So, the Golden Globes happened last night, and I always enjoy watching the Globes a bit more than the Oscars for a couple of reasons. First, there are television stars and movie stars together, not just one or the other. Second, and most important, all the celebrities seem to get drunk and this awards show, meaning it’s usually pretty laid back and amusing.
On last nights show, Eleven from Stranger Things rapped and Barb made her triumphant return. La La Land won a bunch of awards, a bunch of non-white people won awards, and Meryl Streep made a not so subtle dig at Donald Trump.
Last night was a great night for black Hollywood, with Tracee Ellis Ross, Donald Glover, and Viola Davis picking up acting awards, Moonlight winning Best Picture – Drama and Atlanta winning Best Comedy Series. (Didn’t I just write that Donald Glover was majorly breaking out? Yes. Yes I did).
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling picked up acting awards for La La Land which also won Best Picture – Comedy/Musical, Best Director, and a few other awards I can’t remember and won’t bother to look up, because I’ve named the most significant ones.
Perhaps the most talked about moment of the night was when Meryl Streep received the Cecil B. Demille award, and used her time to call out president-elect, Donald Trump. Meryl said:
But there was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good; there was nothing good about it. But it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh, and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter. Someone he outranked in privilege, power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kinda gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose.
Of course, Trump being Trump, immediately struck back (and it wasn’t even on Twitter……at first), saying:
I was never mocking anyone. I was calling into question a reporter who had gotten nervous because he had changed his story. People keep saying I intended to mock the reporter’s disability, as if Meryl Streep and others could read my mind, and I did no such thing…And remember, Meryl Streep introduced Hillary Clinton at her convention, and a lot of these people supported Hillary.
Of course, Donald Trump being Donald Trump then went off in a series of tweets, calling Streep “one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood.”
I honestly don’t even know what to say about this shit anymore. I really don’t. We’re about to have a president who would rather get into Twitter feuds with celebrities than attend security meetings for the goddamn country.
America, man, wyd?