James Cameron spreads the praise

Cameron glory James Cameron’s 1998 Oscar acceptance speech for “Titanic” has become lodged in the public imagination as an epochal award season moment for all the wrong reasons. “I’m the king of the world!” the director crowed. Which sounded to the public like: Yay for me! But while racking up two wins at Sunday’s Globes ceremony, Cameron seemed to purposely steer clear of any such self-aggrandizing statements -- while again cribbing lines from his winning film and implicitly patting himself on the back. During Cameron’s first acceptance speech, he heaped praise on his ex-wife and fellow nominee, “The Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow, before addressing his actors in the Na’vi language he had created for “Avatar’s” 10-foot-tall, Smurf-hued creatures. Then he switched to English. “I seeyou, my brothers and sisters,” the director said, echoing the aliens’ refrain of peaceful interconnectivity. “ ‘Avatar’ asks us to see that everything is connected,” he said on stage later for his best movie drama win. “If you have to go 4 1/2 light years to another planet to appreciate the world we have right here, you know what? That’s the wonder of cinema right there. That’s the magic.” -- Chris Lee