It is routine. Every year, an actor who has been hired to host a big Hollywood award show walks on stage to a roaring audience of their show-business comrades, and delivers an opening monologue, complete with zingers pointed at controversial actors, jokes about movie titles and self-deprecating humor.
But, sometimes, a host will go a little too far to concoct comedy and will enter the dangerous terrain of irritating comments. This is usually followed by mixed reactions of embarrassment from the audience that eventually leads to many, many awkward apologies. The best hosts deliver monologues that set the tone for the rest of the night, in an elegant and sharp, yet kind-hearted, way.
In the wake of the disaster at last year’s Golden Globe Awards, when host, Ricky Gervais, left the audience confused, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey broke from the tired routine. The two “Saturday Night Live” alums presented an opening monologue for the 70th annual Golden Globe Awards that critics like the “Los Angeles Times” called “Lovely, Brilliant, and utterly fearless…”
“Fearless” is a good word to describe the two hosts, along with several other award-winning female artists who stepped up to the podium. Indeed, this year’s Golden Globes was truly a night for women.
Fey and Poehler confidently introduced several actors and actresses, followed by piercing one-liners. A favorite of the night was the hosts’ play on movie titles. Tina Fey jokingly referred to “The Hunger Games” as the six weeks it took her to fit into her tight, glamorous dress. Poehler added that “Life of Pi” referred to the six weeks after she takes the dress off.
Later on in the show, after former President Bill Clinton introduced the movie, “Lincoln,” Poehler said in awe, “Wow, that was Hillary Clinton’s husband!”
Jodie Foster, an actress who has won 44 awards in her 47-year career, also delivered a potent, fearless speech when she accepted the Cecile B. Demille Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Foster, who is known to be reserved about her private life, made a surprisingly personal speech. She acknowledged her sexual identity by thanking her ex-girlfriend, but also addressed her lifelong fight to keep privacy by commenting, “…If you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you’d had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe you too might value privacy above all else. Privacy.”
Lena Dunham, creator and lead actress of the comedic hit TV series, “Girls”, enacted revenge on Howard Stern’s degrading remarks, made a week earlier about her body size, by winning two Golden Globes: Best Performance by an Actress in a Musical or Comedy Series and Best Comedy Series.
Dunham said in her acceptance speech for the Best Comedy Series, “Making [“Girls”], and the response to it has been the most validating thing that I’ve ever felt; it’s made me feel so much less alone in this world.”
With the politically heated controversy surrounding the portrayal of the CIA’s torture methods in “Zero Dark Thirty,” director Kathryn Bigelow released comments defending her film a few days prior to the big awards night. She stood by her work and affirmed the scenes were not driven by a desire to instigate protest.
“Those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement,” she said, “If it was, no artist would be able to paint inhumane practices, no author could write about them, and no filmmaker could delve into the thorny subjects of our time.”
Bigelow’s courage and loyalty to her film were later applauded by Jessica Chastain, who won Best Actress in a Drama for her starring role in “Zero Dark Thirty”
Chastain said, “When you make a film that allows … your character to disobey the conventions of Hollywood, you’ve done more for women in cinema than you take credit for.”
Chastain is right. The work of brave women in the entertainment industry this year proved to the world that they are just as funny, intelligent and powerful as their male counterparts. As Ann Hathaway gracefully put it, she and women everywhere will forever use the Golden Globe trophy as a lovely, blunt “weapon against self-doubt.”
