Golden Raspberry Awards

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The Golden Raspberry Awards or Razzies were created by John Wilson in 1980, intended to complement the Academy Awards by dishonoring the worst acting, screenwriting, songwriting, directing, and films that the film industry had to offer. Current awards are voted upon by the membership of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation (GRAF). 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." In Cockney rhyming slang, "raspberry" means flatulence, "raspberry tart" rhyming with "fart".

1 Stars who have accepted the "honor"
2 Types of Awards
3 Criticism
4 Most Razzed
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Stars who have accepted the "honor"

Many quite distinguished actors, directors and producers have received the recognition of a Golden Raspberry. However, due to the nature of the award, it is typically not accepted in person by its recipients. In fact, this has only happened 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-carat 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 The Chevy Chase Show.

1996: Paul Verhoeven was the first person 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.

2002: 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... dear god, I want to say that." 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 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.

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.

The only 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. Sofia Coppola, Ben Affleck, Kevin Costner, and Prince are also Oscar and Razzie winners, but only one or two of the awards were in acting.

[edit] Types of Awards

Over the years the Golden Raspberry Awards have had three different awards.

[edit] Razzie Award

The most famous award. It usually takes the form of a raspberry on a plastic base and is spray painted gold. It was first awarded in 1981.

[edit] Worst Career Achievement Award

This award was only awarded four times, in 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1987.

[edit] 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.

Golden Raspberry Awards

1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

[edit] Criticism

Some believe that the Razzies give out "awards" based on hype, instead of judging on film quality, or lack thereof.[1] For example, George W. Bush was "awarded" worst actor in 2004 for appearing in the documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. In addition, the first two Star Wars prequels, both of which were considered by many as inferior to the well-received original trilogy but still received "fresh" ratings from the website Rotten Tomatoes, were nominated for Worst Picture. The GRAF apparently addressed this in 2006, when it handed out four Razzies to Dirty Love, a film in which the official GRAF press release announcing the 2005 winners proclaimed as "...a little stinker that no one but... [Razzie voters] ...even seem to know existed." [2]

The nominating of Bush and others in his cabinet for their brief appearances in the Michael Moore documentary signaled what some believe was the Razzies' "jumping the shark" moment.[3] They followed in 2006 (awarding the worst of 2005) with a new category criticizing Tom Cruise for his odd behavior during media appearances, most notably jumping up and down on a couch on the Oprah Winfrey talk 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.

[edit] Most Razzed

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 clunker Battlefield Earth follows Showgirls, with seven "wins" (from eight nominations).
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, his latest was Worst Supporting Actor for 2003's Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.)