Thoughts on this season's BAFTA nominations

La La Land was the not unexpected leader for the BAFTA nominations. Slightly less known ahead of time was what film would threaten its leader status and that is arguably more surprising: divisive Nocturnal Animals tied for second place with the not very divisive Arrival with nine nominations each.

The film suffering the most this morning from lack of BAFTA love is surely Loving, which had the advantage of a popular new homegrown star Ruth Negga but missed in all categories but for "Rising Star" for Ruth Negga. The nominations in all categories after the jump...

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Say What! Actors Watching Meryl Streep

Chris here with more Globes afterglow. What's there to even say about Meryl's stupendous acceptance speech when her beautiful rally cry was words enough? Instead, let's bask in the glow of actors basking in the glow of Meryl Streep. Here's a look at the room she captured and some guess as to what everyone was thinking:

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Ranking the Golden Globe presenters

We're revisiting the highs and the lows of the Globes. Here's Jorge... 

Because next to the winners, random celebrity pairings are the best part of the ceremony, let's rank them.

33. Casey Affleck: I will say it now. I do not support Casey Affleck nor his campaign. His performance is one thing, but he is presenting his (problematic) self at the award circuit. I did not like watching him introduce Manchester by the Sea (let alone winning). Knowing he has had many trips on stage this season, they could have had Michelle or Lucas Hedges go up to make it more interesting.

32. Sofia Vergara: How much longer can the highest paid actress in television keep basing her brand on the notion that she can’t speak English? The joke is getting old and, frankly, denigrating for her.

31. Vince Vaughn: He looked like he did not want to be there, at this moment or any other point during the ceremony...

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A Cocktail with Nicole, Always Our Leading Lady.

UNICEF held a screening of Lion this past week in Manhattan with stars Nicole Kidman and Dev Patel and Sunny Pawar (who share the protagonist role of Saroo). I finally had the pleasure of getting some face time with Nicole at the party afterwards. The Monkey Bar's main room has restaurant tables and chairs circling the a big slightly lower open area where the stars enter and are then typically bombarded by press, photographers, and industry wellwishers.

The crowd gave adorable little Sunny plenty of space, looking so tiny and a bit overwhelmed while taking press photos, before he headed to a private table. Dev Patel worked the room shaking hands at tables. Nicole, at least from my vantage point, stayed in the center; you came to her. As it should be.

The statuesque star towered over me (she's only 1" taller, but, add heels)...

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Who got the biggest Oscar boost from the Globes?

I'll be updating the Oscar charts once the Globe results have settled and the BAFTA nominations are thoroughly parsed. To do so we must ask the time old precursor awards question: who benefitted most from winning or losing at this speed bump on Oscar's highway (sorry for the clumsy metaphor -- I have driving on the brain due to La La Land's big deal opening number). Perhaps the obvious answer is Isabelle Huppert who has had a tremendous week winning the NSFC and the Globe and her movie winning the Globe, too, and finally passing the not insignificant $1 million mark at the box office (making it the one of the most successful foreign language film in the States this year.)

Moonlight's Best Picture win and La La Land's sweep (now the biggest Golden Globe winner of all time with 7 prizes) is perhaps the most "what does it mean?" prize. It's good news for both films obviously, at least for marketing purposes, but since Moonlight's was the last prize of the night and it had won no other awards, will it be anyone's "takeaway" from one of television's biggest awards nights? And do La La Land's seven prizes feel like overkill?

I grilled Team Experience who they thought benefitted from the Globe trophies...

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