Golden Globe “Snubs”
I’m sorry this is so long. But it’s been eating at me since the last “awards season.”
Every year, or so it seems to me, there’s some article or articles about how various actors have been “snubbed” by one awards show or another. The implication of the word “snub” goes beyond saying, “Hey, these folks did great work, and are just as good as the folks who were nominated. No, such a word suggests that these actors were left out even though they deserve to be nominated MORE than the folks who were nominated.
A snub is a deliberate act of insult–it’s passive aggressive.
Now, I’m not saying always agree with the nominations, but to the best of my knowledge, a large group of people come up with the nominations, and so there is some sense of democracy in it. Perhaps it might be a snub if Britney Spears had done something incredible in a nominated category and they were left out of the nominations. If we could look at some majorly impressive acting work by Britney Spears (just picture it for the example, okay?) in one of the categories and she wasn’t nominated, well then we might say she was snubbed because the nominating folks didn’t like all the personal crap she’s in the press for these days, or they didn’t like that someone known for her singing was going to “snake” an award, or something like that. If they’d ignored what was obvious to everyone in the freakin’ world as a major acting accomplishment, well, then that would be like she was black-balled or intentionally given the shaft.
But when Eva Longoria or the Sopranos doesn’t get nominated? I’m sorry, but to suggest it’s a snub is not only incorrect, but it’s an insult to the fine performances that were undoubtedly nominated. I’m not saying that actor or that show aren’t on the same level, but an intentional stab at either? Hardly.
In a recent Yahoo TV article/slide show (http://tv.yahoo.com/slideshow/192/photos/1) entitled “Fuzzy Math,” the writer(s) comment on Katherine Heigl’s nomination, but add, “Patrick Dempsey (“McDreamy”) and Ellen Pompeo were big-name snubs by the Globes, however.” No one is snubbing Dempsey or Pompeo. The body of nominators is rewarding several people who were nominated. I doubt that Dempsey or Pompeo were intentionally left out.
When I applied to a Ph.D. program in English, the process was that all of the candidates were ranked in order, and as people declined offers, the next folks received offers. A member of the committee who didn’t respect me tried to convince the committee to bypass me for the next person. Fortunately, I had folks to argue that the candidates had been ranked, and I was damn well next in line. Had I not been accepted, that would have been a snub–I would have been ranked by a committee as higher than someone who did get in, and that would have sucked. Personally, I feel honored that I was worth arguing over. Go me.
But back to my point–perhaps viewers would have placed Dempsey or Pompeo “above” who actually got nominated. That’s simply a difference of opinion, and it is not an indication that the nominating folks got together and said, “Well, we all agreed that we all like Dempsey better than so-and-so, but are we really gonna let a guy who already has great hair win?” If we say Dempsey got snubbed, we are saying this unlikely scenario or something like it occurred.
Yahoo comments on the fact that the much-queried (i.e. Yahoo searched) shows Heroes, The Sopranos, Smallville, The Office, and Prison Break, as if being the focus of a search is proof of greatness–proof that a show who “earned it” was passed over for something less worthwhile. I’ve heard great things about these shows. I’ve never watched any of them. I’m sure they’re good, but if the nominating folks aren’t regular viewers (which I prove is a possibility) then they’re unlikely to be persuaded by any kind of a nomination tape. Now, maybe that’s unfair–except that the folks who nominate are a large group of folks. If enough of them felt the pull to one of these actors or shows, I’m sure we’d see them listed.
In the end, it is unfair to say someone has been snubbed unless there is an argument for who or what should NOT have been nominated. If none of the shows I mentioned were nominated, then which one is so “obviously” NOT the one that should should have been nominated? Articles about snubbing rarely say things like “Heroes so obviously got passed over in favor of House that one wonders if the in-common letters got the voters confused.” Until these articles start calling out the folks who were nominated and didn’t deserve it, it’s insulting to the nominees to say that someone or something not on the list was snubbed. I’ve got my own “wish list” for nominees, but I’m not in a position to say the folks who were nominated deserved it less than my favorites. I don’t think any of my favorites were “snubbed.” My favorites were apparently bested, and I give my congratulations to the nominees on what must be fine work to beat out the folks I wish were among them.
If Susan Lucci can wait for an award after 18 nominations, or something like that, and I doubt she was being snubbed, then other folks need to put out their own best work for that many years, and someday, they just might best someone who else, who will undoubtedly be hailed as the latest victim of a snub.
