Women in Charge At Golden Globes

Women in charge Tina Fey and Amy Poehler skewered power players and stereotypes alike in their swan song as Golden Globe hosts Sunday evening.  They killed in their opening monologue, a biting soufflé that was as droll as it was unsparing.

They ripped SONY:

Fey: “Tonight we celebrate all the television shows we know and love …and all the movies that North Korea was okay with.”

Poehler: “The biggest story in Hollywood this year is when North Korea threatened an attack if SONY released The Interview …forcing us all to pretend we wanted to see it.”

And had a field day taking on double standards :

Fey:  “Steve Carell’s Foxcatcher look took 2 hours to put on including his hair styling and makeup.  Just for comparison, It took me three hours today to prepare for my role as a human woman.”

As reported by Buzzfeed, Tina Fey said:

“George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin this year.

Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an adviser to Kofi Annan regarding Syria, and was selected to a three-person U.N. commission investigating rules of war violations in the Gaza Strip.

So tonight, her husband is getting a lifetime achievement award.”

Their game of “who would you rather,” comparing what they’d like to do with various male studmuffin stars in the audience was perfection.  After hitting the actors, they moved on toBirdman director Alejandro Iñárritu, who’s film offered the illusion of no break in camera movement and Richard Linklater, director of Boyhood, a film shot in doses over a dozen year period.  The ladies’ druthers:

Poehler:  “I’m going to say Iñárritu. One take, two hours straight, no stopping.”

Fey:  “Linklater!  Five minutes once a year.”

And then, the shocker of the night where the hosts proved there are no sacred cows left.  Poehler started:

“In Into The Woods Cinderella runs from her prince, Rapunzel is thrown from a tower for her prince …and Sleeping Beauty just thought she was getting coffee with Bill Cosby.”

Both even imitated Mr. Cosby’s voice:

“I put the pills in the people! The people did not want the pills in them!”

“No, Tina, hey. That’s not right. That’s not right. It’s more like, ‘I got the pills in the bathrobe and I put ‘em in the people!’”

Fey answered, “You’re right, it’s got to be, like, ‘I put the pills in the hoagie.’ That’s fair.”

Cosby making a joke about the many sexual assault allegations against him at his weekend show in Canada did not go unnoticed by Fey and Poehler, who drew stunned gasps, shrieks and scattered applause from the audience.  But they were fearless, putting the world on notice that the cat is not going back in the bag.  Not under their watch anyway.

I’m not even sure how I felt about the joke, but their taking on a show biz legend was a way of saying ‘we’re large and in charge, not just placeholders in a dress.’  As well, that this mess is unlikely to get swept under the rug any longer.  I think they also went for broke since they know they’re not coming back to the gig.

Presenters Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin ironically noted that women are funny (by saying that men are “finally” getting acknowledged for the same).  Julianne Moore, who won the Golden Globe for Still Alice was surprised and thrilled to accept her award, especially since she had been told by the project’s author that “no one would want to make a film about a middle aged woman.”

But perhaps Maggie Gyllenhaal said it best as she accepted her award:

“I’ve noticed a lot of people talking about the wealth of roles for powerful women in television lately. And when I look around the room at the women who are here and I think about the performances that I’ve watched this year what I see actually are women who are sometimes powerful and sometimes not, sometimes sexy, sometimes not, sometimes honorable, sometimes not, and what I think is new is the wealth of roles for actual women in television and in film. That’s what I think is revolutionary and evolutionary and it’s what’s turning me on.”

Women don’t have to be powerhouses or role models, but three dimensional beings with a distinct point of view and method of expression, an expression that was clearly on display last night in addition to the eye candy gowns.

As hosts, Fey and Poehler’s buckets of reverse sexism were also a welcome switch from the typical “we saw your boobs” meta-joke we endured at the Oscars recently.  As Meryl Streep noted in her closing remarks of the night, these ladies will be missed.

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Original version published at Anita Finlay’s Blog. Reposted, in full, with permission of the author.

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