Awards season hits and misses

The British comic spent a majority of his time onstage hurling zingers at various members of Hollywood’s elite. Some argued that Gervais went too far, while others said that the A-listers had it coming and that the bashing comes with the limelight. Either way, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. hasn’t asked Gervais back for a third year.  (Paul Drinkwater / Associated Press)

In a shocking David-versus-Goliath-style upset, jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding bested tween dream Bieber for the coveted new artist gold gramophone. Though we have nothing against the Biebs and his music per se, Spalding’s win proved a nice surprise in a rather staid awards season.  (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

Although they lost in the alt rock category, the Montreal indie rockers pulled a surprise win in this category. As Pop & Hiss commenter Todd Martens pointed out, even presenter Barbra Streisand seemed a bit stunned when she read “The Suburbs” in the envelope.

Why is this shocking, you ask? Martens adds: “The act with the most complex, thoughtful and adventurous album actually won the Grammy for album of the year” and that “this shows a few things: One, that the Grammy Awards is finally recognizing independent music in its top categories. Two, a band that has sold 484,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, can actually compete with performers whose albums have all sold more than 1 million copies.”  (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

First there was the laugh heard ‘round the world at the Golden Globes (pictured) and the total awkward moment alert for Portman’s fiance, Benjamin Millepied. Then there was the swearing at the SAG Awards. Perhaps it’s best for the “Black Swan” actress to hire a speechwriter for Oscar night.  (Paul Drinkwater / NBC via Getty Images)

Way to help the “Black Swan” media machine trudge on, Portman. The star’s bun-in-the-oven surprise may have helped put the focus back on her in the hotly contested lead actress Oscar race. We’ll see how this all pans out on Oscar night -- things didn’t go so well for current Portman competitor Annette Bening when she was pregnant and nominated for “American Beauty” in 2000.  (Jason Merritt / Getty Images)

It’s easy for coverage of an annual event like the Oscars to fall into autopilot: Use the same commentators, have them say the same thing (“This year is a return to Old Hollywood glamour!”) and repeat. That’s why the news that CNN is hiring headline-grabbing Real Housewife of Beverly Hills Camille Grammer is such great news. What will she say? Will the stars make comments about her personal life? Finally, a red carpet show worth watching.  (Peter Kramer / Associated Press)

After years of making progress as far as including people of all races in the Oscar nominating process, this year’s nominations represent a huge step backward in terms of diversity. Not a single person of color was included in any of the major races. According to Big Picture columnist Patrick Goldstein, the problem isn’t the academy, it’s the studios, which failed to put out any decent films about people of color last year.  (Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images)

Leo is an odds-on favorite to win the supporting actress Oscar for her role as Alice Ward in “The Fighter,” but being “of a certain age,” as they say, has caused the actress to not rely on her youth and good looks to win the race. Leo went out on a limb and bought her own “for your consideration” ads for print and online, featuring photos of herself in glammed-up mode (as opposed to the frumpy image she had in “The Fighter.”) Quite a few eyebrows were raised around Hollywood, but there doesn’t appear to be anything against the rules in what Leo did. So for keeping the award season unpredictable, we think Leo’s ads are a hit.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Some years it seems as if superheroes and fantasies are overtaking the human side of the movies, with no going back. Then you get years like 2010, when real-life stories (albeit fudged a bit for the movies) ruled the roost at the multiplexes: “127 Hours,” “The Social Network,” “The Fighter” and “The King’s Speech” are just some of the real-life stories in competition at the Oscars this year. This is something to applaud if for no other reason than the sheer joy that non-movie people (like boxer Micky Ward, pictured at the premiere of “The Fighter”) get from basking in the spotlights of Hollywood.  (Jason Merritt / Getty Images)