Golden Globes Take on Sex Harassment as Award Season Picks Up

(Bloomberg) -- Hollywood's leading women took the fight against sexual harassment to national TV, using the annual Golden Globe Awards to voice solidarity with peers who have battled the film and TV industry's casting couch mentality and press for change.

The ceremony by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, carried on NBC and hosted by late night personality Seth Meyers, is a prelude to the Academy Awards and a celebration of both movies and TV. But the revelations starting last year of widespread harassment by big-time movie moguls, national news figures and other men in positions of power made this year's show a stage for women to speak out.

That made for an uneasy effort to balance the aims of the 75th Golden Globes -- to honor top movies like best TV drama winner “The Handmaid's Tale” -- and give voice to those who wanted to use the program to agitate for social justice. Last year's show attracted a U.S. audience of 20 million viewers.

Most actors including Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren and Elisabeth Moss, the Globe winner for her role in Hulu's “The Handmaid's Tale,” dressed in black in solidarity with the Time's Up movement, which provides a legal defense fund for victims of sexual harassment and is backed by actresses and other Hollywood figures.

Early Winners

Among the other early winners, Nicole Kidman, star of the HBO show “Big Little Lies,” won for her lead role in the limited series. She called out her mom for advocating for women's rights. “I'm here because of her,” Kidman said. “I do believe and I hope that we can elicit change.”

With three wins for “Big Little Lies,” the Time Warner Inc. premium cable service jumped to an early lead in the award count. Hulu got its first Golden Globes for “The Handmaid's Tale.”

Meyers made light of the harassment controversy from the outset, welcoming the “ladies and remaining gentlemen” and suggesting the show would mark “the first time in three months you won't be terrified to hear your name read out.”

As the white-male host of the event, he said he felt like “the first dog shot into space.”

Some actors brought activists as guests to help spotlight their causes. Meryl Streep, who is nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in “The Post,” brought Ai-jen Poo, director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance.

Early List of Winners
Best actor – motion picture, musical or comedy
James Franco, “The Disaster Artist''

Best original song – motion picture
“This Is Me,'' “The Greatest Showman,'' Benj Pasek

Best original score – motion picture
Alexandre Desplat “The Shape of Water''

Best supporting actor – series/limited series/TV movie
Alexander Skarsgård, “Big Little Lies''

Best TV series, drama
“The Handmaid's Tale''

Best Actor – TV series, drama
Sterling K. Brown, “This Is Us''

Best actress -- TV series, drama
Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid's Tale''

Best actress -- TV series, musical or comedy
Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel''

Best supporting actor -- motion picture
Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboard Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Actress-- limited series or motion picture made for TV
Nicole Kidman, “Big Little Lies''

To contact the reporter on this story: Anousha Sakoui in Los Angeles at asakoui@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Rob Golum

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