Award for "Worst" rather than "Best"

Everyone knows about the apex of movie awards which every actor/actress on the planet will give anything and everything to have in their collection, “Academy Awards” a.k.a. ‘The Oscars’, but a very few people know about an award that gives the “Worst” instead of the “Best” that’s usually given.

Interestingly, this award known as “Golden Raspberry Award” a.k.a. ‘Razzie’ has a massive publicity of its own and the ceremony is typically held one day before the Academy Awards (its model). Most winners do not attend the ceremony.

The first Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony was held on March 31, 1981, at John J. B. Wilson's (founder) living room alcove in Los Angeles to honour the worst in film of the 1980 film season, and the latest, the 33rd ceremony was held on February 23, 2013. Its categories includes; Worst Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Screen Couple/Worst Screen Ensemble, Worst Screenplay, Worst Director, Worst Picture, Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel.

The awards themselves are enough joke of their own. They typically cost $4.97 each, in the form of a "golfball-sized raspberry" which sits atop a Super 8 mm film reel, the whole of which is spray-painted gold.



The amazing thing is that top Hollywood actors/actresses actually acknowledge this award either satirically or otherwise, e.g. Bill Cosby, Ben Affleck etc.; and some have even attended the ceremony in person to actually accept their award and also give an acceptance speech. Examples include; Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock etc.

Bill Cosby became the first recipient to claim an award in 1988. His trophy was worth $1.97. He accepted to receive the award, on the condition that it must be real gold. Arrangements were made to present Cosby with his awards which was remodeled and made out of 24-carat gold and Italian marble, which cost almost $30,000.

In 2004, after winning the ‘Worst actor’, Ben Affleck joked on the radio, complaining he was "stiffed" because he had not been given his Worst Actor trophy. He was presented with his trophy in an appearance on Larry King Live. He commented, "It's a little cheap," and proceeded to pull the trophy apart while on the television program.



Ironically, Halle Berry went on stage to accept her award for ‘Worst actress’ in 2005 for her role in Catwoman holding her Academy Award for her performance in Monster's Ball in one hand and her Golden Raspberry Award trophy in the other. She parodied her performance when she accepted her Academy Award.



After her Worst Actress nomination for All About Steve in 2010, Sandra Bullock expressed interest in coming up to pick up her award. She brought DVD copies of the movie to the audience, declaring that the voters should watch the movie to see if she was really the worst performer, implying the Razzie voters cast ballots for her just to see if she appeared at the ceremony. The following night, she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Blind Side.

In case you’re curious, log on to their website www.razzies.com for more information.