The Tower of Babble

I sat with a huge grin on my face watching the Brits stick it to the general Hollywood population at last weeks Golden Globe awards. At last count, well before I fell asleep to the sound of some self loving starlet thanking some even more unknown crew members of an equally unknown show ( I do live in South Africa where we generally only get the new shows about six months after everyone else has forgotten them already), the Poms had managed to bag at least five of the strangely desired iconic paper weights.

Hugh Laurie and Jeremy Irons also managed to give the pompous audience a lesson in “thank you” speeches and how not to bore the world to tears. A well timed politically incorrect joke and a not too subtle stab at the dress designers who cue up to woo the beauties of the red rug into wearing whatever monstrosity it is they deem to call fashion this year added a level of humour that was clearly lost on most of the onlookers in the room.

I do have a couple of questions though. How did Eddie Murphy beat out actors of the calibre of Jack Nicholson and Leonardo Di Caprio. Now don’t get me wrong. I am a big fan of 80’s films like Beverly Hills Cop and I was well impressed with Eddie’s voice over technique in the “Shrek” films, but let’s be honest here. The 80’s didn’t exactly produce a plethora of memorable let alone classic films, so how did he ever manage to beat out the previously mentioned masters of the craft? Perhaps I don’t have a clear understanding of what exactly the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is, or what it is that they are responsible for adding to this world, but would I be far wrong in suggesting it is a bunch of decrepit old farts with bad taste in films?

My second guffaw of the evening was aimed at the numerous category and award presenters who consistently managed to screw up the pronunciation of the title of Brad Pitt’s new film “Babel.” Now if I have got this correct, the title of the film refers to The Tower of Babel, which according to the Book of Genesis, was an overambitious tower that people on earth started to build, causing God to show his anger by making them speak different languages, which led to the collapse of the project and ultimately to the scattering of people across the world. Now, to everyone who was unfortunate enough to have to make a comment on this film during the course of the evening, (Yeah right, like they would be reading my blog) I would like to point out that it is pronounced with a long “a” sound at the first vowel, and not ‘babble’ as in the gibberish utterings of an infant. I would hate to think what the producers and directors of this film would think if they knew that the title of a film that makes definite comment on world issues is being reduced (in name anyway) to the utterances of a baby.