THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 28, 1996 TAG: 9601260088
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
DATELINE: BEVERLY HILLS LENGTH: Long : 135 lines
IT ISN'T JUST by accident that they call it the biggest party of the year.
Even for Hollywood, the Golden Globe Awards exemplify excess. There's more cleavage than in the Grand Canyon and more sparkle than a chandelier on full voltage.
At this year's ceremony, held last week, you could hardly count the stars: There's Tom Cruise! There's Sharon Stone, shaking hands right here! There's Brad Pitt and over there is Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, Emma Thompson.
``Give them an award,'' one cynical attendee muttered, ``and they will come.''
The Golden Globes, given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, constitute the official start of campaigning that leads to the biggest prize of all - the Oscars, to be presented on March 25.
While eyeing the crowd, another guest observed, ``It's the parade of the nouveau riche.'' Many in the crowd make $20 million per movie. Still, they borrowed gowns and jewels for the event from ever-willing top designers.
Winners included Sharon Stone and Brad Pitt, honored for acting, and Mel Gibson, named best director for ``Braveheart.''
You can be as cynical as you like about the Golden Globes, but they have named the same ``best picture'' as Oscar for 12 of the past 15 years. The choice this year was ``Sense and Sensibility'' for drama and ``Babe'' for comedy.
I am often known as ``the one with the Southern accent'' at these events - but, after all, it's a conversation piece. I must have looked helpful, because Nicole Kidman quietly whispered to me, ``Is my dress falling off? Please say no.''
``Not yet,'' I replied. Although I, too, had noticed the possibility.
``Good, then you can take a picture if you like,'' she volunteered.
Having informed her that I was not a photographer, she asked, ``Have you seen my husband?'' She was a little miffed that hubby, superstar Tom Cruise, had run off to sign autographs at the other end of the lobby of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Later in the evening, Kidman, stepping from the shadow of her husband, won for her performance in ``To Die For.''
Heads were turning to get a look at Clint Eastwood's unveiling of his fiancee, Dina Ruiz, a local TV reporter in Carmel, Calif. The word had just leaked that they have a marriage license. Eastwood just smiled and introduced her.
And here's what went on backstage, where the press waited to interview each of the high-profile winners.
Brad Pitt, who won ``best supporting actor'' for playing a mental patient in ``12 Monkeys,'' seemed just as surprised as everyone else. Asked if this means that he is no longer just a pretty face, he countered: ``I never thought I was very pretty in the first place. I guess what it really means is that I may develop more confidence.''
He said that he sought the role in ``12 Monkeys'' from director Terry Gilliam ``even though he didn't think I was right for it. I was the one who asked for the date.''
Pitt, who escorted actress Gwyneth Paltrow (his co-star from ``Seven''), said that co-star Bruce Willis gave him a paper shredder as a gift, ``telling me that I'd better watch people going through the garbage. That's what being a star has meant to me. I now own a paper shredder.''
Jessica Lange, who won for playing Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams' ``A Streetcar Named Desire'' in a made-for-TV film, said that her longtime companion, playwright Sam Shepard, was back in Virginia. She also has a home now in her native Minnesota. At last year's Oscars, when she won, she had said ``hell will freeze over before Sam shows up at one of these things.'' She said that ``it is now 20 degrees below at home, but it's still not cold enough to get Sam here.'' She was accompanied by Shura, 14, her daughter with dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Sharon Stone, winner of ``best actress in a drama'' for ``Casino,'' was obviously elated. Backstage, though, she was serious in her defense of the film and its director, Martin Scorsese. ``Scorsese is, quite frankly, the best director working in films today and I don't care who knows it,'' said the blond actress, clad in a black-and-white, form-fitting gown. ``I'm glad people were appalled and sickened by it. That's the effect violence should have on them.''
Stone was carrying a cellular phone and had just called two girlfriends and told them to come over to her house. ``We're going to celebrate by standing in the middle of the living room and screaming,'' she said.
The winner who looked the most scared was young Mira Sorvino, who won ``best supporting actress'' for playing a dumb blonde with heart in Woody Allen's ``Mighty Aphrodite.'' Her father, actor Paul Sorvino, kept telling people that it was her evening, not his. The fact was obvious because he didn't get a nomination for playing Kissinger in ``Nixon.'' The Oscars, though, might still bring father and daughter nominations.
John Travolta forgot to thank his wife, actress Kelly Preston, when he won for his performance in ``Pulp Fiction,'' but he made up for it backstage. They kissed and kissed as the press watched. Travolta said that he now felt his ``comeback'' was complete. ``I seem to have all this good will coming to me, from the press, from the public - everyone. I don't know how it came to be, but I'm grateful.''
He said he wanted to make a movie based on the life of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology.
Nicolas Cage said that his win for ``Leaving Las Vegas'' had encouraged him to choose roles ``by instinct.'' ``Everyone told me not to do the part,'' he said. Even though he won for playing a man who drinks himself to death, he admitted that he might have ``a little glass of red wine'' to celebrate.
Cybill Shepherd, who won for her TV series ``Cybill,'' wore tennis shoes and informed everyone that she is engaged to Robert Martin, the pianist for her club act - even though no one asked.
Sean Connery, who won the Cecil B. DeMille Award, said that he was far more emotional about it than he had expected to be. ``When I got up there and they kept shouting - well, it got to me,'' said the original James Bond. In accepting the award, he said he preferred his movie audiences ``stirred, not shaken.''
Connery also let the crowd know that accepting the award didn't mean that he wouldn't sue any of them. He's had several high-profile suits against the bookkeeping policies at major studios.
So what does all this mean to the upcoming Oscars?
``Babe'' and Stone get a boost for nominations, but not wins. Gibson now gets a nomination, but not a win. Cage now seems to have his Oscar in the bag. Kidman gets a boost, while Susan Sarandon got a setback. And ``Sense and Sensibility'' now becomes the favorite.
Emma Thompson, winner of the screenwriting award, told me backstage: ``Do I have to tell you that writing is much more difficult than acting? I owe Miss Jane Austen quite a debt. There are those who say the filming was possessed, haunted or something. Maybe so. I did seem to take to my bed a bit more. Perhaps it was a mild form of haunting.''
She summed up the affair perfectly, though, when asked what Jane Austen might have thought of the Golden Globes if she had been there. Thompson replied, ``She would have been most gratified that no children or dogs were allowed.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sharon Stone, winner as best actress in a drama, said she's glad the
violence in ``Casino'' appalled some viewers.
PHIL CARUSO/UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Brad Pitt, right, who was named best supporting actor, says ``12
Monkeys'' co-star Bruce Willis warned him of the price of fame.
by CNB