STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now, when Hollywood stars gathered last night for the Golden Globe Awards, much of the attention focused on a certain recently promoted reality TV star. NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: President-elect Donald Trump's name may not have been uttered on stage, but he and the election he won were referenced throughout the show. It started with host Jimmy Fallon's monologue.
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JIMMY FALLON: This is the Golden Globes, one of the few places left where America still honors the popular vote. But...
(LAUGHTER)
DEL BARCO: Fallon joked about the company that tabulates the award show ballots.
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FALLON: The accounting firm of Ernst and Young and Putin. But here we go.
DEL BARCO: And he referred to the Golden Globes-nominated movie "Florence Foster Jenkins."
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FALLON: The world's worst opera singer, and even she turned down performing at Donald Trump's inauguration. It's tough to book. It's tough to book.
DEL BARCO: The star of that movie is actress Meryl Streep, who was nominated for that role and honored for her lifetime achievements by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. In accepting that award, she used her platform to defend what she called some of the most vilified segments of America - Hollywood, foreigners and the press. Streep says she was appalled at the performance given by candidate Trump when he mocked a disabled news reporter.
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MERYL STREEP: It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. And I still can't get it out of my head because it wasn't in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it's modeled by someone on the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody's life because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.
DEL BARCO: Though her voice was hoarse, Streep made a loud plea for empathy. Trump told The New York Times he did not watch the Golden Globes, and he dismissed Meryl Streep as a Hillary lover. The reality TV star told the Times he was not surprised that he'd come under attack from what he called, quote, "liberal movie people." Television people were also honored last night, including FX's "Atlanta" and "The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story." The Hollywood Foreign Press Association also gave awards to AMC's "The Night Manager" and "The Crown" on Netflix.
"Elle" won for best foreign film, and actress Isabelle Huppert, who starred in it, won best actress in a drama. Casey Affleck won for his role in "Manchester By The Sea." And the best dramatic picture award went to "Moonlight." Onstage, Director Barry Jenkins thanked his mother in Miami for inspiring him. Backstage, he told reporters that as the country moves into a new presidential administration, films should continue to tell personal stories.
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BARRY JENKINS: We have to give people things not to escape to - there's room for escapism - but things they can run to to reaffirm that - not that all lives matter. I don't want to step into that. But that you know what? If you're feeling something or you want to speak it, you speak it and someone there - will be there to hear your truth.
DEL BARCO: But it was precisely an escapist movie, a love letter to Los Angeles and old-fashioned musicals, that swept most of last night's movie categories. "La La Land" picked up a record seven Golden Globes. It was dubbed the year's best musical or comedy.
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RYAN GOSLING: (As Sebastian, singing) City of stars, are you shining just for me?
DEL BARCO: Singing the year's best original song from the best original score were Golden Globe Award-winning actors Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
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EMMA STONE: (As Mia, singing) Never shined so brightly.
DEL BARCO: Stone called "La La Land" a film for dreamers. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News, Beverly Hills. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
