Tina Fey captured the spirit of the Golden Globes perfectly with her last line as the telecast was signing off Sunday night. “This was the beautiful mess we hoped it would be.”
A beautiful mess is exactly what we want from the Golden Globes. The Oscars are uptight, buttoned down and formal — or at least they try very, very hard to be. The Globes are a party. Everyone’s dressed up nicely; no one wants to be ridiculed on Monday morning as a fashion disaster. But none of the celebrities involved seem to be taking this thing seriously. Look at how many award winners can’t be bothered to even prepare a speech?
But thanks to liquor keeping everything loose, there’s an element of fun to the proceedings. Those speeches might be incoherent, but more honest. There’s more candor on stage and personality in the audience. That results in some memorable moments, which are among some of the observations we took from Sunday night’s telecast.
Fey burns Clooney: Just as we praised Fey for her closing line of the night, one of her opening jabs won big approval among those in attendance and on social media. Speaking of Best Picture (Drama) nominee Gravity, the co-host described the plot as “the story of how George Clooney would rather float away and die than spend another minute with a woman his own age.” The moment would only have been better had Clooney been in the audience to take that shot and try to laugh it off.
Matthew McConaughey gives us what we want: When McConaughey’s name was announced as the winner for Best Actor (Drama), many immediately said, “All right, all right, all right.” It’s probably his most famous line, uttered in Dazed and Confused. McConaughey played to the crowd, perhaps knowing what everyone was thinking, and began his speech with that line. Later on, he said those words were special to him because they were the first he ever said on screen.
Personally, I wish McConaughey had ended his speech with his now-signature chest beat that he demonstrated in The Wolf of Wall Street.
The new show wins — twice: Hey, I love Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It’s one of my favorite new shows of the season and holds the promise of being one the next great TV comedies. (I was hoping to have written something about it by now.) But the show has only aired 12 of 22 episodes, and probably even fewer than that when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association cast their votes. Also, the level of quality among those dozen shows has been inconsistent.
Apparently, however, Brooklyn Nine-Nine showed enough to win Best TV Series (Musical or Comedy). Even more of a surprise was Andy Samberg winning Best Actor in the TV musical or comedy category. Not just because of his competition for the award, but because it’s arguable that Samberg is the best actor on that show. (I’d give the nod to Andre Braugher or Terry Crews.) Regardless, the win is a huge promotional selling point for a show still trying to find ratings success.
Amy Adams had the best speech of the night: One winner who did actually prepare a speech was Adams, who won Best Actress (Musical or Comedy) for her role in American Hustle. She began by explaining it was her 15-year anniversary of taking the cliché trip to Los Angeles to try and make it as an actress. The same manager who took a chance on Adams is still her manager today. She also thanked Hustle director David O. Russell for writing “such amazing roles for women.”
Most importantly, Adams wanted to thank her three-year-old daughter and was not going to be played off the stage by the orchestra. “You cannot play me out of talking about my daughter,” she said. It was kind of an embarrassing moment for the Globes. An actress of Adams’ accomplishments should’ve been allowed to finish a heartfelt speech without interruption.
What was Paula Patton wearing? If you’ve seen Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, you know Patton looks great in a dress. Actually, she looks good in everything. Except maybe when she has a giant tangle of fabric on her left shoulder, as she did at the Golden Globes. I am no fashion expert, nor do I aspire to be one. I’m a hoodie and jeans guy. But this reminded me of wrapping gifts for Christmas and cutting off too big a piece of paper. I don’t want to waste the paper so I just fold it in somehow. Maybe I should try to make it look like a flower, as with Patton’s dress.
Alfonso Cuaron wanted to give Sandra Bullock herpes? Another funny speech came from Cuaron, who won the Best Director award for Gravity. Joking about his thick accent, the Mexican filmmaker thanked Bullock for not quitting when she thought he said, “Sandra, I’m going to give you herpes.” What Cuaron actually said was, “Sandra, I’m going to give you an earpiece.” But maybe that helped Bullock seemed more freaked out and alienated in her portrayal of an astronaut marooned in space who really, really wanted to get home.
Amy Poehler wins — and makes out with Bono: Poehler winning Best Actress (TV musical or comedy) may have been the most popular result of the night, at least among longtime fans of Parks and Recreation yearning for the show and its outstanding cast to earn some recognition. Earlier in the telecast, Poehler poked fun of her nomination, asking if the cameras could get a shot of Amy Poehler and Jennifer Lawrence was shown on screen.
But Poehler topped that when her award was up. As she was announced among the nominees, Poehler sat in Bono’s lap, getting a shoulder massage from the U2 frontman. If that wasn’t funny enough, when Poehler was announced as the winner, she gave Bono a big kiss before walking toward the stage. Let’s see that at the Oscars, man. Applause and more applause.
OK, maybe Aaron Paul had the best acceptance speech: If you can’t go heartfelt, be funny. Even better than being funny is being brief. After Breaking Bad won for Best TV Series (Drama), showrunner Vince Gilligan gave the acceptance speech. When he was finished, Gilligan generously deferred to his cast, asking if anyone else wanted to say something, particularly Paul. Everyone probably knew what he was going to say and he didn’t disappoint. (Video via @amandarykoff)
Mia Farrow leaving the room, so to speak: Director Woody Allen was presented with the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award, which drew a split reaction on social media. Many expressed their love and admiration for Allen’s work, which includes some of the greatest comedies of the past 40-plus years. Others were understandably uncomfortable about honoring someone who pursued a relationship with his stepdaughter and eventually married her. (Allen has also been accused by another stepdaughter of molesting her when she was seven years old.)
Among them was Farrow, the mother — adopted and biological, respectively — of those children, who was in a relationship with Allen for 12 years. She wanted no part of any tribute for him.
Tina Fey’s introduction for Leonardo DiCaprio: The comedic courage to say what we’re all thinking is one reason Fey and Poehler have been so good as Golden Globes hosts for the past two years. That includes this welcoming of DiCaprio (who won Best Actor, Musical or Comedy earlier in the evening) to the stage before he presented the award for Best Actress (Drama).
DiCaprio may have been a bit embarrassed, but there are probably far worse things to be known for. He could ask Mia Farrow about that, if he really wanted to know.
