Ricky Gervais Vows More Outrage at Golden Globes
Ricky Gervais says he wants to improve on his controversial performance at the 2011 Golden Globe Awards -- by being even more outrageous the next time around.
The British comedian said his third time hosting the annual Hollywood awards ceremony in January 2012 would definitely be his last.
But he is aiming to go out with a bang.
They must be mad. Not sure if I'm flattered that they trust me or insulted that they trust me. Either way...they shouldn't trust me, Gervais said in a statement on Thursday.
The caustic creator of TV mockumentary The Office last year insulted Golden Globe organizers with jokes about bribes and took shots Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie's critically-panned movie The Tourist that was up for a Golden Globe nomination.
Many of the jokes in the televised broadcast fell flat with the gala audience of A-list stars. The president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hosts the event, said afterward that Gervais would not return.
I don't think anyone had the right to be offended but they were. This year I'm going to make sure their offense is completely justified, Gervais said on his blog on Thursday.
He asked fans to pass on their favorite targets for the monologue.
After Golden Globe organizers announced he'd be back one day earlier, Gervais wasted little time in tweaking more ribs in Hollywood. He posted a Twitter message saying that he told Oscars host, comedian Billy Crystal: He'd better not use any of my holocaust or pedophile material at the Academy Awards ceremony in February 2012.
Gervais also gloated over being invited back again, saying it was a tough decision for him because I was worried that I couldn't improve on last year.
What actually tipped the balance and made me say yes, was the fact that it would shut up all those...idiots who said that I'd never be invited back, he wrote on his blog.
His hiring will be either a problem for celebrities and Golden Globe organizers or a stroke of genius for the NBC television network that airs the awards show if more people tune in just to see what Gervais says.
The timing also will be good publicity for the comedian's new TV venture, Life's Too Short which will make its U.S. debut on HBO in early 2012.
Gervais' new show is a documentary-style comedy about the life of a showbusiness dwarf, featuring 3 ft 6in (1.07 meter) actor Warwick Davis as a version of himself.
Johnny Depp also appears on the TV show in a cameo role as himself, sparring with Gervais over his money-making career and suggesting that, for at least one Hollywood star, all is forgiven.
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