Judd Apatow bashes Ricky Gervais, kisses up to butt-hurt Hollywood
We’re still talking about Ricky Gervais’s performance as host of the Golden Globes last Sunday. We’re still talking about it because new people keep coming out to talk about how butt-hurt they still are. The latest: writer/producer/director Judd Apatow, who was the MC of the weekend’s Producer’s Guild Awards (where The King’s Speech took top honors). Apatow decided to rip into Ricky’s performance during the event. Well… I say “rip into” but that’s not really what happened. Apatow made a couple of good points, but if you read over all of the quotes, it just seems like Apatow was trying to soothe and massage the oh-so-tender egos of Hollywood power players.
Producers Guild Awards host Judd Apatow built his opening monologue around a profanity-laced attack on the way Ricky Gervais handled his Golden Globe Awards hosting chores a week earlier in the same room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
“What did you think of Ricky Gervais?” he asked the black-tie industry crowd Saturday night. “I didn’t like him. I thought he was mean.”
Apatow, whose movies include The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, knocked Gervais for his controversial jokes.
“He had that joke about the guy on Lost,” said Apatow. “He said he ate everybody else. Let’s be honest — Ricky Gervais just lost weight. Even now he’s four pounds away from not being allowed to do a joke like that. Did he lose weight just to make fat jokes? You think that’s how mean he is?”
Apatow had no problem with a Gervais joke about Charlie Sheen.
But Apatow added, “(Jay) Leno did it the week before.”
“I think he’s an OK target,” Apatow said of Sheen. “The people at CBS have said as long as he shows up on time, knows his lines, he can do whatever he wants.”
However, Apatow took exception to Gervais making a joke about The Tourist.
“(Gervais) says the characters were two-dimensional,” said Apatow. “Then he says he hasn’t seen The Tourist. So as a comedian, that’s not fair, is it? To make jokes about a movie you haven’t seen.
“I can’t do a joke about (Gervais’s movie) The Invention of Lying because I haven’t seen it. You haven’t seen it. None of us have seen it. So the joke would not work.”
Apatow also came to the defense of Cher, Hugh Hefner, Tim Allen, Tom Cruise and Robert Downey, Jr. – others who were Gervais targets.
“(Gervais) made a joke about Tim Allen who was standing next to Tom Hanks,” said Apatow. “Who looks good standing next to Tom Hanks? We all look like a piece of shit standing next to Tom Hanks. Warren Buffet would look like a piece of sh-t next to Tom Hanks. Tim Allen did 200 episodes of Home Improvement. He was in three of the highest grossing movies of all time. And his latest just crossed the one billion mark. Whereas The Invention Of Lying made $18 million dollars worldwide…Leave Tim Allen alone.”
[From The Hollywood Reporter]
Here’s the thing – some of Ricky’s set was funny, and some of the points Judd Apatow made were right on. Ricky did a better job of hosting the Globes last year, and he’s not going to come back for a third try. Apatow, on the other hand, just seems to be whining overall. Whatever. I’m over this controversy, and I’m over both Ricky and Apatow.
Thanks to Gawker for the story!
Photos courtesy of WENN.
