Globes: "Robbing filmmakers and fans of Keira Knightley dressed up in a beautiful outfit"

By Liza Foreman

The ticket to the 65th Golden Globe Awards read as follows: 2:30 pm Cocktails; 3:30 pm, Champagne Dinner; 4:30 pm Doors Close; 5:00 pm Awards. But, that�s not at all how it went down.

At 6pm sharp, six television presenters took to the stage of the Beverly Hilton ballroom to wait their turn to announce long laundry lists of prizes that would otherwise have been presented to and by the stars. But "Entertainment Tonight�s" Mary Hart was as starry as this night was going to get.

�As all of you know we were not able to present the awards with a ceremony,� said HFPA president Jorge Camara taking the podium. �But we are glad to be able to present the awards in this form. We hope that the strike ends soon so that people can get back to making movies which is what these awards are all about.�

Despite an eleventh hour waiver granted to the Globes Friday by the WGA, the stars still turned their backs on what is usually the most star-studded award show of the year.

�We called them but they were all out of town, otherwise engaged, couldn�t make it,� said a frazzled HFPA member. �This is just such a shame. The negotiations have been horrible. It�s robbing filmmakers and fans of what they love best to see, Keira Knightley dressed up in a beautiful outfit.�

Still, attending the paired down news conference were no less than 57 television crews, 125 print journalists and 600 guests including publicists and industry executives. Someone thought they spotted NBC�s Ben Silverman but that rumor was never confirmed.

�This is an interesting turn of events,� said publicist Ronni Chasen whose client producer Dick Zanuck�s �Sweeney Todd� took home Best Musical/Comedy.

All in all the awards for Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Julie Christie, Javier Bardem, �Atonement,� you name it, were reeled off and over within no less than forty five minutes.

Afterwards, guests gathered quietly around the nibbles and champagne.

But the discussion seemed to turn more to the lack of traffic, the lack of a picket line and the lack of a problem finding a parking place in a spot that would usually be like a zoo, but was unusually - and eerily - dead.

One imagined the stars had gone to entertain the troops, and those left behind had put on their Sunday best and reddened their lips - and resolved to do their best to have a jolly good time while pretending all was well.

As for the usually wild parties, it was truly black out time. A couple of quiet gatherings in darkened hotel rooms was all that was left.