Golden Gloves? - Toronto Star

The issue: As host of the Golden Globes on Sunday, comedian Ricky Gervais ripped into Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Cher, Mel Gibson, the cast of Sex and the City 2, scientologists, Hugh Hefner, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (which, er, puts on the Golden Globes) and God. Stars booed, shouted "no" and shifted uncomfortably in their seats during the show, and debate simmered all week over whether the Brit went too far.

Ricky Gervais: "It was a big year for 3-D movies. Toy Story, Despicable Me, Tron. It seems like everything this year was three-dimensional — except the characters in The Tourist. . . I haven't even seen The Tourist. Who has?"

Gervais: "Do you want to go see Cher? No. Why not? Because it's not 1975."

Gervais: "There were a lot of big films that didn't get nominated this year — nothing for Sex and the City 2. I was sure the Golden Globe for special effects would go to the team that airbrushed that poster. Girls, we know how old you are. I saw one of you on an episode of Bonanza."

Gervais: "Also not nominated, I Love You Phillip Morris. Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor, two heterosexual actors pretending to be gay. So the complete opposite of some famous scientologists, then. (Audience booing.) My lawyers helped with that joke."

Gervais: "The creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, is reportedly worth $7 billion. Heather Mills calls him the one that got away."

Gervais: "Congratulations to Hugh Hefner, who is getting married at age 84 to 24-year-old beauty Crystal Harris. When asked why she was marrying him, she said, 'He lied about his age. He told me he was 94.' Just don't look at it when you touch it."

Gervais: "(Robert Downey, Jr.) has done all those films, but many of you in this room probably know him from such facilities as the Betty Ford Clinic and Los Angeles County Jail."

Robert Downey, Jr., stepping onstage after being introduced by Gervais: "Aside from the fact that it's been hugely mean-spirited with mildly sinister undertones, I'd say the vibe of the show's pretty good so far, wouldn't you?"

Anonymous Hollywood insider to PopEater. com: "People in that room were furious, but had to sit and smile because the cameras were on them. It really says something when several people who attended said they would have felt safer with Kathy Griffin hosting."

Philip Berk, head of the HFPA, to the Hollywood Reporter: "He definitely crossed the line. . . And some of the things were totally unacceptable."

Harvey Weinstein: "Knowing that Ricky Gervais will never work again means a lot to me. I'm going to make sure of it."

An anonymous HFPA member to PopEater. com: "Ricky will not be invited back to host the show next year, for sure . . . For sure any movie he makes he can forget about getting nominated. He humiliated the organization last night and went too far with several celebrities whose representatives have already called to complain."

Gervais in an interview with Piers Morgan: "It's not my job to worry about what people think of me — that's the job of a politician."

What Jennifer Lopez claims she said to Gervais backstage: "Listen! I will kill you, you understand, I am from New York, my husband fights, we both fight, we will beat you up after the show."

Jimmy Fallon to USA Today at the NBC Universal/Focus Features party: "He didn't go far enough . . . It's very gutsy. He put it right out there and everyone loved it and laughed right back at him. It's almost like a privilege, getting burned by Ricky."

Film historian Leonard Maltin: "Anyone who hires Gervais should know that he always steps over the line for the sake of comedy . . . To be surprised after the fact is either naive or hypocritical."

Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly (online): "His Globes performance also benefited from some viewers' genuine shock that anyone would tell a movie star to his or her face that his or her movie wasn't very good."

Joan Rivers to the Associated Press: "It was a very funny monologue and these people take themselves so seriously . . . I know he came out punching on that terrible movie The Tourist. (He had) every right to . . . Everyone (should) just calm down."

Anne Hathaway, who will co-host the Academy Awards, to USA Today at the Fox Post-Show Celebration: "I'm very upset with Ricky. He stole every joke I was planning to make and now I have to start from scratch."

Bryan Adams to PopEater. com: "I loved Ricky hosting the Golden Globes. He doesn't give a s---."

Gervais at the HBO party: "I think last year I was a little bit safe, to be honest. I got it just about right this year, and if they invite me back I'll go f---ing mental next year."

Sarah Barmak