GOLD STARS
Lady Gaga, Sandra Oh and Mahershala Ali were among the winners at Sunday’s 76th Golden Globe Awards. Story and red carpet photos,
NEW YORK— Lady Gaga won for A Star Is Born, Christian Bale thanked the antichrist for inspiration in playing former U.S. Vice-President Dick Cheney and co-host Sandra Oh took home an award, too, after speaking passionately about “faces of change” at the 76th Golden Globes.
Politics were largely absent from the ceremony Sunday at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, before Bale took the stage for winning best actor in a musical or comedy for his lead performance in Adam McKay’s Vice.
“What do you think? Mitch McConnell next?” joked the Welsh-born actor, referring to the Senate’s majority leader. “Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration for this role.” Oh and Andy Samberg opened the Globes, put on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, on a note of congeniality, including a mock roast of attendees and a string of jokes that playfully commented on critiques of Hollywood.
Oh performed an impression of a sexist caveman film executive who casts like the title of Damien Chazelle’s Neil Armstrong drama: “First ... man!” Noting the success of Crazy
Rich Asians, Oh alluded to films with white stars in Asian roles like Ghost in the Shell and Aloha, the latter of which prompted Emma Stone, who starred in
Aloha, to shout out “I’m sorry!” from the crowd.
But Ottawa-born Oh, who later also won for her performance on the BBC America drama series Killing Eve, closed their opening monologue on a serious note explaining why she was hosting with Samberg.
“I wanted to be here to look out at this audience and witness this moment of change,” said Oh, tearing up and gazing at minority nominees in attendance. “Right now, this moment is real. Trust me, this is real. Because I see you. And I see you. All of these faces of change. And now, so will everyone else.”
Some of those faces Oh alluded to won. Mahershala Ali, whom the foreign press association overlooked for his Oscarwinning performance in Moonlight, won best supporting actor for Green Book. While the Globes, decided by 88 voting members of the HFPA, have little relation to the Academy Awards, they can offer a boost as Oscar nomination voting begins Monday.
Green Book, Peter Farrelly’s interracial road trip through the early ’60s Deep South, also was named best comedy or musical film and won for its screenplay, giving a boost to a film that has been much criticized for relying on racial tropes.
As expected, Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando and Andrew Wyatt won best song for the signature tune from A Star Is Born, the film most expected to dominate the Globes.
“Can I just say that as a woman in music, it’s really hard to be taken seriously as a musician and as songwriter and these three incredible men, they lifted me up,” Gaga said.
Though the Globes are put on by foreign journalists, they don’t including foreign language films in their two best picture categories (for drama and musical/comedy).
That left Netflix’s Oscar hopeful, Alfonso Cuaron’s memory-drenched masterwork Roma out of the top category. Cuaron still won as best director and the Mexican-born filmmaker’s movie won best foreign language film.