Ricky Gervais’s Golden Globes Hosting Prep: Lawyers!

The Golden Globes gave Ricky Gervais an offer he couldn’t refuse (an unholy amount of money) to host the show once again next year, and the man formerly known as David Brent is preparing the only way he knows how to: Toeing the line of libel. As he told Graham Norton this week, the Golden Globes don’t require Gervais to submit his material before the big night, but they do insist on having legal counsel present in case the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan. “I say, ‘I’m going to say what I want and I don’t have to rehearse,’ and they say that’s fine, but I do have to tell a lawyer just before I go on,� he explained. “I know the law. I know what I can get away with.� Gervais also insists he’s never gotten a complaint from the melange of people he’s eviscerated through the years, questionable reaction shots be damned. “Some people will say, ‘Why do you go through so much trouble to offend people?’� he added. “And I say, ‘It’s no trouble.’�