The Golden Raspberry Awards or Razzies, first awarded in 1981, were created by John Wilson in 1980, intended to counterpoint the Academy Awards by dishonoring (or honoring) the worst acting, screenwriting, songwriting, directing, and films that the film industry had to offer. The term raspberry is used in its irreverent sense, as in "blowing a raspberry." The award usually takes the form of a plastic raspberry spray-painted gold and mounted on a plastic base - nominally valued at approximately US$5.[1]
Current awards are voted upon by the membership of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation (GRAF), and membership is openly available to the public, as opposed to the Academy Awards. 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, as a complement to the Oscars.
Over the years, Special categories have also been introduced and are handed out only once for the year it was introduced. Such special awards include Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property (1997), Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie (2002), Worst Excuse for an Actual Movie (All Concept/No Content!) (2003), Most Tiresome Tabloid Targets (2005), Worst Excuse For Family Entertainment (2006), Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie (2007) and others.
Other types of awards
Over the years, the Golden Raspberry Awards have awarded special awards next to the actual Razzie Awards as well.
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.
Stars who have accepted the award
Many actors, directors, and producers have been awarded a Golden Raspberry. In a few cases, some of the winners have accepted their award in person, although only three have done so at the award ceremony itself:
1987: 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. With the condition that his trophies be made of 24 carat gold and Italian marble,[3] 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.
1995: Director Paul Verhoeven became the first actual winner to show up at the Razzie ceremony, when he personally accepted his award for Worst Director for the film Showgirls. He also accepted the Worst Picture Award for Showgirls.
1997: ScreenwriterBrian Helgeland became the first person to win a Razzie and an Oscar in the same year. He won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award for L.A. Confidential and the Razzie for Worst Screenplay for Kevin Costner's The Postman. He did not attend the Razzie ceremony, but wanted to have the Razzie to display it next to his Oscar to remind him of "the quixotic nature" of Hollywood. He was later officially presented his Razzie at his offices on the Warner Bros. lot.
1999: Wild Wild West earned five Razzies (including Worst Picture) that year. Robert Conrad, who starred in the 1960s The Wild Wild West television series and despised the film version, accepted three of the five Razzies.
2000: Although he didn't officially accept the award, Barry Pepper stated (after the fact) that had he known he was going to win the 2000 Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor (which he did win, for Battlefield Earth), he would have gladly shown up at the Razzie ceremony and accepted the honor in person. [4]
2001: 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 any more than anyone else here... dear God, I want to say that. I don't think it would be true, though." He turned up in a white Cadillac and brought his own length of red carpet. Green's speech included a never-ending piece of music played on the harmonica, and he was eventually dragged off stage.[5]
2003: 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 was sold on eBay for enough money to cover the hall rental for the next year's ceremonies.
2004: Halle Berry gave a theatrically emotional and comical acceptance speech at the Razzie ceremony: she sarcastically mocked her acceptance speech given when she won the 2002 Best Actress Academy Award for Monster's Ball, carrying her Oscar in one hand and her Razzie in the other.[6] Berry had won the award for worst actress for her performance in Catwoman. While onstage, she called the film a "piece of shit, god-awful movie", which met laughter and applause.[7] Shortly afterwards, 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.
Jack Nicholson was nominated for Worst Actor (for both Hoffa and Man Trouble) in 1992. That same year, he was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars for A Few Good Men.
Daryl Hannah won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress for her role in Wall Street in 1987. Her co-star Michael Douglas, meanwhile, won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in that film.
Tom Cruise starred in the Worst Picture winner Cocktail and co-starred in the Best Picture Oscar winner Rain Man in 1988.
Christopher Walken and Alec Baldwin were both nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor in the same year, although for different films. Walken was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2002 for Catch Me if You Can and Worst Supporting Actor for The Country Bears. Baldwin was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2003 for The Cooler and Worst Supporting Actor for The Cat in the Hat.
Rambo: First Blood Part II, Pearl Harbor and Norbit were all nominated for an Academy Award and a Razzie. Rambo lost at the Oscars in the category of Best Sound Effects Editing but won the Razzie for Worst Picture, Worst Actor and Worst Screenplay. Pearl Harbor won an Oscar for Best Sound Effects Editing while getting shut out at the Razzies, and Norbit saw Eddie Murphy winning three of the four Acting Razzies (see Razzie Records below) while getting shut out at the Oscars. Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith have also been nominated for both an Oscar and a Razzie.
Razzie records
The 2003 film Gigli was the first and, so far, only film to win in the top five categories at the Razzies (Worst Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay). This makes it the Razzie equivalent of 1934's It Happened One Night, which was the first film to win the Oscar grand slam (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay).
I Know Who Killed Me (2007) has received the most Razzie awards, at eight wins, in a single awards year. It is also the only movie to have an actress win the Worst Actress award twice: both of Lindsay Lohan's characters tied for the honor. This also ties the record for most Razzies won by a single film: Showgirls (1995) and Battlefield Earth (2000) each won seven Razzies in their respective eligibility years and then an eighth in later years (the former won Worst Movie of the Decade in 2000, the latter Worst Drama of Our First 25 Years in 2005).
Actor Sylvester Stallone has received 29 nominations and ten wins and is the actor with the largest number of nominations and wins. He was nominated for the Worst Actor award for nine consecutive years from 1984 to 1992, winning four times.
United States president George W. Bush, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condolezza Rice are the only non-actors to have won Razzies for their appearances in the 2004 Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Bush won Worst Actor and shared the Worst Screen Couple Award with Rice and "his pet goat," while Rumsfeld won Worst Supporting Actor. Rice lost to Britney Spears for Worst Supporting Actress.
Actor Eddie Murphy received a single-year record five nominations in 2007 for Norbit: three acting nominations (one for each character he played), one for Worst Couple (again, relating to his playing multiple characters) and one for Worst Screenplay. He went on to win all three acting nominations, becoming the first person ever to win a Razzie for both male and female performances in a single film.
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