Acceptance speeches at the 2017 Golden Globe awards used to attack and pillory the US president-elect.
by Al Jazeera
US actors turned the 2017 Golden Globe Awards into a scathing attack on Donald Trump, with several of the evening’s winners using their acceptance speech to deride the president-elect.
The Golden Globes, organised by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, were handed out on Sunday in Beverly Hills, honouring the best of film and television.
Meryl Streep, who received a lifetime achievement award, said she had been heartbroken by Trump’s imitation of a disabled reporter during his campaign.
“There was one performance this year that stunned me,” Streep, 67, said.
“It sank its hooks in my heart. Not because it was good. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter.”
The three-time Oscar winner was referring to a 2015 incident at a South Carolina rally when Trump flailed his arms and slurred in his speech in an apparent mocking of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a physical disability.
Trump in a series of tweets on Monday repeated his denial that he ever imitated the reporter.
“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,” Streep said.
“This instinct to humiliate when it’s modelled by someone in the public platform by someone powerful it filters down into everybody’s life. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence.”
While Streep did not name Trump directly, she used almost the entire speech to criticise his behaviour and policies, while calling for Hollywood to stand strong against any attacks and to support a free press through organisations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The audience sat in stunned silence for much of it.
Streep earned a cheer from the crowd when she said that, “Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners”.
“If you kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not art,” she said.
Trump, who takes office on January 20, made a tough stance on immigration a cornerstone of his campaign. Hollywood actors and studio executives were mostly behind his Democratic party rival Hillary Clinton.
Streep ended her speech with a nod to her long-time friend, Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher, who died last month after a heart attack.
“As my friend, the dear departed Princess Leia, said to me once, ‘Take your broken heart and make it into art’,” Streep said, her voice cracking with emotion.
The Committee to Protect Journalists tweeted to the actress: “Thank you Meryl Streep for your generosity & support of our mission to protect journalists and press freedom around the world.”
‘Honouring popular vote’
The evening was presented by late night television host Jimmy Fallon, who fired off a fusillade of jokes, several aimed at Trump.
Fallon saluted the Globes as “one of the few places where America still honours the popular vote”, referring to the fact that Clinton got more votes in total than Trump.
Then, noting that Game of Thrones was among this year’s nominated series, he said some fans had wondered how that show would have unfolded had the childish, villainous King Joffrey survived, and not died, a while back.
“Well, in 12 days,” Fallon cracked, “we’re gonna find out”.
Perhaps he summed things up best by pointing to the notably bleak nominated film Manchester by the Sea – “the only thing from 2016”, he said, “that was more depressing than 2016”.
A bit later, Hugh Laurie, winning best supporting actor in a limited series for The Night Manager, kept the mordant party going with his acceptance remarks.
He began by voicing thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his win at “the last-ever Golden Globes”.
“I don’t mean to be gloomy,” he went on, “it’s just that it has the words ‘Hollywood,’ ‘foreign’ and ‘press’ in the title.” Cheers rang out.
“I also think that, to some Republicans, even the word ‘association’ is slightly sketchy.”
Paul Verhoeven’s Elle won best foreign language film and its star, Isabelle Huppert, was crowned best actress in a drama. The French actress vowed: “Do not expect cinema to put up walls and borders.”
