Ricky Gervais talking about talking about hosting the Golden Globes and Oscars again
All the renewed talk of who will take over the Oscars has served as an incantation once more summon Ricky Gervais, the fearsome god of talking about maybe hosting awards shows. Or then again, perhaps he shouldn’t! He is so unpredictably cheeky! [THUNDERCLAP] Gervais has, of course, been coyly discussing returning to the Golden Globes since approximately five minutes after his last broadcast, when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association were still being revived after fainting into their consommé after Gervais’ suggestion that Mel Gibson likes to drink.
And while the HFPA huffed in the postmortem that Gervais had “crossed a line,” lacerating various movie stars with the sort of obvious jokes their assistants had specifically disabled the Internet to keep them away from, Gervais has always insisted that they secretly loved the abuse and want him back. Back in August, he even upped the ante, saying that the Oscars had also asked for a taste. Still, he maintained that he’s not interested in either, saying, "I couldn’t do the Oscars; it’s a thankless task for a comedian,” and dismissing the Golden Globes with “I shouldn’t do it… Don’t do a second encore.” Because how could he possibly top that, except by maybe insinuating that Charlie Sheen has a drug problem?
But of course, obviously he could and would do it: Perpetuating a months-long cycle, Gervais told Access Hollywood that NBC definitely wants him back for the Golden Globes, but that it’s now the HFPA who “have got to want me as well.” (The Hollywood Reporter notes that he’s already had dinner with representatives from both, presumably standing up and pretending to leave every time the conversation drifted away from him, until they begged him to come sit down and tell another joke.) And in this Ratner-created vacuum, Gervais also seems to have changed his mind about the Oscars, saying, “I’ll do that as well. I’ll be in town anyway for the Globes.” He then quickly added, “I can knock off 20 percent. Two-for-one deal. I’ll just stay up there”—a comment that Gervais will no doubt soon laugh off as merely “taking the piss” or the like in a blog post, chuckling anew at the way we mortals are tossed about in the gusts of his ever-changing winds.