Last hours of the work week, one task to go: plunk some cash down on the Golden Globes.  Who cares if they're a poor man's Oscars (...or a rich man's People's Choice Awards?).  And the contenders are...

Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. Courtesy of 20th Century Fox.

The Carrie Bradshaw crew will flock to "Bride Wars" this weekend -- even if critics are slamming the chick flick as tiered-tulle tripe. (The main B.O. opponent looks like Clint Eastwood as a reformed racist coot, who takes to the nationwide multiplexes in the excellent "Gran Torino.")

But as Variety's Todd McCarthy points out in passing, one of the more odious aspects of the film isn't the tired bridezilla schtick or, as he groans, the use of "OMG" in response to any and all scenarios.  It's the setting in a thoroughly bygone era -- that of the opulent, pre-recession wedding:

"Wishful thinking, ...a schoolteacher signing on for a deluxe wedding without even inquiring as to the cost. But then, the movie is already a period piece, made before last September, when price wasn't an issue."

A period piece! In ye olde times of fat, we had San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker and "Desperate Housewife" Eva Longoria, married in front of "several hundreds" at a 17th-century French chateau and faintly denying reports that the cake cost $11,000 -- just to fly from L.A. to Paris. 

Now in famine, we have "The Hills"' Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, ditching a bar in Mexico to elope on a cheap-tequila buzz -- family, friends and $100-a-head caterers notably absent.

The country is following suit.  A survey conducted by David's Bridal last month revealed that 75 percent of brides had to rethink their wedding budget in light of the economy.  How?  By replacing wedding cakes, once an up to $3,000 suck on a bridal budget, with a $150 rented version.  (A lavish dummy cake arrives in a wooden crate; once it's been thoroughly admired, you haul it into the kitchen to "slice," and out comes Costco sheet cake).  Or by getting married in a cheaper country, a la Speidi -- destination weddings attract on average a third of the guests vis-a-vis traditional weddings. Even fashion designer Vera Wang, whose bridal line is the ne plus ultra of that retail sector -- and whose designs both Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson wear in the film -- is backing out of New York Fashion Week next month to cut costs.