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Tina Fey scored another award for her brilliant baby 30 Rock: a new Golden Globe award last night for Best Performance by an Actress. Her acceptance speech was fabulous. Heartfelt and funny just as you would expect, but mostly fabulous because she gave props to the power of Internet publishing.
Tina's acceptance speech began by acknowledging that she knows she has been fortunate to have an exceptional year and is grateful for the reception her work has received.
,p>Then, in order to further emphasize her humbleness, she essentially dedicated the award to internet critics. She cited the immense power that Internet writers hold by both humorously acknowledging by name and p0wning some of her detractors. According to the CBS news she said:
"If you ever start to feel too good about yourself, they have this thing called the Internet. And you can find a lot of people there who don't like you," she added, drawing laughs and applause from the celebrity-studded ballroom audience.
"I'd like to address some of them now," she continued. "Babs in La Crosse, you can suck it. Diane-fan, you can suck it. Cougar-letter, you can really suck it, 'cause all year you've been after me. All year."
In blogger/forum-speak, Tina Fey fed the trolls by commenting back.
The crowd laughed because are familiar with what the Internet is saying about them. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Bloggers who are savvy with their visitor analytics have been intrigued by this possibility, too, especially when seeing hits from interesting destinations when they post about a well known person.
CBS actually got Tina's speech wrong: Tina's detractor isn't "Diane-fan", but is dlanefan, who apparently is devoted to Diane Lane. They were wrong about "Babs in Lacrosse, too: Babsonlacrosse posts at Idolforum. Dlanefan and Cougar-letter both post on The Envelope, which is a Los Angeles Times moderated forum about entertainment awards. (here's some insider Envelope gossip: some forum members suggest that Dlanefan and Cougar-letter are the same person.)
Of course The Envelope was pleased with the big attention, and in their blog post The Envelope posted video of Tina's backstage explanation about anonymity and the Internet. In the forum, a few posters, including Dlanefan, played with the idea that Tina not only reads their forum but also comments under a anonymous tag name. You have to LOL that.
I love how Tina used her comic dig against her detractors to actually call attention to them, and by inference to the bandwith devoted to Tina lurve online. To further her Geek Goddess stature, she showed us that even if they run it down or appear aloof and above it all, every person in that glamorous Golden Globe ballroom reads what we write. (Not that I think bloggers are the same as forum posters, but we are both in the same searchable network and are considered very similar outsiders.)
Of course she mentioned her detractors instead of her fans to highlight her humility and because they are funny to poke at, but she showed that even stars as fab as Tina Fey are out there looking for feedback from the new media. She showed with her words and with the audience's response that even having piles of accolades at your feet does not make you immune to a bit of vanity searching, Google name alerts and the lure of deep, dark comment trails.
Of course they read what the Internet publishes. We know that the Internet has reach and influence. When you post on the Internet, no matter where, regardless of whether you issue thoughful commentary, ripping snark or the random inelegant "suck it!" you publish with an powerful, searchable Sharpie. You really never know who could eventually read your words. It might even be that certain celebrity you are addressing--anyone from anywhere all across the Golden Globe, and they might even thank you in a backhanded sort of way in their next award speech.
What do you think? Did Tina slam Internet writers, or did she give a hat-tip to the power of pubishing?
P.S. Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, in case you are reading this: if you let me be your Scarlett Johansson, I will make you pancakes in the morning. "It's complicated!" Love you, mean it! --Deb
