So awards season and the Golden Globes got off to their new start. The cleaned-up and respectablised Globes put scandals about kickbacks and a lack of diversity in its voting body behind it, consigning the rackety “Hollywood Foreign Press Association” to the dustbin, replacing that with the “Golden Globes Foundation” and moreover drawing a line under the strike era.
This year’s Globes turned out to be, once again, the more relaxed and cordial of the A-lister prizefests – the delayed Christmas office party of Hollywood awards nights, with nominees drinking wine and being seen to do so on camera, and submitting to the mildest and weakest of roasts from the host Jo Koy. Having accepted this thankless MC role, Koy had to consent to being outshone by Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell in their incidental co-presenters role – and by the memory of the notoriously outspoken former host Ricky Gervais, who showed that he was still a player by winning best performance in standup comedy for Armageddon.
