Final Verdict on Ricky Gervais

The best piece on last night's Golden Globe Awards today is, unsurprisingly, Pete Hammond in Nikki Fink's Deadline. As The Social Network solidified it's leading candidate status, along with Colin Firth, Christian Bale, arguably Natalie Portman and Melissa Leo, the only thing anyone talked about was returning host Ricky Gervais:

From inside the Beverly Hilton International ballroom, jaded journalists at my table in the back seemed genuinely shocked at just how far host Ricky Gervais went to insult the organization he was working for, not to mention everyone else in the room. It was as edgy a performance as these things can possibly be and, like him or not, it kept your attention. Ryan Gosling told me it seemed "like David Lynch was directing the show". I thought it refreshing to see someone go so un-PC on NBC.

The President of the Golden Globes even threatened his host's career:

"Ricky will not be invited back to host the show next year, for sure," the HFPA member said. "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."

Eventually he corrected that, as I'm sure calls were made by representation, but the final verdict is exactly what this commenter, skd, says on another Deadline post:

The Golden Globes went from an irrelevant awards show with questionable methods of choosing winners, to a major hit (17 million viewers on the deadest night of the week, Sunday!?). Yeah maybe the HFPA and NBC will grumble within earshot of those who were grilled last night, but privately they are jumping for joy. In the age of cable tv, you got to push the envelope…hard, or you will be irrelevant, boring and without viewers. No one was going to watch the Golden Globes, until Twitter and Facebook came alive 15 minutes into the show. You can’t buy that kind of PR.

Exactly. Makes Gervais look like some kind of genius.

Who can do whatever he wants.