The Golden Globes have always been the less serious stop en route to the Academy Awards — the boozy, bubbly awards show put on by a little-known group with sometimes confounding taste. But this year, a funny thing has happened: The Golden Globes mean something.
The 75th Golden Globes, which air Sunday night on NBC starting at 5 p.m. Pacific Time, will be the most prominent and public display yet for the "MeToo" movement. In 2018, what has long been a star-studded primetime party may take on the tenor of a protest rally.
Out of solidarity with the victims of sexual harassment and assault, many women have said they will wear black for the Globes. It's a plan that, on the red carpet and on the stage, will ensure the spotlight remains on the film industry's endemic gender imbalances.
"That will be really powerful," Allison Janney, a supporting actress nominee for the Tonya Harding tale "I, Tonya," said earlier this week. "I will be in a black dress and be proud to be standing there with the other actresses."
This year's recipient recipient of the lifetime achievement award is Oprah Winfrey, who called the fallout from the allegations against Harvey Weinstein "a watershed moment" for women.
Time's Up — whose members include many Globes attendees, including Reese Witherspoon, Gal Gadot and Emma Stone — unveiled itself Monday with full-page newspaper ads. A USC study released this week found that, "Diversity in the director's chair is virtually nonexistent and gender in the executive ranks of major companies remains grossly imbalanced.
That lack of change will be on display Sunday, too, where five men will compete for best director despite several potential nominees in Greta Gerwig ("Lady Bird"), Dee Rees ("Mudbound") and Patty Jenkins ("Wonder Woman").
The Globes are starting to see some of the same criticisms on their lack diversity in other areas as well. The awards show ignored one of this year's oversight of one of 2017's most acclaimed comedies, the interracial rom-com "The Big Sick." Also snubbed was "Girls Trip" breakout star Tiffany Haddish. Then there's the choice to slot in Jordan Peele's "Get Out" as a comedy, for the film and star Daniel Kaluuya.
More than ever, the Globes seem to be worth arguing about.
All of the turmoil could make Seth Meyers' hosting gig a little trickier. Meyers will follow his late-night partner, Jimmy Fallon, whose Globes broadcast last year was watched by 20 million viewers on NBC, an eight percent increase.
"We don't want this night to be a session where we're just scolding everything that happened," Meyers said. "A lot of people, we're realizing, worked really hard in environments that were not that conducive to working really hard. So the goal is to have people have a wonderful night and an enjoyable party in a year which everyone deserves it."
But this year, many in Hollywood are wondering if they deserve something more than a party.
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AP Entertainment Writers Ryan Pearson and Sandy Cohen contributed to this report.
