Golden Globes: Hollywood Treats Trump Like Voldermort

A certain former reality host earns barely a mention, but hangs heavy over the night

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As Hollywood luminaries came together for the Golden Globes — the first major award ceremony since Donald Trump’s election — they treated him a little like Voldemort of the “Harry Potter” films: a powerful figure whose name no one dares speak aloud. But they still managed many criticisms of the soon-to-be president.

Host Jimmy Fallon’s monologue was filled with jabs at the 45th President of the United States, who will be inaugurated in 12 days. Fallon said that on Jan. 20, “we’re going to find out” what it would have been like if “Game of Thrones” villain King Joffrey had lived.

Fallon mentioned the name “Trump” only when cracking a joke about the president-elect’s troubles securing A-list talent for the inauguration.

“The character [Florence Foster Jenkins] is billed as the world’s worst opera singer, and even she turned down performing at the Trump inauguration,” Fallon joked.

Accepting the Cecil B. DeMille award, Meryl Streep criticized Trump for mocking a disabled New York Times reporter during the presidential campaign.

“There was one performance this year that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart, not because it was good — there was nothing good about it — but it was effective and it did its job. It made its intended audience laugh and show their teeth. It was that moment when the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country imitated a disabled reporter, someone he outranked in privilege, power, and the capacity to fight back,” Streep said, again refusing to mention Trump’s name. “It kind of broke my heart when I saw it. I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie — it was real life.”

“This brings me to the press,” she said. “We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call them on the carpet for every outrage. That’s why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in our constitution. So I only ask the famously well-heeled Hollywood Foreign Press and all of us in our community to join me in supporting the committee to protect journalists, because we’re going to need them going forward.”

British actor Hugh Laurie couldn’t resist weighing in on American politics when accepting the Golden Globe for his supporting performance in AMC miniseries “The Night Manager.”

“The fact that I’ll be able to say I won this at the last-ever Golden Globes,” he said to laughter from the star-studded audience. “I don’t mean to be gloomy, it’s just that it has the words ‘Hollywood,’ ‘foreign’ and ‘press’ in the title.”

“The People v O.J. Simpson” producer executive producer Nina Jacobson also got political when accepting the award for Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.

“The trial of O.J. Simpson turned tragedy into entertainment, reminding us that American justice is anything but blind when race, gender and celebrity are involved,” she said. “When working on the show, we had no idea how painfully relevant those themes would be in 2016. Thank you to audience for watching us, and to the Hollywood Foreign Press for honoring us tonight.”

Trump regularly rails against the “dishonest media” in speeches and on Twitter, and campaigned to “Make America Great Again” by deporting illegal immigrants, banning Muslims from entering the county, and of course, building that giant wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame thanks to his hosting duties on NBC’s “The Apprentice,” also has a history of hating on the entertainment industry. He complained in 2012 that the Emmys had “no credibility” and were “terrible” after “The Amazing Race” beat his reality show in the Outstanding Reality Competition Program category, and has complained about “Saturday Night Live” since Alec Baldwin started lampooning him.

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