The brightest stars in Hollywood gathered at the Beverly Hilton on Sunday to slap each other on the back for finally acknowledging the sexual harassment and abuse that has plagued their industry for decades, and to witness the first TV mogul who also is a black woman taking the first step toward a White House run in 2020. It was the most surprising moment from Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards, though there were plenty of others as well:
First Globes Speech Touted As Presidential Candidacy Announcement
Seth Meyers planted the idea in everyone’s mind at the start of the Globes, boasting how he’d triggered Donald Trump’s decision to run for POTUS when he mocked the NBC reality star at the White House Correspondents Dinner, then faux-mocking Oprah in the audience. “Now we just wait and see.” On cue, speculation of an Oprah run in 2020 erupted immediately after Oprah delivered her carefully-crafted acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille award. Oprah is giving her State of the Union Address at the Golden Globes,” gushed one fan on Twitter.
Celebrity social-media-speculating included Aasif Mandvi, John Stamos, Larry Wilmore and Sarah Silverman tweeting “Oprah/Michelle in 2020.” Oprah pal Steadman was only too happy to provide The Los Angeles Times with an “It’s up to the people; she absolutely would do it” quote. And NBC was so excited that it tweeted “Nothing but respect for OUR future president” just nine minutes into its trophy show broadcast – long before Oprah’s speech, in what is believed to mark the first time a broadcast network has endorsed a presidential candidate before they’ve officially tossed their hat in the ring.
Winfrey began her first speech of her presidential race speaking (once again) about sitting on the linoleum floor of her house watching Sidney Poitier become the first black man to win the Best Actor Academy Award in 1964. Poitier was “the most elegant man I had ever seen” as she watched “from the cheap seats, as my mom came through the door, bone tired from cleaning other people’s houses.”
She educated the black-gowned Globe audience about Recy Taylor, a black woman from Alabama who was gang-raped in 1944 by six white men, and who had died a few days before the ceremony without ever seeing her accusers prosecuted. “For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men,” Winfrey said. “But their time is up. Their time is up.”
She spoke in support of the press who “we know….is under siege these days. We also know it’s the insatiable dedication to uncovering the absolute truth that keeps us from turning a blind eye to corruption and to injustice.”
Expect lots of discussion about Oprah’s galvanizing speech on Monday morning infotainment shows. Here is that speech:
Most British, Off-Handed Thank-The-Wife Speech
Gary Oldman, accepting his Best-Actor Globe for Darkest Hour, thanked his wife for putting up with the “crazy” period of shooting. He quoted her as saying, “I go to bed with Winston Churchill, but I get up with Gary Oldman.” To which he added, “which is better than the other way around.”
Best Ad
On the safe bet this year’s Golden Globe Awards red-carpet walking, trophy dispensing, and Cecil B. DeMille Award-ing would be chock-a-block with talk about the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements, The New York Times debuted an ad in which it took a well-earned victory lap for its first report on Harvey Weinstein that started the conversation still sweeping the industry.
Similarly, the Times last year had debuted its first-ever TV ad at the Golden Globes, on the correct assumption the spot would reach a large audience of potential subscribers who were in a pretty high state of knicker knotted-ness about their newly elected President, Donald J. Trump. Here’s last year’s NYT debut ad, though this year’s is better:
Most Freudian Relapse
Alexander Skaarsgard, picking up his Best Supporting Actor trophy, told viewers “I’m here tonight because I had the privilege of working with a group of extraordinarily talented women.”
So far so good. Then he added that he wanted to thank “our extraordinary cast, who are all here, especially Nicole. Hi. Not that you’re, like, more talented than the other girls. I say ‘especially Nicole’ because most of my scenes were with Nicole.”
Umm, Girls?
Best One-Second Takedown of Patriarchy
Immediately following Oprah’s extraordinary speech, Natalie Portman appeared with Ron Howard to hand out the Globe for Best Director. “And here are the all-male nominees,” Portman said, searingly.
Most Persistent Re-Telling of Joke In 8 Minutes
Almost immediately after presenter Jessica Chastain, snarked that “The winner of this category will also receive the 23% of her salary that went missing in the wage gap,” presenter Geena Davis snarked that the male nominees in the category she was handing had agreed to give back half their salary to women so they can make more than them.
Best Head Fake On Red Carpet
On E!, Giuliana Rancic started off red-carpet coverage saying, “The question tonight isn’t who are you wearing, it’s why are you wearing black.”
If that’s the case, the network might have re-thought its Glambot, which allowed viewers to scrutinize celebs outfits 360 degrees and in slow motion. And, toward the end of the coverage, when Rancic interviewed Sean Hayes and he said to her, “Now, we can talk about how gorgeous you look?” maybe she should have paused to think before answering, “You are too sweet – I’m just wearing a little Sherri Hill.”
And, perhaps ignoring Debra Messing’s remarks wasn’t the right choice when the Will & Grace star said on E!’s red-carpet coverage, “I was so shocked to hear that E! doesn’t believe in paying their female co-hosts the same as their male cohosts. I miss Catt Sadler so we stand with her.”
Biggest Loser of the Evening: Donald Trump
The President, who loves to be hated by Hollywood because it scores him points with his base, must be disappointed this morning at how thoroughly Harvey Weinstein had nudged him, so to speak, off the minds of winners and presenters, in marked contrast to last year’s Golden Globe Awards when he was front and center, giving him lots to tweet about. Other than a couple of cracks during host Seth Meyers’ opening monologue, and Barbra Streisand denouncing, in passing, “the pettiness that has poisoned our politics” all the energy in the room went toward “Time’s Up.”
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