When it comes to Golden Globes ads, who deserves the kudos?
CAA "congratulates our clients on their Golden Globe-winning projects" (not quite the same thing as saying they won Globes).
The ad salutes such winners as Sean Penn ("Mystic River"), Renee Zellweger ("Cold Mountain") and Meryl Streep, Al Pacino and Jeffrey Wright ("Angels in America"). However, it also lists Viggo Mortensen, Sean Bean, Marton Csokas and Karl Urban on "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," actors who were not nominated.
APA gave congrats to "our clients on their Golden Globe Award honors," including Dominic Monaghan and John Rhys-Davies of "Lord of the Rings" and Brad Turner, director of TV's "24," all non-nominees.
The William Morris Agency congratulated its Golden Globe nominees, listing Giovanni Ribisi for "Lost in Translation" and "Cold Mountain" although he wasn't personally nominated; the pictures were.
Endeavor also dabbled in a little creative congrats. Although "Nip/Tuck" was nominated as best drama series, writer client Amy Bloom did not receive an individual nomination. There are no TV writing nominees in the Golden Globes.
A spokesman said the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. didn't have a problem with the ads. And the HFPA doesn't name individuals (such as in producers) in noms for film and TV shows, which allows for some flexible interpretation.
It isn't the first time agencies' awards ad have broadened the definitions of "nominee" and "winner."
In March 2002, CAA took out an ad congratulating 32 clients on receiving Academy Award nominations. In fact, only half of the individuals named were nominees; the rest were clients associated with nominated films.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which tends to frown on loose definitions of "Oscar nominee," responded with an ad in papers, including
Daily Variety, chastising the agency.
AMPAS exec administrator Ric Robertson said the Acad is always on the alert over such things. "We watch very carefully the use of our trademark in this kind of advertising." Among the agencies that get gold stars for good citizenship are UTA and the Gersh Agency, which only congratulated actual nominees, and ICM, which congratulated "our Golden Globe winners" and listed a dozen individuals who took home trophies Jan. 25.
Contact Timothy M. Gray at
tim.gray@variety.com