With millions due to tune into this year’s Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, the question as to whether the show – which is famed for its political barbs – will address the sexual harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo remains to be seen.
Tina Fey, 50, will once again be teaming up with fellow Saturday Night Live alum, Amy Poehler, 49, to present this year’s 78th annual Globes, which will be broadcast live from both Los Angeles and New York City.
The 30 Rock creator is scheduled to host the Big Apple leg of the show from the Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room, while Parks and Recreation star Poehler will be broadcasting from the Beverly Hilton in California.
Earlier this week, Fey said she and Poehler would be seeking to make this year’s Globes a far tamer affair than it has been in recent years – a seeming reference to former host Ricky Gervais’ evisceration of Tinseltown’s elite last year.
‘We just want to make it a fun hangout for people at home — kind of a stress reliever, so I don’t think you can expect much politics at all,’ she told Jill Rappaport in a recent episode of the Rappaport to the Rescue podcast. ‘It doesn’t seem like a venue for political jokes’.
But considering Fey was a fierce champion of the MeToo Movement, and that Poehler has previously criticized the New York Governor publicly, the sexual harassment scandal involving Andrew Cuomo may may not be entirely off limits.
This year’s 78th annual Golden Globes Awards will be hosted by SNL alum Tina Fey (left) and Amy Poehler (right) and promises to be a largely politics-free event
Cuomo, who won a Daytime Emmy for his daily coronavirus briefings late last year, was accused by two former aide of sexual harassment in recent days
On Saturday, Cuomo, 63, was accused of sexual harassment by his 25-year-old former executive assistance, Charlotte Bennett, who claims he asked her questions about her sex life, whether she had monogamous relationships and if she ever had sex with older men during the height of the pandemic last spring.
The accusations followed closely on the heels of similar claims made by another former aide, Lindsey Boylan, who alleged in a Medium essay last week that Cuomo tired to kiss her on the lips inside his office in Albany in 2018, and once asked her to play strip poker during a flight on his plane the year prior.
For both Fey and Poehler, the women’s accusations will likely strike accord with their fierce support of the MeToo movement, which gathered momentum in late 2017 and saw powerful men in Hollywood, tech and politics face consequences for past behavior.
In 2018, Fey told the Hollywood Reporter that the Broadway adaptation of her 2004 movie Mean Girls complemented the heightened sense of female empowerment inspired by cultural movements like MeToo and TimesUp.
The following year, Poehler spoke out about how the MeToo movement forced her to re-examine her own ‘deep institutionalized misogyny.’
‘Our generation of women, Gen Xer women, we desexualized ourselves. And that stuff gets really ingrained,’ she said. ‘I grew up in a time where trying to sympathize or empathize with the male experience was how I was able to be included in the experience.’
Additionally, Poehler has a history of publicly criticizing Gov. Cuomo. In 2019, she and a handful of other stars called on him to raise the minimum wage made by tip waitresses in New York to combat the sexual harassment they face.
In a 2020 reprisal of her role on SNL’s Weekend Update, Fey, meanwhile, made a number of jokes at the expense of Cuomo, including references to rumors the governor has pierced nipples.
As two alums of SNL, a show that, until recently, had become synonymous with sharp political commentary, it was widely presumed Fey and Poehler would lean heavily on topical humor during Sunday’s Globes.
But just as SNL has largely shied away from political skits since Trump left the White House in January, Fey’s pledge to make the awards as politics-free as possible leaves a prime-time skewering of Cuomo unlikely later this evening.
Charlotte Bennett (left), 25, accused Cuomo of sexually harassing her during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in his Albany office, including quizzing her about dating older men. Lindsey Boylan (right) accused him of attempting to kiss her on the mouth in 2018
Considering the sharp political commentary that SNL had, until recently, become known for, there were assumptions that the two comedians would lean heavily on topical humor during Sunday’s proceedings
The hosts’ pledge to make this year’s event a ‘stress reliever’ comes as a dramatic departure from the approach that the last host of the Globes, Ricky Gervais, took in 2020.
During his nine-minute monologue last January, Gervais lamented the Globes’ themselves, before singling out various nominees for their dating habits, political beliefs, production company choices, while also speaking about racism within the industry.
‘Let’s go out with a bang,’ Gervais, who had hosted four times previously, told the sea of anxious on-looking A-listers. ‘Let’s have a laugh at your expense. Remember, they’re just jokes. We’re all gonna die soon and there’s no sequel, so remember that.’
Gervais, 59, then took aim at the Hollywood executives gathered in the room,’ quipping that though they all come from different corners of the world, they ‘all have one thing in common’.
‘They’re all terrified of Ronan Farrow. He’s coming for you. He’s coming for you. Look, talking to all you perverts, it was a big year for pedophile movies,’ he continued, before the documentary series Surviving R. Kelly, Leaving Neverland, and the Anthony Hopkins-led Catholic Church-centered drama, The Two Popes.
Gervais also unleashed scathing remarks of what he characterized as the general hypocrisy of Hollywood.
Speaking about Apple TV’s series, The Morning Show, Gervais remarked that show was ‘a superb drama about the importance of dignity and doing the right thing — made by a company that runs sweatshops in China.
‘You say you’re woke, but the companies you work for, I mean, unbelievable: Apple, Amazon, Disney. If ISIS started a streaming service, you’d call your agent, wouldn’t you?’
The Office creator then warned those who were set to win an award to not ‘use it a platform to make a political speech.’
‘You’re in no position to lecture the public about anything. You know nothing about the real world,’ he said. ‘Most of you spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg. So if you win, come up, accept your little award, thank your agent and your God and f*** off.’
The hosts’ pledge to make this year’s event a ‘stress reliever’ comes as a dramatic departure to the approach the last Globes host, Ricky Gervais, took in 2020
Gervais also make references to Jeffrey Epstein when plugging his Netflix series, After Life, which he described as ‘a show about a man who wants to kill himself because his wife dies of cancer — and it’s still more fun than this.’
‘Spoiler alert, Season 2 is on the way, so in the end, he obviously didn’t kill himself — just like Jeffrey Epstein. Shut up! I know he’s your friend, but I don’t care. You had to make your own way here on your own plane, didn’t you?’ he said.
Also on the receiving end of Gervais’ evisceration was Leonardo DiCaprio and his apparent penchant for dating younger women, the disastrous live-action remake of the Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical Cats, and the Globes’ voting body, the Hollywood Foreign Press’, who Gervais called ‘really, really racist’.
However, Fey’s pledge to avoid politics and ridicule means that this year’s event will likely be starved of such gasp-inducing, viral moments of comedic jousting.
As for the comedic material Fey and Poehler do plant to tap into, that remains to be seen.
However, Poehler recently revealed in an interview with the Associated Press: ‘Well, I keep joking that I want to keep making jokes that Tina knows who’s going to win because she’s on the East Coast, but we’re technically doing it at the same time.
‘Yeah, she’s going to, Tina is going to be in the new in New York, I’m going to be in California. And we’re going to take full advantage of how fun it is to do award shows on your computer.’
Both Poehler and Fey have been working on their comedic material ‘up until the last minute’, an event organizer said
Fey is scheduled to host the Big Apple leg of the show from the Rockefeller Center’s Rainbow Room (above)
Co-host Amy Poehler, meanwhile, will be broadcasting from the Beverly Hilton in LA
Politics may prove to be a difficult subject to avoid all together, however, as a number of films with a political theme or parallels are among those tipped for gong glory.
David Fincher’s Mank, a dramatization of screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz’s writing of Citizen Kane, leads the field, with six nominations, including best director; best motion picture, drama; and best actor, drama for Gary Oldman, who plays Mankiewicz.
A smear campaign against socialist writer and then-California gubernatorial candidate Upton Sinclair figures heavily into its plot, and its depiction of media baron William Randolph Hearst, who launched a vendetta against Citizen Kane over suspicions it was based on him, has drawn comparisons to former Trump.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm is also named among the films with the most nominations, which include best comedy or musical and best actor.
The film achieved widespread notoriety for a scene in which Trump’s former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, accompanies Borat’s teenage daughter into a hotel room and places his hand near the waistband of his trousers.
Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, meanwhile, scored five nominations, including best motion picture in the drama category.
The film dramatizes the Nixon administration’s prosecution of seven activists who participated in the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
British actor Daniel Kaluuya has also scored a nomination for best supporting actor for his portrayal of Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, in Judas and the Black Messiah, who was assassinated by police in 1969.
Nominees in the TV categories of the awards also feature multiple politically-themed enteries, including The Crown, The Comey rule and Mrs. America.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm is nominated for an award this year
The film achieved widespread notoriety for a scene in which Trump’s former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, accompanies Borat’s teenage daughter into a hotel room and places his hand near the waistband of his trousers
British actor Daniel Kaluuya has also scored a nomination for best supporting actor for his portrayal of Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah
The Golden Globes is traditionally held in early January but was delayed until February 28 this year because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Usually a star-packed, laid-back party that draws Tinseltown’s biggest names to a Beverly Hills hotel ballroom, this pandemic edition will be broadcast from two scaled-down venues in California and New York, with frontline and essential workers among the few in attendance.
A handful of presenters will, however, appear at either location in person, and all nominees will attend virtually from home.
Soon after nominations were announced on February 3, camera kits were sent out to nominees all over the world.
According to Deadline, the Hollywood Foreign Press is seeking to make this year’s event more global and intimate than ever before.
Like it has for many years, the Globes will be seen in about 200 territories on Sunday. It was also make its debut on NBC’s streaming platform Peacock on March 1.
More than 150 A-listers are scheduled to attend, with some further last-minute presenter additions and high-profile cameos set to be unveiled still.
Past winners Sarah Paulson and Sandra Oh, as well as Fey’s old 30 Rock co-star Tracy Morgan, will be among those unveiling winners on Sunday night, Deadline reported.
The trio will join the likes of previously announced presenters, including Joaquin Phoenix, Salma Hayek, Anthony Anderson, and Angela Bassett.
Rumors have been circulating that Joe Biden was set to make a cameo of sorts, however those claims have since been denied by the event’s organizers.
Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 has scored five nominations, including best motion picture in the drama category
Actor Eugene Levy and his wife Deborah Divine arive at the Luxe hotel where they pick up their gift bags at the drive-through gifting event organized by DPA Group president Nathalie Dubois-Sissoko ahead of the Golden Globe ceremony on February 25
Actress Catherine O’Hara and her husband Bo Welch also stopped in for the drive-thru event, as did actress Adina Porter
While cutaways to the celebrities chatting together at their tables or backstage won’t be possible this year, Executive Producer Barry Adelman said the Globes will be seeking to re-create that experience through technology instead.
‘What we’re doing is we’re going to get candid shots of the people at home and as they’re getting ready for their category,’ Adelman told Deadline. ‘And we found a way, without giving away too much, where they can kind of talk to each other if they’re in the same category and communicate with each other.
‘So, it gives them a sense of camaraderie and it gives the audience a chance to see these wonderful actors and actresses communicating with each other like they would’ve done in the ballroom.’
Adelman added that both Poehler and Fey have been working on their comedic material ‘up until the last minute’, in true SNL vein.
‘I can tell you that I’m looking at the first act and in the first act alone you have a monologue and then you have a Golden Globes winner presenting one of the biggest awards of the night,’ Adelman continued to the outlet.
‘And then followed by another Golden Globes winner presenting another huge award, followed by another Golden Globes winner who is introducing one of the nominated films.
‘That’s just the way the Golden Globes has always been,’ he continued. ‘And even though our winners and our nominees are going to be at home, we are going to continue that pace.’
The 78th Golden Globes will air on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT live on NBC.
GOLDEN GLOBES 2021: THE NOMINEES
MOVIES
Best Motion Picture, Drama
The Father
Mank
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Hamilton
Music
Palm Springs
The Prom
Sweeping the board: Mank is the most nominated film with six nods
Best Director
Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman
David Fincher – Mank
Regina King – One Night in Miami
Aaron Sorkin – The Trial of the Chicago 7
Chloé Zhao – Nomadland
Best Screenplay
Emerald Fennell – Promising Young Woman
Jack Fincher – Mank
Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller – The Father
Aaron Sorkin – The Trial of the Chicago 7
Chloé Zhao – Nomadland
Best Foreign Language Picture
Another Round
La Llorona
The Life Ahead
Minari
Two of Us
Best Animated Picture
The Croods: A New Age
Onward
Over the Moon
Soul
Wolfwalkers
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama
Viola Davis – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day – The United States vs Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby – Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand – Nomadland
Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama
Riz Ahmed – Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins – The Father
Gary Oldman – Mank
Tahar Rahim – The Mauritanian
Captivating: Vanessa Kirby is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama for Pieces of a Woman
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Kate Hudson – Music
Michelle Pfeiffer – French Exit
Rosamund Pike – I Care a Lot
Anya Taylor-Joy – Emma
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical
Sacha Baron Cohen – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
James Corden – The Prom
Lin-Manuel Miranda – Hamilton
Dev Patel – The Personal History of David Copperfield
Andy Samberg – Palm Springs
Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Glenn Close – Hilbilly Elegy
Jodie Foster – The Mauritanian
Olivia Colman – The Father
Amanda Seyfried – Mank
Helena Zengel – News of the World
Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah
Jared Leto – The Little Things
Bill Murray – On the Rocks
Leslie Odom Jr – One Night in Miami
Best Original Score in a Motion Picture
The Midnight Sky
Tenet
News of the World
Mank
Soul
Best Original Song in a Motion Picture
Judas and the Black Messiah
The Life Ahead
One Night in Miami
The Trial of the Chicago 7
The United States vs Billie Holiday
TELEVISION
Best Television Series, Drama
The Crown
Lovecraft Country
The Mandalorian
Ozark
Ratched
One to watch: Lovecraft Country is up for Best Television Series, Drama
Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical
Emily in Paris
The Flight Attendant
The Great
Schitt’s Creek
Ted Lasso
Best Limited Series, Anthology or TV Movie
Normal People
The Queen’s Gambit
Small Axe
The Undoing
Unorthodox
Racy: Normal People is up for Best Limited Series, Anthology or TV Movie
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series, Drama
Olivia Colman – The Crown
Jodie Comer – Killing Eve
Emma Corrin – The Crown
Laura Linney – Ozark
Sarah Paulson – Ratched
Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series, Drama
Jason Bateman – Ozark
Josh O’Connor – The Crown
Bob Odenkirk – Better Call Saul
Al Pacino – Hunters
Matthew Rhys– Perry Mason
Spooky: Sarah Paulson is up for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series, Drama for Ratched
Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series, Comedy or Musical
Lily Collins – Emily in Paris
Kaley Cuoco – The Flight Attendant
Elle Fanning – The Great
Jane Levy – Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
Catherine O’Hara – Schitt’s Creek
Best Performance by an Actor in a TV series, Comedy or Musical
Don Cheadle – Black Monday
Nicholas Hoult – The Great
Eugene Levy – Schitt’s Creek
Jason Sudeikis – Ted Lasso
Ramy Youssef – Ramy
Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series, Anthology or TV Movie
Cate Blanchett – Mrs America
Daisy Edgar-Jones – Normal People
Shira Haas – Unorthodox
Nicole Kidman – The Undoing
Anya Taylor-Joy – The Queen’s Gambit
Royally good: Elle Fanning is up for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series, Comedy or Musical for The Great
Best Performance by an Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology or TV Movie
Bryan Cranston – Your Honour
Jeff Daniels – The Comey Rule
Hugh Grant – The Undoing
Ethan Hawke – The Good Lord Bird
Mark Ruffalo – I Know This Much Is True
Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series
Gillian Anderson – The Crown
Helena Bonham Carter – The Crown
Julia Garner – Ozark
Annie Murphy – Schitt’s Creek
Cynthia Nixon – Ratched
Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series
John Boyega – Small Axe, “Red, White and Blue”
Daniel Levy – Schitt’s Creek
Brendan Gleeson – The Comey Rule
Jim Parsons – Hollywood
Donald Sutherland – The Undoing
One to watch: Donald Sutherland is up for Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series for The Undoing