The Pamela Anderson renaissance is here.
On Monday, the Canadian actor, model and activist secured her first ever Golden Globe nomination for her role in Gia Coppola’s film “The Last Showgirl.”
Other Canadians nominated for Jan. 5 awards ceremony — which highlights excellence in both international film and television — are actor Gabriel LaBelle, comedian Martin Short and director Denis Villeneuve, whose “Dune: Part Two” is up for best motion picture — drama.
Pamela Anderson’s next act
Born in Ladysmith, B.C., Anderson rose to prominence after being selected as a Playboy Playmate. She then rocketed to fame as the star of the popular action drama “Baywatch.”
In the late ‘90s, Anderson become a fixture in the tabloids and news, which fixated on her tumultuous relationship with Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and her “sex symbol” status. In the early 2000s, she largely receded from the spotlight, and began focusing on her work as an animal-rights activist.
In 2023, “Pamela, a Love Story,” a documentary about her life was released on Netflix. The film, which won critical acclaim, marked not only a vulnerable reclamation of her legacy, but also the beginning of Anderson’s return to the spotlight.
Anderson, now 57, has re-emerged as both an icon of the ”no-makeup” movement — who has been vocal about finally feeling comfortable in her own skin — and an in-demand actor.
“The Last Showgirl” — which also stars Jamie Lee Curtis and Dave Bautista — premiered in September at TIFF. Anderson’s performance drew rapturous applause.
In the film, Anderson plays Shelly, a showgirl and star of a Las Vegas show which is closing down after decades.
Anderson told the Star earlier this year that she believes the film will resonate with a lot of women, particularly because of its depiction of the mother-daughter relationship.
“A lot of my life has been backstage; trying to balance all the things we do as women, as parents—male or female, anybody — we’re all just trying to do the best we can, and realize our dreams at the same time,” she said. “What do you do in your fifties, and you’ve kind of put your career first and you haven’t been there for your kids enough? You’re facing your adult children — we all have to face our adult children and beg for forgiveness at some point in our lives about how we did the best we could with the tools we had.”
Will Anderson finally get her flowers at the Globes in January? She faces some tough competition: the other nominees in the category of best actress in a drama include Angelina Jolie in “Maria,” Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl,” Tilda Swinton in “The Room Next Door,” Fernanda Torres in “I’m Still Here” and Kate Winslet in “Lee.”
Who are the other Canadians nominated?
The most high-profile nomination belongs to Quebec filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, who is the mastermind behind the sci-fi epic “Dune: Part 2”
A box office juggernaut — the film earned over $700 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing movie of 2024 — will be up against “The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Nickel Boys” and “September 5.”
Villeneuve’s 2016 sci-fi alien film “Arrival” was nominated for two Golden Globes, while 2021’s “Dune” was nominated for three (it won for best original score).
In March, Peter Howell interviewed Villeneuve for the Star about the director’s journey from outside to Hollywood A-lister.
“For many years, I felt like a tourist in the room, trying to be invisible and having fun with the toys, and eating as much as I could of the buffet,” Villeneuve told Howell of his early days in Hollywood. “But I felt welcome very quickly. And the more I spend time in that world, then the more I feel welcome and the more people want me to be part of the community. That touches me, to develop friendships with other filmmakers.”
Canadian actor Gabriel LaBelle, 22, who first made a splash in his leading role in Steven Spielberg’s 2022 semi-autobiographical film “The Fabelmans,” received his first nomination for his role as “Saturday Night Live” executive Lorne Michaels in “Saturday Night.”
Directed by Jason Reitman, the film presents the story of the comedy show’s launch as a satiric thriller in which the clock is the villain. In a positive review for the Star, Howell described the film’s cast as “mostly spot-on and instantly familiar.” LaBelle’s portrayal of Michaels, he adds, is “fidgety, fussy and focused.”
Finally, legendary comedian Martin Short is nominated for best TV actor in a comedy for his role in “Only Murders in the Building,” a mystery comedy series created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman that is now in its fourth season. Short has been nominated for three Globes in the past, but has never won.
What movies are leading the way at the Globes?
The embattled Globes, which are no longer presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are still in comeback mode after years of scandal and organizational upheaval. Working in the Globes favour this year: an especially starry field of nominees. Zendaya, Timothée Chalamet, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Denzel Washington, Ariana Grande, Glen Powell and Selena Gomez all scored nominations.
Jacques Audiard’s audacious musical “Emilia Pérez,” about a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender affirming surgery to become a woman, led nominations to the 82nd Golden Globes, scoring 10 nods. (In a brutal review for the Star, Adam Nayman gave the film one star, describing the “toothless musical thriller” as “criminally inane.”)
“Conclave,” the critically acclaimed papal-thriller starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow, picked up six nominations, including best motion picture — drama.
Musical smash ”Wicked,” which recently had the biggest opening ever for a film based on a Broadway musical, is up for four awards, including best comedy/musical, and acting nods for stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.
“The Brutalist,” an epic that stars Adrien Brody as a Jewish Hungarian architect seeking to start a new life in postwar Philadelphia, picked up seven nominations, including best motion picture — drama.
The Donald Trump drama “The Apprentice” also landed nominations for its two central performances, by Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn. The president elect has called “The Apprentice” a “politically disgusting hatchet job’ made by “human scum.”
What’s new this year?
Last year, the Globes introduced two new categories: the cinematic and box office achievement award and the best performance in standup comedy on television. One tweak this time comes in the lifetime achievement awards. This year, those are going to Ted Danson (for the Carol Burnett Award) and Viola Davis (for the Cecil B. DeMille Award). Those will be handed out in a gala dinner on Jan. 3, several days before the Globes.
Who are this year’s Globes nominees?
The nominees for best motion picture drama are: “The Brutalist”; “A Complete Unknown,”; “Conclave”; “Dune: Part Two”; “Nickel Boys”; “September 5.”
The nominees for best film musical or comedy are: “Wicked”; “Anora”; “Emilia Pérez”; “Challengers”; “A Real Pain”; “The Substance.”
The nominees for best television drama are: “Shogun”; “The Diplomat”; “Slow Horses”; “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”; “The Day of the Jackal”; “Squid Game.”
The nominees for TV series (comedy or musical) are: “Abbott Elementary”; “The Bear; “Hacks”; “Nobody Wants This”; “Only Murders in the Building”; “The Gentlemen.”
The nominees for best male actor in a motion picture musical or comedy are: Jesse Eisenberg, “A Real Pain”; Hugh Grant, “Heretic”; Gabriel LaBelle, “Saturday Night; Jesse Plemons, “Kinds of Kindness”’ Glen Powell, “Hitman”; Sebastian Stan, “A Different Man.”
The nominees for best male actor in a drama series are: Donald Glover, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”; Jake Gyllenhaal, “Presumed Innocent”; Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”; Eddie Redmayne, “The Day of the Jackal”; Hiroyuki Sanada, “Shogun”; Billy Bob Thornton, “Landman.”
The nominees for female actor in a comedy series are: Kristen Bell, “Nobody wants This”; Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”; Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”; Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”; Kathryn Hahn, “Agatha All Along”; Jean Smart, “Hacks.”
The nominees for best animated film are: “Flow”; “Inside Out 2”; “Memoir of a Snail”; “Moana 2”; “Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl”; “The Wild Robot.”
The nominees for cinematic and box office achievement are: “Alien: Romulus”; Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”; Deadpool & Wolverine”; “Gladiator II”; “Inside Out 2”; “Twisters”; “Wicked”; “The Wild Robot.”
The nominees for best original score: “Conclave”; “The Brutalist”; “The Wild Robot”; “Emilia Pérez”; “Challengers”; “Dune: Part Two.”
With files from the Associated Press.
