17. The Golden Globes are Open to Bribery
The film was a critical disaster, scoring a 20% approval rating at RottenTomatoes.com and a score of 37 out of 100 from Metacritic.
Peter Travers called it one of the worst films of the year and moviegoers agreed. The film was a modest box office success, but was widely mocked and forgotten after release.
Then, inexplicably, a forgettable romantic thriller wound up back on pop culture’s radar with a nomination for “Best Musical or Comedy” film of all things, with lead stars Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp scoring nominations in the Best Actress and Actor categories respectively.
The decision was widely mocked in the media. Ricky Gervais actually insulted the Golden Globes’ decision to nominate the film at the actual awards ceremony while he was hosting.
Allegations of bribery were leveled at the filmmakers, and not for the first time. The organization behind the Globes, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is notoriously amenable to lobbying. Sharon Stone famously bought a Best Actress nomination from the HFPA by providing the few dozen members with golden watches.
Another critical bomb, “Burlesque”, scored a Best Musical nomination after flying the judges to Las Vegas for a private concert with Cher. No word yet on what “The Tourist” had to do to get a nomination but you can bet the contract was signed in blood.
