Some Globes picks confuse

Left out (De Niro) or in (Kidman), nominees can be head-scratchers.

LOS ANGELES — Gripe all you want about the practices of the 90-odd (and we do mean odd) members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and their annual Bizarro World slate of Golden Globe nominations. We get it.

But deep down, we admit we harbor a smidgen of affection for this crazy uncle of the awards season and its ability to look beyond the same-old same-old in ways that frequently irritate, yes, but also occasionally make us smile with appreciation.

What’s to be gleaned from this year’s slate of noms? Here are five takeaways:

1. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

There are snubs, and then there are snubs. And Robert De Niro not being nominated for his supporting turn as the father in “Silver Linings Playbook,” arguably his best acting work in more than a decade, ranks as the type of head-scratcher that, given the HFPA, implies there were other factors in play.

First, De Niro couldn’t attend the all-important HFPA press conference for the film. And then, too, remember that De Niro firebombed Globes voters two years ago while accepting the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award.

“We’re all in this together,” De Niro said that night, “the filmmakers who make the movies, and the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press who, in turn, pose for pictures with the movie stars.” HFPA members have memories longer than the frequent flier miles accumulated on all those studio-sponsored junkets they attend. Consider this De Niro’s penance.

2. When it comes to humor, rueful works better than raunchy.

When you think back to the year’s great comedies, do you remember how much fun you had watching “Ted” and “21 Jump Street”? Or do you remember the side-splitting antics of Judi Dench and Maggie Smith in “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”? (Yes. It was a rhetorical question.)

The Globes are handed out by the Hollywood Foreign