2301 GMT: Skies are clear but it’s a chilly “California cold” 50-degree evening — goose bump weather for sleeveless starlets. Heat lamps are on the red carpet for the first time ever.
Claire Danes arrives in a fire-truck red gown with husband Hugh Dancy. She’s one of the evening’s first A-listers.
2300 GMT: Welcome to AFP’s live report on the 70th annual Golden Globes. Flowing gowns and heels abound, but don’t be fooled, Hollywood is just lacing up for the first heat in Tinseltown’s red-carpet award season. Glitz and poise unfurls with the arrival of each limo at the Beverly Hilton, where a stream of Hollywood’s most familiar faces are arriving for the evening’s Champagne-fueled award ceremony.
The year’s biggest big screen hits ? from “Les Miserables” to “Argo” to seven-time-nominated “Lincoln” ? and highly acclaimed surprises such as “Silver Linings Playbook,” are up for awards.
On the small screen, old favorites such as “Modern Family” are pitted against popular newcomers such as “Girls,” and a slew of dramas from “Homeland” to “Downton Abbey” vie for best TV drama. The evening won’t be fun without a few upsets, which the night practically guarantees.
And if funnylady hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have anything to say about it, the surprises won’t end with who wins.
“We feel like our job is to keep things moving and also to try to help get the movie stars more liquored up so, hopefully, someone’s boob will fall out of a dress,” Fey recently told a conference call of reporters.
Following on the heels of acidic British comedian Ricky Gervais, who hosted the last three ceremonies and managed to barb various members of the audience and films in the process, Fey and Poehler should be a refreshing breath of family-friendlier fresh air, boob jokes included. The hosting duo promised “Hollywood Reporter” nobody in the audience “has to be afraid.”
And if the evening, hosts, winners, gowns, acceptance speeches, forced tears of joy, and cameo shots of stars caught unaware at their tables fall short in any way, hold tight, the Oscars are just around the corner in February.