Globes go gaga for ‘La La’
STONE’S FILM WINS 7 AWARDS PLUS: FASHION HITS & MISSES
Sweep dream for musical fave, stars Gosling & Stone
MOVIE MUSICAL “La La Land” hit a major high note among Golden Globes voters, emerging as the big winner Sunday in a possible preview of the red-hot musical’s Oscar chances.
The romantic tale of Hollywood up-and-comers earned best musical or comedy picture and its stars, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, won the awards for best actor and actress.
“La La Land” swept each of its Globes-leading seven nominations overall, also picking up honors for directing, screenplay, original score and original song for “City of Stars.” The seven wins were a Golden Globes record for a film.
“This is so insane, I can’t even tell you,” producer Fred Berger said during the best picture acceptance speech. “I promise you, six years ago when we started working on this movie, the idea of making an L.A.-set musical was an utter fantasy. Standing here tonight is more surreal than I could possibly describe.”
Despite the feel-good flick’s dominance, it was renowned film star Meryl Streep who truly stole the show. The “Florence Foster Jenkins” actress unleashed an impassioned speech blasting President-elect Donald Trump, hitting a home run on a topic where host Jimmy Fallon ultimately floundered behind a few forgettable jokes.
“Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if you kick us all out, you’ll have nothing to watch except for football and mixed martial arts, which are not arts,” a visibly emotional Streep told the audience.
The rest of the traditionally booze-fueled, unbridled TV and film ceremony went mostly according to script, with heavy favorite Casey Affleck winning best actor in a drama for his portrayal of a short-tempered recluse fated with taking care of his nephew in “Manchester by the Sea.”
Somewhat surprisingly, however, “Manchester” itself fell short of winning coveted honors for best drama, which was instead went to indie coming-of-age tale “Moonlight,” which centers on the struggles of a young black man amid the war on drugs.
Isabelle Huppert, meanwhile, won best actress in a drama for “Elle,” beating out slight preshow front-runner Natalie Portman, who starred in “Jackie.”
The 74th annual Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills began promisingly as Fallon charmed in a clever, prerecorded song parody routine from “La La Land” alongside Justin Timberlake, Nicole Kidman, Amy Adams and several other stars.
But viewers were quickly reminded they were watching the ever-unpredictable Golden Globes during the first few seconds of live
content when Fallon revealed moments into the show that his teleprompter wasn’t working.
“I just got off the phone with Mariah Carey, and she thinks Dick Clark Productions sabotaged my monologue,” he later joked in reference to Carey’s flubbed Times Square performance on New Year’s Eve.
Another major goof at the Globes — which are widely considered the most significant TV and film award show outside the Academy Awards and the Emmys — involved NBC correspondent Jenna Bush incorrectly combining the titles of films “Hidden Figures” and “Fences” to tout “Hidden Fences” during a preshow red carpet segment. Actor Michael Keaton made the same mistake during the award show itself.
Sunday’s Golden Globes were a far cry from last year’s Oscars, where not a single actor or actress of color was nominated in a major category for a second straight year. Donald Glover (best actor, “Atlanta”), Viola Davis (best supporting actress, “Fences”) and Tracee Ellis Ross (best actress in a TV musical or comedy, “Black-ish”), all of whom are African-American, won awards.
It was an underwhelming year for movies, but a number of TV series flourished in 2016, including “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” another of the night’s early winners.
Sarah Paulson — who portrayed prosecutor Marcia Clark in the critically acclaimed FX series — took home best actress honors for limited series or motion picture for TV. “O.J.” itself won best limited series.