‘Three Billboards,’ ‘Lady Bird’ win top Globes awards
LOS ANGELES: Dark drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and mother-daughter comedy Lady Bird were the top winners at the Golden Globe awards on Sunday on a night marked by barbed comments about sexual harassment in Hollywood and passionate odes to those breaking their silence on the issue.
Gary Oldman was named best drama movie actor for his role as British wartime leader in Focus Features Darkest Hour and Frances McDormand took home the award for drama actress for her role as an angry mother in Fox Searchlight’s Three Billboards.
In comedies, the Golden Globes went to indie studio A24’s Lady Bird actress Saoirse Ronan and James Franco for his cult movie homage The Disaster Artist, also from A24.
Mexican director Guillermo del Toro won best director for magical fantasy The Shape of Water.
But the night was dominated not by who took home prizes, but by jokes and speeches about the sexual misconduct scandal that has roiled Hollywood.
“Happy New Year Hollywood! It’s 2018. Marijuana is finally allowed and sexual harassment finally isn‘t,” quipped Globes host Seth Meyers, to wild applause from the A-list audience in Beverly Hills.
Multiple allegations against actors, filmmakers and Hollywood agents since October 2017 have led to many of the accused being fired, forced to step down, or dropped from creative projects.
The evening began with the normally colourful red carpet transformed into a sea of black gowns as actresses showed solidarity with victims of sexual harassment inside and outside the entertainment industry.
Less an awards show and more a prolonged statement of cultural correction, Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards telecast nevertheless managed to keep things fairly entertaining in the midst of revolution.
NBC “Late Night” host Seth Meyers, comparing himself (as a white male awards-show host in 2018) to “the first dog they shot into space,” delivered a monologue focused on the tidal wave of harassment and sexual misconduct allegations in Hollywood - and the many male producers, directors and writers no longer working because of them.
“Good evening, ladies and remaining gentleman,” Meyers began. “It’s 2018 and marijuana is finally allowed and sexual harassment finally isn’t. This was the year of big little lies and get out - and also the television series Big Little Lies and the movie Get Out.”
The butts of Meyers’ jokes included Harvey Weinstein (he’ll be back in 20 years, the host said, “when he becomes the first person ever booed during the “In Memoriam”), Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey and President Trump, as well as a crafty plea to Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks to run on a 2020 presidential ticket.
These easy yuks were delivered to a celebrity-packed audience in full and complete agreement - a Beverly Hilton ballroom clad entirely in black to show support for the “Time’s Up” movement of actresses and others who have pledged to end discrimination and harassment in the workplace.
It was an impressive sight each time the camera swept across the room. It also did wonders for the taxing hours of red-carpet nonsense that precedes today’s awards shows - at last, something vital to talk about, new reasons to show up all (for celebs and for viewers), even if all the strident agreement began to sound a tad redundant by the show’s end.
Big Little Lies, appropriately, took home a number of awards, including best limited TV series and for lead actress Nicole Kidman. Supporting actress and actor Laura Dern and Alexander Skarsgard also won. It was a series about a group of women realising they’re far more powerful as a group than they are as rivals. — Agencies