Golden Globes sing for ‘La La Land,’ but Trump has spotlight

“La La Land” steamrolled, “Moonlight” swooped in at the last minute and Meryl Streep offered an impassioned rebuke to President-elect Donald Trump at a Golden Globes that pivoted between heartfelt moments of protest and old-fashioned song and dance

Damien Chazelle’s bright-hued Los Angeles musical “La La Land” dominated the Beverly Hills, California, ceremony with seven awards – a Golden Globes record – including best motion picture, comedy or musical, further cementing its Oscar favorite status.

But perhaps its stiffest Academy Awards competition, Barry Jenkins’ tender coming-of-age drama “Moonlight” – which competed largely in separate dramatic categories – took the night’s final award, best movie drama. It was the film’s only hardware despite six nominations.

Yet the night belonged to Meryl Streep, this year’s Cecil B. DeMille Award honoree, who most articulated an argument for the inclusivity of the movies – an ongoing theme of the night – over the platform of the president-elect, who’s to be sworn in Jan. 20.

Streep, who spoke at the Democratic National Convention, called Trump’s mocking of a disabled reporter on the campaign trail the year’s performance that most “stunned” her. Arguing for the international makeup of Hollywood, Streep listed off the far-flung homes of stars from Dev Patel to Ryan Gosling.

“Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners and if you kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts,” Streep said to loud applause.

“La La Land” came in with a leading seven nominations and won everything it was nominated for. Chazelle won both best director and best screenplay. Gosling won best actor in a comedy or musical, as did Emma Stone for best actress. The film also took best score (for composer Justin Hurwitz) and best song for “City of Stars.”

“I’m in in daze now, officially,” said the fresh-faced, 31-year-old Chazelle accepting his award for directing.

In one of the evening’s more emotional acceptance speeches, Gosling dedicated his award to the late brother of his partner, Eva Mendes.

“While I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,” said Gosling, referring to Juan Carlos Mendes.

The ceremony got off to a rocky start when a broken teleprompter initially froze host Jimmy Fallon. “Cut to Justin Timberlake, please,” implored a desperately improvising Fallon.

His first line (at least once the teleprompter was up) was introducing the Globes as “one of the few places left where America still honors the popular vote.”

That, though, isn’t quite true. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a collection of 85 members, has its own methods of selecting winners for the Globes. Best supporting actress winner Viola Davis, the co-star of Denzel Washington’s August Wilson adaptation “Fences,” alluded to the group’s reputation for being wined and dined.

“I took all the pictures, went to luncheon,” said Davis, to knowing chuckles through the ballroom, as she clutched her award. “But it’s right on time.”