anyone, I'm glad it was you."

When I really want attention in a movie, joked Fassbender, "I get naked and masturbate."

For her role in The Descendants, Shailene Woodley was honored for Best Supporting Actress. Introducing her, Amy Ryan noted, something about the way she says "twat" is deserving of the award. Reflecting upon the kinds of movies his Descendants star could play as a way of introducing Best Actor George Clooney, Alexander Payne included Deep Throat. Accepting, Clooney did refer to Fassbender's penis as an example of an actor's attribute, but stayed on message: we need kindness.

While a demure Frances McDormand in presenting her friend "Matilda" Swinton for a Best Actress award for We Need to Talk About Kevin called this time of year "the convention," Rosie O'Donnell in a kvetch vaguely connected to presenting an award for "Freedom of Expression" to Crime After Crime called this event "one crazy ass black tie dinner with a meringue cake that is orgasmic." And indeed it was.

A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.

For the past two years I've written reviews of The Golden Globes excoriating Ricky Gervais for mostly tedious humor and lapses in judgment that resulted in so-called jokes that were in severely bad taste.

I'm not a prude and have enjoyed Gervais in the past when he came forth on other awards shows for five minutes or so with often ingenious biting patter, but somehow, to me -- and quite a few others -- once he became the host he went bonkers and said things that weren't particularly creative or clever just to get a reaction with an outrageously bad pun at someone else's expense.

So, it was somewhat of a shock that the Golden Globes committee invited him back for another turn and even more of one to see that, in spite of Gervais' "warnings" in the Golden Globes promos the past few weeks to prepare us for upcoming shocks, that in reality he must have made a deal with the devil to get the national exposure afforded on the highly rated show.

From the outset when he first appeared to a polite round of applause of quite short duration, he seemed very uneasy in spite of his previously announced bravado. Even the audience had muted expressions on their faces from nothing at all to forced smiles, and responded with only limited displays of laughter.

So, I can't damn Ricky Gervais this year, except to say that for the most part he wasn't all that funny. Occasionally, he was on target and had a few pungent moments that hit their mark in a mildly savage way. But while I don't have the minute by minute tally of his prior performances, it appeared that he was offstage much more than in the past. When he did reemerge he often did so holding a glass of booze in an act that was more pretense of being cool while he delivered jokes that were often flat.

And there were rejoinders from the presenters, even to a relatively slight off-color mocking reference to Madonna as "like a virgin." When the singer came on stage she rebutted Gervais' comment with a zinger that, regarding a tryst with him, she "hadn't kissed a girl in awhile."

It was becoming painful to watch him, even if one wasn't at all offended, because his performance was so emasculated, though in his introduction to Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek whatever he said was bleeped with lightning action.

As for the awards, they were evenly divided and there were no films or TV shows that absolutely dominated. PBS' Downton Abbey won for best mini-series, but none of its brilliant actors took home a trophy. The film awards were divided as well, with writing going to Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris and direction to Martin Scorsese for Hugo. Similarly, the acting awards were evenly distributed, as dramatic lead actress went to Meryl Streep, who appeared very surprised to win for her performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. George Clooney won for The Descendants, which also took Best Dramatic feature. Michelle Williams came to the stage for My Week With Marilyn, and Jean Dujardin, the Oscar favorite, was the winner for the best Comedy/Musical Feature, The Artist. Supporting honors went to two other films, Octavia Spencer's performance in The Help and Christopher Plummer's in Beginners.

In TV, there were also no sweeps, with ABC's Modern Family repeating as best comedy, though no acting wins and Showtime's Homeland taking honors for dramatic series and Claire Danes lead actress turn. Comedy series lead acting went to Matt Le Blanc for Showtime's Episodes and comedy actress went to Laura Dern, who stars in HBO's Enlightened. Dramatic series acting went to Kelsey Grammer for Boss, which appears on Starz. Supporting honors, which for some reason cover the breadth of comedy, drama and mini-series/movies of the week went to Jessica Lange for FX' American Horror Story and Peter Dinklage for HBO's Game of Thrones. Lead actor and actress in mini-series and movies for television went to Idris Elba for BBC America's Luther and Kate Winslet for HBO's Mildred Pierce.

Are you sensing a pattern in that not one of the TV acting awards went to a broadcast network show.

The Animated Film honors went to The Adventures of Tintin, which everyone mispronounced as in Rin Tin Tin, instead of Tan Tan, the correct way to do so. And the producer of Best Foreign Language Film, A Separation from Iran told us all Iranians "are a loving people." Hopefully they'll overthrow their fundamentalist government.

All in all it was a routine show, with scant entertainment. The highlight for me was when presenters William H. Macy and his wife Felicity Huffman sang a funny song just prior to giving an award.

And thank God for Jane Fonda, the only presenter gutsy enough to get back to basics as she gave the Golden Globe to The Artist, saying "And the winner is." The Golden Globes used to do that, but succumbed to the other awards show habit in recent years with the so-called politically correct "And the Golden Globes goes to."

All in all it was fun to see how many big stars will come to a show that is more style than critical substance, and other than providing the opportunity to see them and hear an occasional acceptance speech of note, the program was lackluster in the main. Yet it was oddly intriguing that lackluster and a diluted dose of Ricky Gervais appeals to me greater than his shockmeister two prior appearances.

Michael Russnow's website is ramproductionsinternational.com

Jessica Biel looked ravishing in a nude, long-sleeved lace gown on the red carpet at the 2012 Golden Globes.