Hollywood Reckoning at the Golden Globes®

Sarah Paulson, Amanda Peet

Photo by Trae Patton/NBC - © 2018 Trae Patton/NBC - Image courtesy gettyimages.com

Maybe it started with Harvey Weinstein. When word of his crimes finally broke, and he was kicked out of every awards season place that he had held so dear.

Maybe it had begun even earlier, when Patricia Arquette had so bravely taken to the Oscar stage to declare that women needed equal pay for equal work.

All I knew, as I settled in for my regular awards-season spot (comfy couch, pizza at hand, three screens tuned to the various red carpet goings-on so I didn’t miss anything), was that something had REALLY changed in this town.

Or maybe it was just that Hollywood was sick to the teeth of Donald Trump and constantly being lied to. Maybe it was all of these elements, swirling around in our Hollywood ether, affecting us.

The direction late a few nights before the show was to “wear black” in support of the #MeToo movement, and those who had been harassed by those in power. And I had expected a couple of folks wearing black, here or there.

What I completely DID NOT expect was that EVERYONE, and I mean everyone, would be wearing black. Some with a new organization’s pins (#Time’sUp) on their lapels, some not. Everyone. Wearing. Black. Women. Men.

From the first Manolo-laden foot on the red carpet to the last, the black just kept coming. And there was more. Most of the women had also decided to bring as their +1 an “activist” from some cause they believed in. Most of these choices were also women.

So we had the movie or TV star in black, with a woman activist at their side, also in black. And instead of the insipid “What are you wearing?” nonsense that normally blights every red carpet (Thank you, Joan Rivers), we had gracious host Ryan Seacrest allowing the star to speak for a few minutes, then the activist next to them to speak about their cause for a few minutes.

We had Debra Messing, long selected as one of the top-dressed on many red carpets, a style icon by people whose business it is to do this stuff, speaking to Giuliana Rancic on E!’s red carpet. E!, mind you, had just let one of its best anchors (Catt Sadler) walk out the door when she learned her lesser-skilled male cohost was being paid much more than she was. Messing didn’t miss a beat. “Why isn’t Catt Sadler here? I miss her. She deserves to be paid as much as her male cohost.”

To Giuliana’s credit, she let Messing talk (although it was edited out of the E! feed later).

But these stars were NOT messing around. They were here to call out injustice at every turn. This wasn’t an “ice-bucket challenge” they were participating in here. This was very real.

At the awards themselves, women kept swarming the stage, winning awards. Big Little Lies, produced by the female team of Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman who created their company to present more female-centric stories, took boatloads of awards.

Natalie Portman, presenting the award for Best Director with Ron Howard, introduced the five names by saying, “Here are the all-male directors.” Howard gave a nervous laugh.

And then, after a night of so much forward female movement, we had Oprah Winfrey’s soul-stirring speech. Many afterward jumped on it as a potential run for president. (Perhaps it was.) But what I heard was a call to action, that had already been foreshadowed by everything gone before. Oprah spoke of how change happens, and how it is essential for each of us to own our part in that.

Essentially, we are done with the abuse and the inequal pay and the disrespect. We are DONE.

I, like many of other women, no doubt, sobbed through Oprah’s moving speech. Celebrities, on their feet, at several times within it. (NOT a normal occurrence.)

I can’t exactly pinpoint when it started, but one thing was crystal clear as the last black-clad star left the Golden Globes on this evening in January: Hollywood had changed. And it’s not going back. #TimesUp

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