It was one of those nights where I couldn't think of anything better to do. It was cold and rainy out, which translates into black ice around these parts – so getting out to catch `Chicago' (psst, it's a musical) were pretty much out.

So I watched The Golden Globes. Which brought me to two interesting questions. And one cool thing to leave me feeling inspired.

First, does anyone actually believe that Celine Dion and her hubby/manager Rene actually cruise around in a Chrysler Town and Country?

And second, is this as shallow as we can possibly get?

These runway interviews are so, well, insipid. The amount of useful information that is imparted by these glam sessions is miniscule. Outside of `Who are you wearing?' you don't get much of anything from it. You get an occasional actor who shows up, half crocked, and tries to slip `shit' into his response to a question about how he feels to be at the ceremony – as in `I used to watch this shit back home.'

Somehow, I think that was probably the most honest appraisal of the goings-on of them all. The awards are nice. There was the moment a few years ago where Christine Lahti was actually in the bathroom when she won her award. This time, Meryl Streep was shocked to receive an award for Adaptation. And Richard Gere was blown away to win for Chicago. And, in my book, they get high marks for remembering to thank the writer for the original work. Too often, when it comes to thanking people at an awards show, the writer ranks somewhere after the manager, the personal assistant, the parents, the hair stylist, the craft-services person and the driver.

The awards themselves are interesting. It was good to see Tony Shalhoub win an award for his series `Monk.' His show is one of those cable series that you really have to work to catch, but it's well worth the effort. And his brief speech, ending with a heartfelt thank-you to his wife, actress Brooke Adams, was touching.

Donald Sutherland's acceptance speech, including his thank-you to Don King for providing his hair stylist, was sweet, as well.

And it was interesting to see how actresses Helen Mirren and Vanessa Redgrave get more and more attractive with each passing year. Same with Jamie Lee Curtis – even though she's done a recent spread on just how great she doesn't look. And how thin Sarah Jessica Parker is, even after giving birth – which makes one wonder if the baby came out when she was throwing up breakfast. Or how Uma Thurman looked positively haggard.

But the problem with awards shows is, well, there's about an hour of real interesting television spread out over three hours. The rest is about checking out who's wearing whom. As someone whose idea of designer fashion is buying Levis instead of Wranglers, that's kind of lost on me. In between awards, you have time to finish the dinner dishes, walk the dog, put out the trash, vacuum the living room, change the oil in the car, clean out the fish tank, balance the checkbook and answer a couple hundred emails.

Not that I was so inclined, mind you.

What left me feeling inspired was the air of passion that surrounded the awards this year -- more so than in past years, I thought. You could see the passion these various people had for their projects -- from Renee Zellwhatever's passion for Chicago and the inspiration she got from director Rob Marshall, to Nicole Kidman and her passion for the strong roles for women that were out there in 2002. Passion is the one thing that I feel is missing from too many of our lives. And it's so vital to having a good life. It surprises me that it ends up missing -- or that people confuse having passion with having frequent sex. Those people just don't understand.

More soon.