Golden Raspberry Awards

Golden Raspberry Awards
File:Razzie award.jpg Razzie Award
Description	Worst in film
Country	United States
Presented by	Golden Raspberry Award Foundation
First awarded	1981
Website	http://www.razzies.com/

The Golden Raspberry Awards or Razzies, first awarded in 1981, were created by John Wilson in 1980, intended to counterpoint the Academy Awards by dishonoring the worst acting, screenwriting, songwriting, directing, and films that the film industry had to offer. It usually takes the form of a raspberry spray-painted gold and mounted on a plastic base.

Current awards are voted upon by the membership of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation (GRAF), and membership is openly available to the public, as opposed to the Academy Awards. Traditionally, nominations are announced one day before the Motion Picture Academy announces its Oscar nominations, and the awards are presented one day before the Oscar ceremony.

The term "raspberry" is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry."

Categories

The Official Categories of the Razzies are:

• Worst Picture
• Worst Director
• Worst Actor
• Worst Actress
• Worst Supporting Actor
• Worst Supporting Actress
• Worst Screen Couple
• Worst Screenplay
• Worst Prequel or Sequel
• Worst Remake or Rip-off
• Worst New Star (This category is now rarely awarded.)
• Worst Original Song (This category is now rarely awarded.)

Special Categories

Over the years, "Special" categories have also been introduced and are handed out only once for the year it was introduced. Such special awards include, Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets (2005), Worst Excuse for an Actual Movie (All Concept/No Content!) (2003), Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie (2002), Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property (1997), Worst Excuse For Family Entertainment (2006), and others.

In 2006 a new category was made, criticizing Tom Cruise for his odd behavior during media appearances, most notably jumping up and down on a couch on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Head Razzberry John Wilson acknowledged that the Cruise-dominated nods in the new Razzie category of Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets was the Razzies' way of offering social satire.

Other types of Awards

Over the years, the Golden Raspberry Awards have awarded special awards next to the actual Razzie Awards as well.

Worst Career Achievement Award

This award was awarded only four times, in 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1987, to Ronald Reagan, Linda Blair, Irwin Allen, and "Bruce the Rubber Shark" from Jaws.

Governor's Award

This is a special award given by Razzie Award Governor John Wilson to an individual whose achievements are not covered by the Razzie's other categories. It was awarded in 2003 to Travis Payne for "Distinguished Under-Achievement in Choreography" in the film From Justin to Kelly.

Stars who have accepted the "honour"

Many quite distinguished actors, directors, and producers have received the recognition of a Golden Raspberry. However, due to the insulting nature of the award, it is typically not accepted in person by its recipients. In fact, this has happened only a handful of times in the history of the awards:

• 1988: Bill Cosby "won" three Razzie Awards for Worst Picture, Worst Actor, and Worst Screenplay for Leonard Part 6, a botched spoof of spy flicks that Cosby himself had condemned on several talk shows. Cosby became the first person to personally accept his Razzies, which he did a few weeks after the actual ceremony on Fox's The Late Show. According to an interview with Cosby on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Cosby had threatened to sue the Golden Raspberries if he didn't receive awards that were made of real gold. They complied, and he received 24-karat gold and Italian marble statues, at a cost of $27,000 - paid by the network. (The regular award consists of a fake raspberry atop a Super 8 film reel that's been spray-painted gold. The Golden Raspberry Awards Foundation estimates its value to be $4.97.)

• 1993: Tom Selleck accepted his Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor for his performance as King Ferdinand of Spain in Christopher Columbus: The Discovery during an episode of The Chevy Chase Show.

• 1996: Paul Verhoeven became the first to accept a Razzie in person at the awards ceremony when he accepted Worst Director for Showgirls.

• 1998: Screenwriter Brian Helgeland became the first person to win a Razzie and an Oscar in the same year - in fact, on the same weekend. His Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award was for L.A. Confidential, and it came the day after he "won" the Razzie for Worst Screenplay for Kevin Costner's The Postman. While Helgeland did not attend the Razzie ceremony, he did express a wish to get his dishonor and display it next to his Oscar to remind him of "the quixotic nature" of Hollywood. Soon after, he was indeed officially presented his Razzie at his offices on the Warner Bros. lot.

• 2000: Wild Wild West earned 5 Razzies (including Worst Picture) that year, 3 of which were "accepted" by Robert Conrad who had starred in the 1960s television series of the same name and despised the film remake.

• 2001: Tom Green accepted all five of his Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture, for Freddy Got Fingered. He declared, "I want to say I didn't deserve this any more than anyone else here... dear god, I want to say that. I don't think it would be true, though." He turned up in a white Cadillac, bringing his own length of cheap red carpet. Green's speech included a never-ending piece of music played on the harmonica, for which he eventually had to be dragged off stage by the organizers.
• 2004: Ben Affleck, after winning Worst Actor for his work in Gigli, Daredevil, and Paycheck, asked why he did not get his trophy. He was presented the Razzie live on Larry King Live a week later, which he promptly broke. The broken Razzie was sold on eBay for enough money to cover the hall rental for the next year's ceremonies.

• 2005: Halle Berry surprised Hollywood by giving a mock breathless acceptance speech at the Razzie ceremony, clutching her Oscar (2002 Best Actress for Monster's Ball) in one hand and her Razzie in the other. Berry had won the award for worst actress for her performance in Catwoman, which also won in three other categories. Shortly after this incident, John Wilson released a statement to the press praising Halle Berry's other performances and stating that he looks forward to Berry giving other Oscar-worthy performances.

Razzie/Oscar Connection

• The only two actors to be nominated for an Oscar and Razzie for the same performance are James Coco for Only When I Laugh in 1982 and Amy Irving for Yentl in 1984. Neither won either award.

• In addition, Christopher Walken and Alec Baldwin were both nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor in the same year, albeit for different films. Walken was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2002 for Catch Me if You Can and Worst Supporting Actor for The Country Bears. Baldwin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2003 for The Cooler and Worst Supporting Actor for The Cat in the Hat.

• The actors to have won both a Razzie and an Oscar for acting are Faye Dunaway, Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Roberto Benigni, Halle Berry, and Liza Minnelli. In addition Sofia Coppola, Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, and Prince are also Oscar and Razzie winners, but only one of the two awards was in acting.

• The 2003 film Gigli became the first film to "win" all the top five categories at the Razzies, (Worst Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay) basically making it the Razzie equivalent of 1934's It Happened One Night, which was the first film to win the "Oscar grand slam" (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay). Thus far, only Gigli has "won" the "Razzie grand slam".

Special nominations

• With an astonishing fourteen nominations in all (thirteen of which were from the year it was eligible—despite only twelve categories being awarded that year) and eight "wins", 1995's legendary box office debacle Showgirls is the most "Razzed" film in Razzie Award history. 2000's sci-fi film Battlefield Earth, which originally "won" seven Razzie Awards (from eight nominations) in 2000, tied this record when it was awarded an eighth Razzie in 2005.

• The most "Razzed" individual in the history of the Razzies is actor Sylvester Stallone with thirty nominations and ten "wins". (His first Razzie Award was for Worst Actor in the 1984 film Rhinestone and his latest was Worst Supporting Actor for 2003's Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.)

• In 2004, President George W. Bush was awarded worst actor for appearing in the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. (Razzies were also given to Britney Spears, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice for appearing in the documentary, but not to the documentary itself).

• The first two Star Wars prequels, both of which were considered by many as poor in comparison to the well-received original trilogy but still received "fresh" ratings from the website Rotten Tomatoes, were nominated for Worst Picture in 1999 and 2002 respectively.

See also

• Films considered the worst ever
• The Golden Turkey Awards
• Ig Nobel Prize
• Pigasus Award

External links

• Golden Raspberry Official Website
• Razzie Awards page on the Internet Movie Database