Anne Hathaway may not win the best actress, drama, Golden Globe for her performance in Rachel Getting Married, after all.
A technical snafu is the reason for Hathaway's name having a winner's star next to it on the Golden Globes' site last Thursday, on the very day she was sharing a Critics' Choice Award with Meryl Streep (for Doubt).
Later on, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association issued the following statement:
"In the process of preparing for Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards, a technician working on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s website made a mistake and a name of a nominee was randomly marked as a winner. The mistake was immediately corrected.
"The ballots are tabulated by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young LLP. Only four executives of the accounting firm know the identity of the winners before the envelopes are opened and recipients are announced during the live telecast. No one else, including the members of the HFPA, knows who the winners are prior to the live announcement."
I'm very skeptical about all sorts of "official explanations," but this one makes total sense. A technician trying to make sure the winner's markers can be added properly once they are announced makes a mistake and something that shouldn't go live is suddenly spotted online. Anyone who has a blog or website knows that those things can happen while testing some feature or other.
The problem with the Globes is that they still haven't been able to live down their reputation as buyable, bribable, illegitimate award givers, thanks to past scandals such as the furor over Pia Zadora's best newcomer win in 1982 for (the dreadful) Butterfly when her movie hadn't even opened in the Los Angeles area — but Zadora's filthy rich husband had flown HFPA members to Las Vegas to see her perform.
More on the Globes-Hathaway story at Scott Feinberg's and Tom O'Neil's blogs.
Having said all that, bear in mind that Anne Hathaway — cute, young, chic, famous — will quite likely take home a Golden Globe this year.
She wuz robbed. She should have won. Kate was good but Anne was better.