Rio Scarcelli / staff writer
3/4/21
Though it is not the first to do so, The 78th Annual Golden Globes took to a virtual setting with a twist: co-hosting from two different locations. With Tina Fey stationed at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, and Amy Pohler at the Rainbow Room in Manhattan, the two made their attempts at being the first hosts of an award show from across the country.
Fey and Pohler could have been together for the show since they were recently vaccinated; however, the bit became more of a social commentary on the fragmented feeling that COVID-19 has left the country with over the past year.
Hosting from coast to coast brought the opportunity for presenters in the New York and California area to contribute to and diversify their typical attendance.
Instead of the usual celebrities and press that would be seen amongst the audience, Fey and Pohler were accompanied by first-responders in limited capacity. Aside from few in-person guests such as Kenan Thompson and Maya Rudolph, the show made it a point to celebrate the hard work of those distributing the vaccine across America.
This was also paid done with a comedy-sketch that featured many of the first-responders as well as presenters and recipients of the night including Andrew Ranells, Don Cheadle and Lin Manuel-Miranda. Many of the jokes based revolved around COVID-19 and some of the virtual setbacks they would be experiencing that night.
As with any virtual award ceremony within the past year, the show did not come without technical difficulties. It only took the first acceptance speech of the night for things to go awry. When receiving the award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Any Motion Picture, Daniel Kaluuya was interrupted mid-speech to announce that there were technical difficulties in attempts to proceed past him.
Regardless, Kaluuya yelled, “You’re doing me dirty!” before continuing the rest of his speech.
Because the award nominees were all on Zoom, a unique part of the show was featuring all of the upcoming nominees of the next category on screen before cutting to commercial. This made for many attempts of awkward small-talk, candid expressions and pet cameos.
Most notably, Dan Levy, creator of “Schitt’s Creek,” was seen exclaiming, “Oh my God, are we on?”
As it was harder to generate a laugh without a boasting audience to feed off of, Pohler transferred from punchline to skit as Thompson and Rudolph came to the stage to accept the award for Least Original Song for a Telefilm, Dramadey or Comma. With Thompson both kissing Pohler and speaking French during his acceptance speech, the Saturday Night Live reunion came as a pleasant surprise to its fans.
Jokes aside, many of the speeches came as a call-to-action for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to include more diversity within their team of journalists as well as Black inclusion within award nominations.
More heartfelt moments were shared as 98-year-old Norman Lear accepted the third ever Carol Burnett Award of Television Excellence. With the first recipient being Burnett herself and the second Ellen DeGeneres, Lear accepted the honor with a tug of the ear similar to how Burnett would end many of her comedy sketches on her own show.
People were moved by the posthumous award given to Chadwick Boseman as Best Actor for his performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” His wife, Taylor Simone Ledward, accepted the award in his stead. She lamented much of what she felt he would say and ended the speech with a message to him.
“And I don’t have his words, but we have to take a moment to celebrate those we love. So thank you HFPA for this opportunity to do exactly that. And, hun, you keep ’em coming. Thank you,” Simone Ledward said.
