Golden Globes: Robert De Niro, ‘Beasts,’ ‘Magic Mike’ top snubs list

Robert De Niro, the cast of “Magic Mike” and the young star of “Beasts of the Southern Wild” were among those overlooked by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. when the organization announced the 2013 Golden Globes nominations Thursday morning.

De Niro, considered by many handicappers a virtual lock for an Oscar nomination for his role as an obsessive Philadelphia Eagles fan in “The Silver Linings Playbook,” was not named to the list of best supporting actors in the comedy/musical category. Instead Alan Arkin (“Argo”) and Leonardo DiCaprio (“Django Unchained”) landed slots despite pre-nomination uncertainty about whether they’d make the cut.

It was not the only overlook for “Silver Linings,” a critical favorite about a man with bipolar disorder. Though the film received acting nominations for Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as well as a comedy/musical slot, David O. Russell was not nominated for best director. He joins Tom Hooper (“Les Miserables”) among the ranks of Oscar-contending auteurs who will go Globe-less.

LIST: The complete list of nominees

Meanwhile, Matthew McConaughey’s performance as a veteran exotic dancer in “Magic Mike,” which was one of two movies cited by the New York Film Critics Circle in naming him 2012’s best actor, was also not nominated by the HFPA. Indeed, no one from the cast of the stripper-centric “Mike,” a well-reviewed hit this past summer, was nominated, and the film did not land a spot in the best comedy/musical category. A surprise slot in that category instead went to “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” a little-seen, fish-out-of-water comedy which also landed acting nominations for stars Ewan MacGregor and Emily Blunt.

Also on the acting side, the HFPA surprisingly chose not to nominate octogenarian Emanuelle Riva, the French icon who made her acting comeback as a stroke victim in Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner “Amour,” for best actress/drama.

Quevenzhane Wallis, the first-time-actress who riveted critics with her performance as a steely girl in “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” was also not nominated in that category. Instead the HPFA handed a nomination to perennial Globes favorite Meryl Streep for her performance as a troubled wife in “Hope Springs.” (Like “Magic Mike,” “Beasts” was entirely shut out of the Globes.)

FULL COVERAGE: GOLDEN GLOBE nominations

Finally, in hearing about the De Niro snub, it was hard for awards observers not to recall De Niro’s swipe-filled speech against the HFPA at the Globes in 2011. In accepting the Lifetime Achievement award, he made jokes such as “I’m sorry more members of the foreign press aren’t with us tonight, but many were deported right before the show along with most of the waiters.” The group has apparently now decided to banish him too.

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