Golden Globes 2018: women, #metoo, and a healthy dollop of virtue signalling

Oprah Winfrey set the tone for the 2018 Golden Globes last night, accepting her Cecil B. DeMille Award with a message to the young girls watching: “A new day is on the horizon.”

The media mogul, who is being touted as the next US president all over Twitter, spoke during a Golden Globes ceremony notable for being the first major award show since the allegations against Harvey Weinstein opened the floodgates on sexual harassment in Hollywood and beyond.

Winfrey said she has been “inspired” by “all the women who have felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories.”

In her wide-ranging speech, Winfrey highlighted the story of Recy Taylor, a black woman whose 1944 rape by six men did not lead to any convictions. Taylor died last month at the age of 97.

“She lived – as we all have lived – in a culture broken by brutally powerful men,” Winfrey said. “For too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men, but their time is up.”

Unsurprisingly, the ceremony turned into the most political to date – which is saying something – and saw the red carpet awash with A-list actresses wearing black. (I’m not quite sure how this oh-so-Hollywood show of support actually helps the victims, but hey, it looked pretty stunning.)

In terms of actual awards, the big film winner of the night was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which took home four trophies, including best film drama award, and best actress.

Big Little Lies won the most awards in the television categories, including honours for its stars Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Alexander Skarsgard, and was also named best limited TV series.

The real winner though, at least according to the Twitter jury, was Natalie Portman who graced ceremony to announce the winner for the Best Director category, which to the dismay of many included only male directors.

After co-presenter Ron Howard announced the category, Portman stepped in to add “and here are the all-male nominees”… At which point Twitter broke, and the incredible achievements of Guillermo Del Toro, who won the award, promptly got forgotten.

It was a ceremony to remember and Oprah’s powerful speech is certainly worth watching in full, but if you were holding out any hope that 2018 might herald the end of Hollywood virtue signalling, I have a nasty feeling you’re going to be disappointed.

You can read Oprah’s speech in full here