Golden Globes: Celebs take potshots at Trump

A flash of silver, a dash of gold and a lot of shimmer – the 74th Golden Globes red carpet saw stars like Drew Barrymore, Sofia Vergara, Priyanka Chopra, Emma Stone and Nicole Kidman strutting their stuff in a dazzling array of couture gowns.

Globes host Jimmy Fallon, who has been criticised for being too soft on Trump, started his opening monologue by comparing the President-elect with villainous King Joffrey of ‘Game of Thrones’.

The 74th Golden Globe Awards ceremony paid a tribute to late actores, mother-daughter Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds by showcasing clips of some of their memorable roles.

La La Land clinched as many as seven honours in categories like Best Motion Picture, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Original Score – Motion Picture and Best Original Song. Priyanka Chopra made a stunning debut on the red carpet in a golden gown.

Actor Hugh Laurie, who won the best supporting actor role in a limited TV series for ‘The Night Manager’, took a jibe at US President-elect Donald Trump and the entire Republican party during his acceptance speech.

“Thank you, this is obviously a terrible mix-up. Thank you first of all to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for this amazing honour. Of course it’s more amazing because I’ll be able to say I won this at the last ever Golden Globes,” the 57-year-old said while accepting the award. 

“I don’t mean to be gloomy. It’s just it has ‘Hollywood’, ‘foreign’ and ‘press’ in the title. To some Republicans even the word ‘association’ is slightly sketchy,” he said, adding, “I accept this award on behalf of psychopathic billionaires everywhere.” 

Fallon, in a first, opened the show with an elaborate song-and-dance parody of La La Land where he roped in major celebrity cameos. He recreated a musical spoof inspired by the film itself.

Echoing British actor Hugh Laurie’s earlier comment, screen legend Meryl Streep tore into Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric and denounced him as a bully who humiliated others while receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes, prompting Trump to dismiss her as a “Hillary lover”.

Streep, an ardent supporter of Trump’s rival Hillary Clinton, slammed the  US President in her scathing speech while accepting the Cecil B DeMille Award at Golden Globes.

The three-time Oscar winner took swipes at Trump’s divisive rhetoric without naming him as she cautioned against powerful people using their position to “bully others”.

“But who are we and what is Hollywood, anyway? It is just a place with a bunch of people from other places,” Streep said in her speech while accepting the Award.

“Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if you kick us all out, you’ll have nothing to watch except for football and mixed martial arts, which are not arts.” 

The multiple award-winning actor said the “performance” that stood out this year did not belong to an actor but to Trump when he publicly mocked a disabled reporter.

“There was nothing good about it, but 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 my head because it wasn’t in a movie, it was in real life. That instinct to humiliate when it’s modeled by someone in a public platform, it filters down into everyone’s life because it gives permission for others to do the same,” Streep cautioned.

“When the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose,” she said.

Organised by Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the awards took place in Beverly Hills on Sunday night.