Golden Globes makes history, but still has a long way to go
— -- The Golden Globes was a night of firsts, but Hollywood -- still reeling from months of sexual misconduct revelations -- has a long way to go.
From "This Is Us" star Sterling K. Brown becoming the first black man to win best actor in a TV drama to Oprah Winfrey becoming the first black woman to receive the honorary Cecil B. DeMille award for lifetime achievement, the 75th annual Globes on Sunday night made history.
Others firsts included "Master of None" star Aziz Ansari's becoming the first actor of Asian descent to win best award in a television category for his award in best comedy or musical, and the naming of Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson's 16-year-old daughter Simone Garcia Johnson as the first-ever Golden Globes ambassador.
It was also an outstanding night for women, who were the big winners in film and television.
"Clearly all the shows and movies that won were women-centric," said Melissa Silverstein, the founder and editor of the website Women and Hollywood. "That’s all of them."
On the TV side, "Big Little Lies," "The Handmaid's Tale" and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" were the big winners, while the big screen's "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" and "Lady Bird" took home multiple honors.
Beyond the awards, women controlled the narrative Sunday night by showing solidarity with victims of sexual harassment and assault through their support of the new Time's Up campaign.
"I was really impressed with the unity of the women," Silverstein said, referring not just to the dominant black attire on the red carpet but to what women said on stage.
"I was blown away by Oprah’s speech but I knew it was going to be awesome," Silverstein said.
Winfrey's rousing speech -- which drew on life-changing childhood memories, alluded to the #MeToo movement and spoke to future generations of women -- was the most tweeted-about moment from the Globes.
But she wasn't the only one making headlines.
Natalie Portman, a founding member of the Time's Up campaign, pointed out the obvious while presenting nominees for best director.
"And here are the all male nominees," she said before reading out the list.
"I think Oprah inspired people and Natalie Portman put them on notice," Silverstein said.
Later in the show, as Barbra Streisand was presenting the final award of the night for best picture drama, she Streisand picked up where Portman left off.
Introduced as the only woman to ever receive the best director award in the history of the Globes for "Yentl," Streisand pointed out that honor came more than three decades ago.
"That was 1984, that was 34 years ago. Folks, time’s up!" she said from the stage.
"The lack of women directors was so prominent, and on an awards show it’s just amazing," Silverstein said. "This is not going to go away, this is going to continue to go on. And the way to solve the problem is to hire more women directors."
While women basked in the spotlight at the show Sunday night, men -- with a few exceptions -- seemed to take a backseat.
"Not only did they fade into the background," Silverstein said, "but they did not step up in the way they needed to be as allies. They still need a lot of work to understand how they are part of the problem."
Aside from Seth Meyers, "Handmaid's Tale" creator Bruce Miller and actor Alexander Skarsgard, who won the best supporting actor award, Silverstein said most of the men who took the stage were "just in their own world."
"Their egos were so on display and it was just really tone deaf," she said, calling Sam Rockwell's interjection at the end of the night to thank his agent the "most ungracious thing I’d ever seen."
That may have ended the show but it did not take away from the historic night.
"There's still a long way to go," Silverstein said, "but it was a great, amazing first step."
