A+E

Thoughts on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association

It's no secret that Hollywood awards shows are self-congratulatory shams mainly rewarding the biggest and most glamorous advertising campaigns. So we won't quibble with the winners at Monday's Golden Globes ceremony, which typically recognized a mix of the deserving (Helen Mirren, Martin Scorsese), the relative underdogs (Sacha Baron Cohen, America Ferrera) and the almost entirely worthless (Grey's Anatomy). But can we call a moratorium on celebrity ass-kissing of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization that puts on the Globes?

It's sad to watch stars like Tom Hanks and Renee Zellweger pretend that they admire the group of publicity-hungry writers for foreign publications the same way they respect their genuine peers in the Academy, who vote on the Oscars. Freelance writers for obscure publications in Bangladesh should not have this much power in Hollywood. (Nothing, however, could take away from the amusement factor of hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger pronounce Babel and Bobby as if they were the exact same word.)

WarioWare: Smooth Moves. If ever there was a game perfectly tailored for the Wii, it's WarioWare (Nintendo, rated E10+, aaaa). The aspects of the motion controller that make stuffier gamers self-conscious wind up making Wario's bizarre mini-games more fun. Whether you're balancing the controller on your head like a mohawk or whipping it from your hip like a samurai sword, each game gives you about three seconds to figure out what to do and then twist your body into some ridiculous Tai Chi position in order to do it. Hilarity ensues.