4. Hugh Jackman Wins Best Actor In A Musical Or Comedy
A predictable move but not a particularly inspiring one, Hugh Jackman's visceral performance as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables has rightly been earning raves, and won the Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy award last night. What's frustrating here is that the HFPA really had a chance to do something different, given how diverse this category was. Jack Black, for instance, was nominated for his superb performance in Richard Linklater's Bernie - a film that has largely gone unnoticed by most awards circles this year - yet perhaps more surprising is the HPFA not giving the gong to also-nominated Bradley Cooper for Silver Linings Playbook, given how much this organisation loves to reward young up-and-coming - and dare I say, good-looking - Hollywood talent, not that Jackman's win won't fulfil the HPFA's insatiable obsession with star power nonetheless. As for the rest of the category - Ewan McGregor for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen and Bill Murray for Hyde Park on Hudson - it's absurd that they even got nominated, frankly, so the win could have been a lot worse.