Golden Globes recap
It's awards season again, which is the perfect way to beat the January doldrums. To celebrate, I bring you a special Golden Globes edition of Seen & Heard to recap the highs and lows of last night's broadcast. For those of you who missed out, you can find a full list of winners here. For those of you who are confused about the timeline for TV shows to get nominated for Golden Globes, join the club and consult this nomination form breakdown, which still doesn't answer all of my questions. With that, I give you a recap of the last night's broadcast, which featured some surprises, confused speeches and delightful doses of Sandra Oh:
Far from the Shallow? Going into last night's broadcast, I was skeptical that the Oscars would embrace the latest version of A Star is Born but fully expected Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga to receive some love from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. And so did whoever made the seating arrangements. Despite being seated front-and-center, all Bradley Cooper could do during the ceremony was use his piercing blue eyes to stare resentfully into the souls of the Green Book cast, director Alfonso Cuarón, Glenn Close and Rami Malek. Shallow was the sole recipient of an award last night, with a Best Song win (presented by Taylor Swift, who made a surprise appearance in a presenting role). Lady Gaga was rudely kept from talking for the full time, because Mark Ronson rambled on for a while first. She still managed to sneak in a shoutout to Bradley Cooper, because there can be100 people in a room and 99 don't believe in you, but you just need one.
Oh-mazing: Sandra Oh was properly honored last night. Not only did she do a wonderful job delivering jokes (including a sick Aloha burn, which prompted Emma Stone to yell out an apology) with SNL-alum Andy Samberg, she also took home a Best Actress trophy for her performance on Killing Eve. Other MVPs for the night? Her parents, who clapped proudly from the audience, as Sandra thanked them from the stage. She also took the time to add a sincere moment to the opening monologue to call out what a moment it was for diversity in Hollywood.
Funny Girl: This year the Golden Globes presented the first-ever Carol Burnett award to none other than Carol Burnett! Steve Carell gave a genuine and kind tribute to the comedy legend, who appeared visibly moved by the honor. She then gave a beautiful speech about the way comedy and Hollywood have changed in the years since her variety show.
Close Call: In one of my favorite speeches of the night, Glenn Close made up for robbing Gaga of a win by waxing poetic about the importance of the stories told in The Wife, a movie that took 14 years to be made, perhaps because of its title, she mused. She went on to talk about how her mother and encouraged women everywhere to find time for personal fulfillment, causing the audience to erupt in applause. She also thanked the fabulous author Meg Wolitzer, whose book inspired the movie, in the first 10 seconds of her speech -- winning her big points with writers everywhere.
Logistical Nightmare: A comical number of speeches involved the recipient searching the audience for a specific person to thank. This was made even more difficult because of the extremely tight seating arrangements for the ceremony. Several stars had to get up from their seats in order to make room for an award-winner to get to the stage. And every time someone climbed over Lady Gaga's dress, I watched in horror waiting for a Jennifer Lawrence-style moment to occur. Fortunately, everyone made it in one piece.
Required Reading
Besides reading articles last week with award show predictions, I was closely following the amazing group sworn into Congress, including a record number of ladies entering the House of Representatives. Along with the inspiring pictures, you can find articles about the new sisterhood entering Congress and the importance of the increased diversity of our representatives. I also enjoyed The Washington Post's article about the symbol behind the fashion during last week's swearing-in ceremony. It's not the stereotypical "what were they wearing" deep dive -- don't worry. It's about the power of suffragette white and Palestinian thobes and reclaiming the color pink: "If there is any color that has ever come close to defining a gender, it’s pink. Culturally, it has long been assigned to girls. And for generations of women who were stereotyped and bullied into polite smiles and reassuring deference, pink was their bane. Over time, pink ribbons came to symbolize serious women’s issues — although typically discussed in soft and fuzzy tones. But this is the era of pink pussy hats. The color has been reclaimed and redefined. It is not about patience and calm or the kumbaya balm of we-are-all-equal. The new pink is aglow with outrage and the insistent demand that past wrongs be rectified."
