Golden Globes had taken a hit in the past few years in terms of reputation and how many people wanted to watch it. To be clear, that was for every award show.
Even the esteemed Oscars weren't spared.
But Golden Globes took a harsher, sharper hit as the award show changed channels three years ago. In the middle, no channel wanted to broadcast it and for a year, it went with just live streaming.
But after that, Panther TV took it up and due to a better management in place, the interest again came up but not at the level that people have hoped for.
If one wanted to look into this issue, a lot of it was just celebrities not being that exciting anymore. People didn't want to watch a two hour show just to see a bunch of celebrities together on the red carpet.
Moreover, the movie culture had changed significantly in the past few years too.
Majority of popular movies don't get nominated aside from the special effects section and no one wants to see a movie they have not watched get the award.
It just won't feel that interesting and people would think that they are giving just any movie the award. There were even categories now like award movies and commercial movies.
Many analysts had talked about including superhero and other franchise movies in the main categories but the suggestion hadn't been taken nicely by anyone.
Just in this year's Golden Globes, [The Black Saint] was not nominated because it was regarded as a sequel. By selecting movies, no one had thought that the movie was also good enough as a standalone.
Only Aiden was nominated as his performance was too strong to ignore.
That's why, the whole team of [The Black Saint] wished that he would get the award tonight. For them.
They didn't know that his mind was a mess.
"Hello and welcome, I'm Jessica Healy and I'm here at the red carpet at the Golden Globes awards. As you can see, it's a very busy atmosphere here as celebrities have started to come in. In a moment, we would go and interview a few of them."
A female reporter said as she tugged a strand of her hair behind her ear in an attempt to look cute. The cameraman gave her the 'Ok' signal and she walked towards the red carpet and looked around to see which celebrity she could approach.
Other reporters were also there, reporting celebrities who had arrived early. She needed to be quick on her feet.
At that moment, her eyes found someone walking towards her. He was a very senior actor who was once a leading man in Hollywood comedies but since the 2000s, he had stopped acting and was living lavishly with the money and investments he had made.
"Hello, Jimmy, it's nice to see you here. Do you have a minute? Can I ask you a few questions?"
"Ask away." The man said, not really looking interested in his body language but still agreeing in a slightly lazy voice.
"Who do you think would win the most awards tonight? Any movie or actor that you are supporting tonight?"
Hearing the question, the man made an expression like he was already bored. He knew that he was going to hear the question until the ceremony began.
"Not really. I'm not looking forward to anything. And does it even matter?"
"What? I think it matters. We are celebrating the best movies and performances of the year tonight." The female reporter said as she blinked her eyes.
"I really wonder about it. From my perspective, it's just rich people giving awards to other rich people. Do you think any of these people care about cinema? I don't think a lot does. Not in this decade."
"Why are you here then?"
"Because of food and the wine. I will see you."
The man said and walked away. The female reporter kept looking at his direction for a while before shaking her head.
"A lot of people say that he had become depressed and fed up with the industry in recent years. Don't like anything now. Had personal tragedies too. Probably haven't recovered from it."
"Yeah, let's move on."
The female reporter said and she looked around, trying to find someone who was nominated tonight.
More people would be interested in that and her boss had also told her to do that.
Suddenly, the crowd that had come to see their favourite celebrities started making a lot of noise. The security personnel quickly tightened their security and got on guard.
The female reporter knew that the crowd would only react like that if a big celebrity was here.
She turned her head around and it was at that moment, she found out who it was.
"Aiden Silvereye!"
He had just gotten out of his car and was with a few other people. One of them was a big bear-like person who looked like a bodyguard while another person she recognised was the director of [The Black Saint], Zavier Lamb.
As usual, his popularity was sky high at the moment and the crowd was excited to see him. A lot of cameras were also turned towards him as people took every photo possible from him.
The female reporter could hear a lot of whispers directed at him.
"Isn't Aiden the only celebrity with box office pull at the moment? Among the younger celebrities?"
"There are a few others but none have given blockbusters like him. He either goes for big budget blockbusters or indie movies that surpass expectations. I heard he has an excellent eye for scripts."
"He just doesn't have a lot of awards."
"Yeah, he was always touted to be a good actor. Just too young for major awards. I think it would change tonight."
"Yeah, he must be eyeing the award."
Hearing the chatter, the female reporter was distracted for a moment before she realised that she had to hurry to ask a few questions from him.
But it was too late.
When she reached near him, there were already a lot of people, different reporters trying to ask their questions.
'It's too hard to get a star like him for a solo interview.'
She thought in her mind and tried every possible way to get a question in.
***
As soon as Aiden entered the event, cameras were shoved in his face. He was used to it, so he quickly gave the answer to a few questions and left.
Reporters obviously wanted to know more but they didn't have many questions other than cliche ones.
Do you think you would get the award? Who do you think would be your biggest competitor? Are you unhappy that your movie wasn't nominated? Which actress are you excited to meet tonight?
Aiden was so used to these that he didn't have to wait for the reporters to finish their question before speaking.
Though, he also spent a bit of his time to say thank you to the people who were cheering him on. A guy had even come with a poster of Kai and Aiden gave him a selfie.
After all, he finally made his way inside.
On the surface, he was smiling and looking happy but in his heart, Aiden knew that he wasn't okay. He had even asked Wade if he could skip the event but there was no way around it.
"Are you okay?" Wade asked as he put a hand on his shoulder. Aiden decided to answer honestly.
"I'm not."
"Still thinking about Dustin."
"Yeah."
Aiden nodded his head. He had talked about Dustin with Wade and even he was shocked to hear what had happened. He had even helped him get some inside news from APA.
It seemed like Dustin complaining about Philips Fraser was the elephant in the room for everyone in the association. There were no talks about it and they were doing everything to not let it leak to the media.
"It's just that knowing that the American Press association is hosting the event, I just don't think it's moral to be here. I feel like I would be doing something wrong. My conscience has never been like this before."
Wade struggled to say anything hearing that. He didn't know what to say seeing Aiden like that.
Sadly, there was no other way.
"Aiden, I know you are struggling with it but I'm pretty sure Dustin would never like it if you don't go and take the award."
"At this point, I hope I don't win."
Aiden frowned. His interest in awards had significantly gone down, especially for the Golden Globes. It looked to have no purpose now.
It was not like he never thought that Hollywood was like this. It just was very different just hearing and having it happen to a friend of yours.
You can ignore it in the first case but in the second case, you are going to be affected.
Wade wanted to say something but he didn't say anything as they moved.
It was then that they heard a voice.
"Aiden, you are finally here."
It was Ray Hardy. Aiden looked towards him. He wasn't alone and had been talking to another person before he had noticed him.
"Ah…"
Aiden recognised the person.
It was Philips Fraser, the president of the American Press association.
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