Saturday afternoon girlfriends and I were exchanging emails, working out a time to get together. We decided that Sunday night was perfect, with Monday being a non-school day for most offspring, a late night would be ok. It wasn’t until late Sunday afternoon that someone pointed out the Golden Globes were going to be on, and would we be watching them? They were being broadcast on NBC, a station my aerial antenna picks up just fine, so I said sure.
I’d only seen one of the films up for best drama, and two of the films up for best comedy or musical. It didn’t really matter — our gathering was more about talking and eating and drinking rum punch. And the awards show gave us something to talk about. Over the course of the three hours we watched together, we came up with a few broad generalizations:
1) Hollywood is ADDICTED to Botox.
I know my party wasn’t the only one to notice that only a few of the presenters and winners had cheeks that actually moved when the spoke. Their foreheads were still. Their mouths were moving the rest of their faces weren’t. It was freaky.
2) As a gathering of Generation Xers, we had very little use for winners under the age of 30 or so. Our attention was focused on the grown-ups in the crowd for whom we’ve always loved.
To see Claire Danes, all grown-up and incredibly graceful, accept the award for best actress in a made-for-television mini series or movie in Temple Grandin would have made any Gen Xer proud. For a few seconds, when the camera panned to Jennifer Love Hewitt, my party had a flash-back to the glorious 90s television show Party of Five. Johnny Depp, was, as always, a focus of the conversation, although I didn’t understand his wacky glasses. Robert Downey, Jr also got attention from my crew.We also collectively sucked in all the air in the room when the camera panned to Chris Noth.
3) We were all glad to see Glee win for best comedy, best supporting actress (Jane Lynch) and best supporting actor (Chris Colfer).
That show, as silly as it can be (jazz hands!), has done a lot for starting the conversation about bullying, and it has given gay teenagers someone on television who looks like them. Plus, since Glee was nominated, it meant that Matthew Morrison was there (Mr. Schu).
The whole evening was full of entertainment, most of it happening live in my living room. We all laughed that at this point in our lives we didn’t have a much of chance of knowing half the people or shows up for awards. But award shows are still good for laughs and reminiscing about a time when we did have more time for television and movies, and isn’t that what a night with friends is all about?
Did you watch? Who were your favorite wins of the night? Who were you looking out for?
For a complete list of categories, nominees and winners, check out the official website of the Golden Globes.