Five takeaways from the 2018 Golden Globes

Bryce Cumpston, WLHSnow Staff|January 22, 2018

Show me a sign: Picket signs stand outside of the 2018 Golden Globes. You can see the NBC logo on the sign on the left, the TV company that presents the awards each year.

James Franco blocked Tommy Wiseau from speaking. After winning the award for “Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy,” for his portrayal of director Tommy Wiseau in “The Disaster Artist,” Franco delivered an acceptance speech in which he called the real life Wiseau onto the stage to give him recognition. Upon reaching the stage, however, Wiseau immediately headed for Franco’s microphone, seemingly with the intent of hijacking the speech. Franco, giggling, merely brushed Wiseau aside nonchalantly, and attempted to carry on normally, ignoring the eager Wiseau breathing over his shoulder.
Oprah delivered a speech for the ages. Former television host and pop culture figurehead, Oprah Winfrey, gave us what will probably go down as one of the most quotable and empowering speeches of the year (although it is a little soon to call it). “For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared speak the truth to the power of those men,” Oprah said, “but their time is up.” The progressive and triumphant speech touched on everything from racism, to rape culture, to human nature. It also prompted a conservative media backlash, and has even led to some speculation of a 2020 presidential campaign for her.
Host Seth Meyers cracked a lot of jokes…and pushed it a little too far. Despite a number of hilarious punchlines throughout the night, Meyers actually did make one rather strange joke that made the crowd gasp instead of laugh. “To address the elephant in the room, Harvey Weinstein is not here tonight, because, well, I’ve heard he’s crazy and difficult to work with,” Meyers said, “But don’t worry, he’ll be back in 20 years when he’s the first person ever booed in the ‘In Memoriam.’”
Frances McDormand got bleeped a lot, for some reason. Despite not cursing at all during her acceptance speech, this actress was censored multiple times by NBC, who seemed to mishear the words “shift,” “can’t” and more. For a program widely focused on a theme of letting women’s voices be heard, this felt a bit ironic. Despite the censorship, McDormand still gave a rousing and powerful speech, adding to a plethora of empowering moments throughout the show.
All in all, this year’s ceremony was full of politically charged rhetoric. Like it or hate it, America is an incredibly polarized and combative political environment right now, and the Golden Globes this year definitely illustrated the attitudes and directions that our country will go to this year. Oprah wowed the crowd with her politically-fueled speech, but this was only one of many such moments of the night. One particularly witty and amusing jab came from Natalie Portman, who announced to the crowd, “And here are the all-male nominees,” pointing out the gender bias in the industry, and the fact that many more males are nominated than females.