Last night, the 70th annual Golden Globes ceremony aired on NBC, offering the usual mix of humor, surprises, snubs, and self-congratulation. (Read our live blog of the Golden Globes here, and visit GoldenGlobes.org for a full list of nominees and winners.) But if you missed last night's ceremony and just want to be quickly primed for today's water-cooler chatter, check out the seven buzziest moments from last night's show:
1. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler deliver an uproarious opening monologue
The Golden Globes managed to upstage the venerable Academy Awards by tapping the super-popular Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to host this year's ceremony. But even facing sky-high expectations, the comediennes delivered, taking playful jabs at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, former host Ricky Gervais, and each other. Poehler really brought the house down when she addressed the controversy surrounding Zero Dark Thirty, telling director Kathryn Bigelow that "when it comes to torture, I trust the woman who spent three years married to James Cameron."
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2. Bill Clinton shows up to introduce Lincoln
The biggest shock of the night came when Bill Clinton introduced a highlight reel from Best Motion Picture (Drama) contender Lincoln, earning surprised gasps and the first standing ovation of the night. "Wow, what an exciting guest!" Poehler said afterwards. "That was Hillary Clinton's husband!"
3. Tommy Lee Jones unintentionally saves an interminable Will Ferrell/Kristen Wiig bit
Saturday Night Live alums Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig underwhelmed the crowd with a drawn-out bit in which they unconvincingly pretended to have seen each of the films nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture (Comedy). But the extraordinarily grouchy Tommy Lee Jones, caught on camera with an expression that shows exactly how impressed he is by Ferrell and Wiig's antics, unintentionally turned the draggy segment into one of the night's funniest. (See Jones' grumpy face at 3:30.)
4. Tina Fey: "It's getting sloppy in here, everybody"
Fey and Poehler were woefully underutilized throughout the ceremony, but they managed to bring some laughs mid-show after they both lost out in the Best Actress in a TV Show (Comedy) category to Girls' Lena Dunham. Fey and Poehler took the stage with drinks in hand to shoot daggers at Dunham. "Everybody's getting a little loose now that we're all losers," Poehler said. "Look at how drunk Glenn Close is," muttered Fey, as a game Close played along by wobbling in her chair.
5. Homeland sweeps the TV Drama categories
Despite a second season that has been rightly regarded as a disappointment compared to its first, Showtime's Homeland pulled off a stunning sweep in the TV drama categories, overcoming stiff competition to earn notices for Best TV Drama, Best Actor in a Drama (Damian Lewis), and Best Actress in a Drama (Claire Danes). In her hyperactive acceptance speech, Claire Danes seemed to be channeling her jittery character from the series, CIA analyst Carrie Mathison.
6. Jodie Foster offers a weird, wonderful acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille Award
After teasing the possibility that she would use her acceptance speech as a platform to come out as a lesbian, Cecil B. DeMille honoree Jodie Foster triumphantly declared, "I'm single." Over the rest of the seven-minute speech, Foster gave a shoutout to "the table by the bathroom," namechecked Honey Boo Boo and Mel Gibson, expressed pride for her "modern family," and hinted at retiring. It was heartfelt, confusing, and strangely moving, even if it didn't always make much sense.
7. Argo wins Best Drama
It was a particularly vindicating night for Argo, as Ben Affleck won Best Director in the category for which he isn't even nominated at next month's Oscars. But the capper came at the end of the evening, when Argo took down stiff competition like Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty to win Best Drama trophy. (Les Miserables, another hopeful for the Best Picture Oscar, won Best Musical or Comedy.)
