A highlight was seeing Michael Douglas present the last award. The man has come through a rough battle with throat cancer and is was moving to see him on the winning side of it.
Claire Danes won an award for her portrayal of Temple Grandin in the film of the same name. Mss. Danes and Grandin were seated together and their genuine reactions were priceless. Seeing the famous autistic woman sitting at the Golden Globe tables was more thrilling than all of the other star spotting (and Jackie Reyes! at The Social Network table?).
Worse than catching 25% of the actors mid-chew in candid shots was Natalie Portman's acceptance speech of Best Actress for her performance in Black Swan. She stood on the stage in a gown of flowing pink icing accentuating her baby bump and blathered about her foul haired fiancé, "Thank you to Benjamin, who is helping me continue this creation of creating more life," as she patting her belly.
Portman, 29, noted that Millepied, 33, choreographed the flick and also had a small role, playing a ballet-dancer character who said he "wouldn't sleep" with Portman's ballerina.
"It's not true!" Portman said, laughing. "He totally wants to sleep with me!"
In total contrast to her lack of decorum, Colin Firth accepted his Best Actor award soon after. We have enjoyed his work for many years. Hearing him speak with intelligence, gentle humor and aplomb made me glad for watching and relieved that I could still respect him as a person and not have it tarnish my enjoyment of his performances. He has recently been recognized for having the look of the moment and we smiled last night that he was again in a smart white shirt.
We have enjoyed Firth's performances since we first saw him as Mr. Darcy in BBC's 1995 mini-series, Pride & Prejudice. Since then, we have started to notice that in many films, he is required to show off his well structured torso in white shirts, frequently wet from some activity or another in the movie. We now have our own "wet t-shirt" game of watching to see when Colin Firth appears in each film in that manner. It adds a new level of excitement watching Mama Mia, St Trinian's, Love Actually as well as Pride & Prejudice. We will have to re-watch Bridget Jones's Diary and are looking forward to his award winning performance in The King's Speech. Who knows, maybe it starts to rain while this well spoken actor gives his performance of the signature speech!
