Golden Globes may make a star of 'Brokeback' (Reuters Barf Alert!)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Brokeback Mountain," once ridiculed as "the gay cowboy movie" but now the front-runner in Hollywood's Oscar race, gets its first major awards show test on Monday night -- in prime time with millions watching.

The gay romance goes into the 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards on Monday with the most nominations -- seven -- of any film and with a favorite status that many in the industry think could be unshakable in the buildup to the March 5 Oscars.

The Golden Globe Awards are an only-in-Hollywood tradition. They are given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a hard-to-join group composed of a large number of freelancers working for some obscure publications.

But they give one of the best awards parties in town and over the years the show has become famous as a predictor of Oscar winners. And the stars sashaying across the red carpet in drop-dead designer duds is reminiscent of the glamour of old Hollywood.

Normally the Globes help set up the Oscar race by drawing public attention to films that are the strongest contenders.

The Globes' two main awards are best drama, for which "Brokeback" is a contender, and best musical or comedy.

Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee's tale of love and loneliness in the mountains of Wyoming is a strong contender for best drama by virtue of its picking up a slew of best movie awards from film critics and nabbing top prize at 2005's Venice Film Festival.

But its makers are very conscious the movie's theme of homosexual love in the macho world of Marlboro Country could be a problem for mainstream audiences and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Lee has said he thought reaction would be split. "Some people would like it, and some people wouldn't even go to see it or it would be a laughingstock, like when they called it 'a gay cowboy movie.' Then when they see it, they start to embrace it. It's a wonderful turnaround."

"Brokeback" is up against "The Constant Gardener," a thriller based on a John le Carre novel; "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's tale of the fight against McCarthyism; "A History of Violence," a story of the violence that lurks beneath the surface in everyday life; and "Match Point," Woody Allen's "comeback" film about the cost of social climbing in Britain.

"Brokeback's" star, Heath Ledger, who has won rave reviews, is a candidate for best actor, but the competition is tough with Philip Seymour Hoffmann, seemingly the man to beat for his performance as gay novelist Truman Capote in "Capote." Other category nominees include Terrence Howard for "Hustle & Flow," David Strathairn as broadcaster Edward R. Morrow in "Good Night, and Good Luck," and Russell Crowe for "Cinderella Man."

Vying for best musical or comedy are "Mrs. Henderson Presents," "Pride and Prejudice," "The Producers," "The Squid and the Whale" and "Walk the Line."

The nomination of "The Squid and the Whale" as a comedy surprised many because the movie is a harrowing tale of a divorce as seen from the eyes of a couple's two teenage sons.

The foreign press, the American press, the democrats, the left in general, the mainstream media, all derived a perverse pleasure from taking this subject matter and shoving it in the face of the mainstream America who believe, though perverse behavior, leave them to themselves, but get it out of our face. We are raising children and making the country operate.

I believe they think they validate themselves as being slightly smarter than us, more enlightened than normal Amlericans, ahead of the social evolutionary curve and we simply do not measure up. Their parties are broadcast on TV and they are pictured on the tabloids. This is validation in their minds.

They forget that brokeback cowboys die an average of 25 years earlier than average. And this is smart? I have to attend continuing medical education with full-day seminars on gay bowel disease. Yes, they have full chapters in medical textbooks to cover their 'unique' disease processes which, statistically, are occurring at a negligible rate in straight America. Yet the ship of public opinion is slowly being turned, towards acceptance of the unacceptible.

I am a dinosaur in my perspective. I believe abortion is wrong. I believe homosexual behavior is wrong. I believe sexual immorality is wrong. I believe lying is wrong. I believe old fashion American ideals are right and good. I believe freedom is worth fighting for, but not the kind of brokeback libertine behavior they extole and propagate. I believe it is reasonable and acceptible for the President of the Umited States of America to do everything he can to protect its citizens, up to and including, tapping phonecalls from suspected terrorists in to America. I believe the parents in this country should raise their children, not government education. I believe the inexorable decline in decency in this country is linked to these people who seek to tell young people that their parents were wrong to say these things and that they should forget what their parents said and embrace these new age ideals.

But the bastards won't take me. Not alive, anyway. I am going down with my teeth snapping.

Who cares about these awards anyway. I am just reading this because I am stuck at work and don't have anything else new to read.
Have you noticed how movie stars always get hooked up with other movie stars. Very rarely do you ever see one of them with say a doctor, engineer, scientist or college professor. Typically they are running off with the baby sitter or someone like that. They are idiots just look kind of good.

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