‘Nomadland,’ ‘Borat’ win at Globes
Streaming services dominate awards
NEW YORK – With homebound nominees appearing by remote video and hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on different sides of the country, a very socially distanced 78th Golden Globe Awards trudged on in the midst of the pandemic and amid a storm of criticism for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, with top awards going to “Nomadland,” “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” “The Crown” and “Schitt’s Creek.”
The night’s top award, best picture drama, went to Chloé Zhao’s elegiac road movie “Nomadland,” a Western set across economic upheaval and personal grief. Zhao, the China-born filmmaker of, became the first woman of Asian descent to win best director. She’s only the second woman in the history of the Globes to win, and the first since Barbra Streisand won for “Yentl” in 1984.
“‘Nomadland at its core for me is a pilgrimage through grief and healing,” said Zhao, accepting the awards remotely. “For everyone who has gone through this difficult and beautiful journey at some point in their lives, this is for you.”
With a canceled red carpet and stars giving speeches from the couch, Sunday’s Globes had little of their typically frothy flavor. But they went on, nevertheless, with winners in sweats and dogs in laps, in a pandemic that has sapped nearly all the glamour out of Hollywood.
Facing scant traditional studio competition, streaming services dominated the Globes like never before – even if the top award went to a familiar if renamed source: Searchlight Pictures, the now Disney-owned specialty label behind “12 Years a Slave” and “Birdman.”
Amazon’s “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” – one of the few nominated films shot partly during the pandemic – won best film, comedy or musical. Its star, guerilla comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, also won best actor in a comedy. Referring to Rudy Giuliani’s infamous cameo, Baron Cohen thanked “a fresh new talent who came from nowhere and turned out to be a comedy genius.”
“I mean, who could get more laughs from one unzipping,” he said.
Netflix, which came in with a commanding 42 nominations, won the top TV awards. “The Crown,” as expected, took best drama series, along with acting wins for Josh O’connor (Prince Charles), Emma Corrin (Princess Diana) and Gillian Anderson (Margaret Thatcher). “The Queen’s Gambit” won best limited series, and best actress in the category for Anya Taylor-joy. “Schitt’s Creek,” the Pop TV series that found a wider audience on Netflix, won best comedy series for its final season. Catherine O’hara also took best actress in a comedy series.
Chadwick Boseman, as expected, posthumously won best actor in a drama film for his final performance, in the August Wilson adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” – a Netflix release. Boseman’s wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, tearfully, emotionally accepted the award.
“He would thank God. He would thank his parents. He would thank his ancestors for their guidance and their sacrifices,” said Ledward. “He would say something beautiful, something inspiring.”
Apple TV+ scored its first major award when a sweatshirt-clad Jason
Sudeikis won best actor in a comedy series for the streamer’s “Ted Lasso.”
The NBC telecast began in split screen. Fey took the stage at New York’s Rainbow Room while Poehler remained at the Globes’ usual home at the Beverly Hilton. In their opening remarks, they managed their typically well-timed back-and-forth despite being almost 3,000 miles from each other.
“I always knew my career would end with me wandering around the Rainbow Room pretending to talk to Amy,” said Fey. “I just thought it would be later.”
They appeared before masked attendees but no stars. Instead, the sparse tables – where Hollywood royalty are usually crammed together and plied with alcohol during the show – were occupied by “smoking-hot first responders and essential workers,” as Fey said.
In a production nightmare but one that’s become familiar during the pandemic, the night’s first winner accepted his award while muted. Only after presenter Laura Dern apologized for the technical difficulties did Daniel Kaluuya, who won best supporting actor for his performance as Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in “Judas and the Black Messiah,” get his speech in. When he finally came through, he wagged his finger at the camera and said, “You’re doing me dirty!”
Pandemic improvising was only part of the damage control for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the Globes. After The Los Angeles Times revealed that there are no Black members in the 87-person voting body of the HFPA, the press association came under mounting pressure to overhaul itself and better reflect the industry it holds sway in.
This year, none of the most acclaimed Black-led films – “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” “One Night in Miami,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Da 5 Bloods” – were nominated for the Globes’ best picture award. With the HFPA potentially fighting for its Hollywood life, Sunday’s Globes were part apology tour. Fey and Poehler started in quickly on the issue.
“Look, a lot of flashy garbage got nominated but that happens,” said Poehler.
“That’s like their thing. But a number of Black actors and Black-led projects were overlooked.”
Within the first half hour of the NBC telecast, members of the press association appeared on stage to pledge change. “We recognize we have our own work to do,” said vice president Helen Hoehne. “We must have Black journalists in our organization.”
Whether those statements – along with a diverse group of winners – did enough to remedy anything remained unclear. The moment the show ended, Time’s Up sent letters to both the HFPA and Nbcuniveral demanding more. “The Globes are no longer golden. It’s time to act,” wrote Tina Tchen, the group’s president.
COVID-19 circumstances led to some award-show anomalies. Mark Ruffalo, appearing remotely, won best actor in a limited series for “I Know This Much Is True” with his kids celebrating behind him and his wife, Sunrise Coigney, sitting alongside.
Lee Isaac Chung, writer-director of the tender Korean-american family drama “Minari” (a movie the HFPA was criticized for ruling ineligible for its top award because of its non-english dialogue), accepted the award for best foreign language film while his young daughter embraced him. “She’s the reason I made this film,” said Chung.
John Boyega, supporting actor winner for his performance in Steve Mcqueen’s “Small Axe” anthology, raised his leg to show he was wearing track pants below his more elegant white jacket. Jodie Foster (“The Mauritanian”) won one of the biggest surprise Globes, for best supporting actress in a film, while, sitting on the couch next her wife, Alexandra Hedison, and with her dog, Ziggy on her lap.
Even if speeches sometimes lacked drama without Hollywood gathered in one place, representation was a common refrain. Pointedly referring to the diversity of the HFPA, presenter and previous winner Sterling K. Brown began, “Thank you. It is great to be Black at the Golden Globes,” he said. “Back.”
Jane Fonda, the Cecil B. Demille Award honoree, spoke passionately about expanding the big tent of entertainment for all. “Art has always been not just in step with history but has lead the way,” said Fonda. “So let’s be leaders.”
Other awards included Pixar’s “Soul” for best animated film; Rosumund Pike took best actress in a comedy or musical film for “I Care a Lot”; Aaron Sorkin (“Trial of the Chicago 7”) for best screenplay; and, in the night’s biggest surprise, Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”) for best actress in a drama, besting Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”) and Frances Mcdormand (“Nomadland”).
Despite considerable pre-show backlash, the Globes have persisted because of their popularity (the show ranks as the third most-watched award show, after the Oscars and Grammys), their profitability (NBC paid $60 million for broadcast rights in 2018) and because they serve as important marketing material for contending films and Oscar hopefuls.
The Academy Awards will be held April 25.
WASHINGTON – As Congress begins debate this week on sweeping voting and ethics legislation, Democrats and Republicans can agree on one thing: If signed into law, it would usher in the biggest overhaul of U.S. elections law in at least a generation.
House Resolution 1, the Democrats’ 791-page bill, would touch virtually every aspect of the electoral process – striking down hurdles to voting erected in the name of election security, curbing partisan gerrymandering and curtailing the influence of big money in politics.
Republicans see those very measures as threats that would both limit the power of states to conduct elections and ultimately benefit Democrats, notably with higher turnout among minority voters.
The stakes are prodigious, with control of Congress and the fate of President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda in the balance. But at its core, a more foundational principle of American democracy is at play: access to the ballot.
“This goes above partisan interests. The vote is at the heart of our democratic system of government,” said Fred Wertheimer, president of the nonpartisan good government organization Democracy 21. “That’s the battleground. And everyone knows it.”
Barriers to voting are as old as the country, but in more recent history they have come in the form of voter ID laws and other restrictions that are up for debate in statehouses across the country.
Rep. John Sarbanes, a Maryland Democrat who sponsored the bill, said that outside of Congress “these aren’t controversial reforms.” Much of it, he noted, was derived from recommendations of a bipartisan commission.
Yet to many Republicans, it amounts to an unwarranted federal intrusion into a process that states should control.
Rep. Rodney Davis, R-ill., excoriated the measure during a House hearing last week as “800 pages of election mandates and free speech regulations” that poses a “threat to democracy” and would “weaken voter confidence” in elections.
Citing Congress’ constitutional authority over federal elections, Democrats say national rules are needed to make voting more uniform, accessible and fair.
The bill would mandate early voting, same-day registration and other longsought changes that Republicans reject.
It would also require so-called dark money political groups to disclose anonymous donors, create reporting requirements for online political ads and appropriate nearly $2 billion for election infrastructure upgrades. Future presidents would be obligated to disclose their tax returns, which former President Donald Trump refused to do.
Debate over the bill comes at a critical moment, particularly for Democrats.
Acting on Trump’s repeated claims of a stolen election, dozens of Republicancontrolled state legislatures are pushing bills that would make it more difficult to vote. Democrats argue this would disproportionately hit low-income voters, or those of color, who are critical constituencies for their party.
The U.S. is also on the cusp of a oncein-a-decade redrawing of congressional districts, a highly partisan affair that is typically controlled by state legislatures. With Republicans controlling the majority
of statehouses the process alone could help the GOP win enough seats to recapture the House. The Democratic bill would instead require that the boundaries be drawn by independent commissions.
Previous debates over voting rights have often been esoteric and complex, with much of the debate in Congress focused on whether to restore a “preclearance” process in the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court invalidated in 2013. For decades, it had required certain states and jurisdictions with large minority populations and a history of discrimination to get federal approval for any changes to voting procedures.
But Republicans say that Trump’s repeated attacks on the 2020 election have electrified his supporters, even as courts and his last attorney general, William Barr, found them without merit.
“This is now a base issue,” said Ken Cuccinelli, a former Virginia attorney general and Trump administration official in the Department of Homeland Security who is leading a conservative coalition opposed to the bill. “Democratic leadership is willing to sacrifice their own members to pass radical legislation. They are cannon fodder that Nancy Pelosi doesn’t care about.”
Cuccinelli is overseeing a $5 million campaign aimed at pressuring Senate Democrats to oppose the bill.
Democrats say their aim is to make it easier for more people to vote regardless of partisan affiliation. And they counter that Republican objections are based more in preserving their own power by hindering minorities from voting than a principled opposition.
“The anti-democratic forces in the Republican Party have focused their energy on peddling unwarranted and expensive voter restriction measures,” said Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost her 2018 Georgia bid to become the first Black female governor in U.S. history. “We all have a right to take our seat at the table and our place at the ballot box.”
The bill was an object of intense focus at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, over the weekend, a gathering where Trump’s lies about mass election fraud took center stage.
In a speech Sunday, Trump branded the bill as “a disaster” and a “monster” that “cannot be allowed to pass.”
Meanwhile, CPAC organizer Matt Schlapp told attendees that if they could internalize one thing from this year’s conference, it was to “do all you can” to stop “this unconstitutional power grab” from becoming law.
“What we saw this election will be what you will see every single election. And we have to fight it,” Schlapp warned ominously.
Trump and his allies have made many claims that the 2020 election was marred by widespread voter fraud. But dozens of legal challenges they put forth were dismissed, including by the Supreme Court.
Ultimately, though, the biggest obstacle Democrats face in passing the bill is themselves.
Despite staunch GOP opposition, the bill is all but certain to pass the House when it’s scheduled for a floor vote Wednesday. But challenges lie ahead in the Senate, which is split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.
Many Democrats remain hopeful, and Biden’s administration has said the bill is a priority. But the window to pass legislation before the 2022 midterms is closing.
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday delivered his first major address since leaving office, and he picked up right where he left off: attacking opponents and spreading false claims, including that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Trump’s inaccuracies in his speech at the close of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando were largely nothing new. It was largely wellworn material pulled from the grievances and gripes that have filled time at his rallies since his political career began in 2015.
Sarah Longwell, a Trump critic and executive director of the Republican Accountability Project, called the speech a “boring, warmed-over version of his greatest hits.”
But Trump’s unrepentant repetition of his election fraud claims was noteworthy in light of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which Trump didn’t mention. And his old attacks on wind energy added overblown claims that it was responsible for Texas’ recent outages.
The election was ‘rigged’
Unfounded claims of election fraud are a staple of Trump’s politics. He launched baseless claims of stolen elections in 2012, the 2016 primaries and general election, the 2018 midterms, the 2020 Democratic primary and the Nov. 3 election that made him a oneterm president.
He planted the seeds of election doubt months before the votes were tallied, declaring in August, “the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.”
His 2020 fraud claims culminated with his historic second impeachment after the Democrat-controlled House approved an article charging him with inciting the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. A majority of senators agreed, though not the two-thirds needed to convict Trump.
On Sunday, Trump doubled down:
Trump claim: “Had we had a fair election, the results would have been much different.”
The facts: All 50 states certified the election results, and both state and federal judges (including Trump appointees) rejected scores of court challenges from the Trump campaign. Though isolated cases of fraud and irregularities were uncovered (as they are in every election) none came anywhere near the widespread level that would have been required to alter the result.
Trump claim: “The Democrats used the China virus as an excuse to change all of the election rules without the approval of their state legislatures, making it therefore illegal.”
The facts: Many states, including some controlled by Republicans, expanded mail-in voting in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Those changes were sparked by the very real concerns about the threat posed by the virus, which has killed more than 500,000 Americans.
The Constitution leaves the manner of how elections are conducted to state legislatures. While in most cases the changes to mail-in voting were not directly approved by state legislatures, those legislatures had empowered their respective secretaries of state to make such emergency changes through legislation they approved.
Trump claim: “This election was rigged, and the Supreme Court and other courts didn’t want to do anything about it.” (Prompting chants of “you won” from the crowd.)
The facts: The courts consistently dismissed the election challenges filed by the Trump campaign. Though most of the dismissals were based on a lack of “standing,” a fact Trump lamented in his speech, others were rejected on merits, meaning they did not present sufficient evidence of fraud to convince the judge to throw out the results.
The Supreme Court refused to hear a lawsuit brought by Texas – and joined by other Gop-controlled states – that sought to throw out the results from four swing states won by Biden. The high court declared Texas did not demonstrate a “judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another State conducts its elections.” Though Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said the court should have heard the case, they said it would not have granted Texas’ request to change the election.
The Supreme Court also declined to hear two cases challenging Pennsylvania’s absentee ballots. One case did not involve enough ballots to affect the outcome and the other challenging a state law passed in 2019 was determined by the state Supreme Court to have come far too late. Even if the court had granted the extraordinary request to throw out Pennsylvania’s votes, Joe Biden would still have won the Electoral College votes needed to become president.
Trump claim: “We seem to have more votes than we have people” in Detroit, and “In Pennsylvania, they had hundreds of thousands of more votes than they had people voting.”
The facts: As of last year’s census estimate, Detroit, Michigan’s largest city, had a voting-age population of 503,934. According to the city clerk’s website, 250,138 Detroit residents voted in the election.
Numbers from the Pennsylvania Department of State show that over 2.6 million mail-in ballots were counted after more than 3 million voters requested mail ballots by the Oct. 27 deadline. In total, about 6.9 million votes were counted in Pennsylvania’s presidential election; the number of registered Pennsylvania voters in 2020 was just over 9 million.
‘Windmill calamity’ behind Texas power outages
Trump has railed against “windmills” since at least 2012, when he began a quest to block the installation of turbines near his golf club in Aberdeen, Scotland. (He means wind turbines; windmills are used to grind grain.)
His criticisms of wind power are sometimes rooted in fact (they do kill hundreds of thousands of birds every year, for example, though far fewer than the billions killed by cats), but other times they seem to be pulled out of thin air (such as his claims that the noise they generate causes cancer).
On Sunday, he blamed the recent power outages in Texas that came with an unexpectedly cold winter storm on a “windmill calamity.”
Trump claim: “It’s a disaster. The blackouts we saw in California last summer, and all the time, and the windmill calamity that we’re witnessing in Texas. Great state of Texas. We love Texas, but it’s so sad when you look at it, that’ll just be the start. How bad is wind power?”
The facts: Traditional sources of energy such as natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems, were responsible for nearly twice as many outages in Texas as frozen wind turbines and solar panels, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid.
ERCOT reported that of the 45,000 total megawatts of power that were offline statewide during the winter storm, about 30,000 consisted of thermal sources – gas, coal and nuclear plants – and 16,000 came from renewable sources. Wind only supplies about a quarter of the electricity in Texas.