The 74th Golden Globe Awards Sunday began with a celebration of “La La Land” — and a series of winners reflecting Hollywood’s diverse talent.
Host Jimmy Fallon enlisted some famous friends and nominees including Nicole Kidman, John Travolta and Amy Adams to recreate the critically acclaimed musical’s opening scene in a taped segment.
Fallon’s monologue included some political humor — noting the Globes is “one of the few places left that still honors the popular vote”– and a small snafu.
“Already the teleprompter is down, so this is a great way to start the show,” Fallon said right off the bat.
There was also history made early on in the night.
Tracee Ellis Ross won for best actress in a musical or comedy TV series. She became the first black woman to win in that category since Debbie Allen won for “Fame” in 1983.
“This is for all of the women, women of color and colorful people whose stories, ideas, thoughts are not always considered worthy, valid and important,” Ross said. “But I want you to know I see you. We see you.”
Newbie “Atlanta” won for best musical or comedy TV series.
“This is incredible,” exclaimed creator and star Donald Glover after his show, which has a majority black cast, won. “I really just want to thank Atlanta and all the black folks in Atlanta. For real, just for being alive…and being amazing people. I couldn’t be here without Atlanta.”
Viola Davis also won for best supporting actress in a motion picture for “Fences.”
“La La Land” scored awards for best original score, best song, best director, and best actor in a motion picture – musical or a comedy for Ryan Gosling.
“This isn’t the first time I have been mistaken for Ryan Reynolds,” Gosling joked before becoming serious and thanking lady love, actress Eva Mendes for her support during filming. He dedicated his win to her brother, Juan Carlos Mendes, who died of cancer in April at the age of 53.
FX’s “People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” held the most TV category nominations and won for best TV movie/limited series. Sarah Paulson, who portrayed prosecutor Marcia Clark, picked up a statuette for her performance in the series.
The Globes paid tribute to mother and daughter actresses Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher with a video highlighting some of their most memorable film roles.
Reynolds died one day after Fisher in December.
Meryl Streep was honored with Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.
Streep’s “Doubt” costar, Viola Davis, presented the award and praised the actress.
“You make me proud to be an artist,” Davis said. “You make me feel that what I have in me, my body, my face, my age, is enough.”
Streep got political in her speech, highlighting the diversity of the various actors there from around the world.
“So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners and if we kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not arts,” she said.