The Golden Globes, a precursor to the heavily anticipated Academy Awards, took place on the evening of Sunday, Jan. 8. While there were several notable moments, some enjoyable and some difficult to watch, one of the peak points of the evening came during the presentation of the Cecil B. DeMille Award, an honorary Golden Globe awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
The recipient was Meryl Streep, a long-time famous and critically acclaimed, not to mention decorative, actress with more than 40 years experience. Following the standard thank-you portion of her speech, Streep dedicated five minutes to indirectly addressing the election of president-elect Donald Trump.
Though never specifying who, Streep made it clear that she disagreed with the nomination, and stressed the importance of the press in the upcoming years, stating: “We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call him on the carpet for every outrage.” Her speech was broken several times by loud applause, although to no surprise, it didn’t sit too well with a particular audience.
The president-elect offered a comment to the New York Times prior to posting several tweets about the incident, and while he appeared professional in paper, online he was the same old Trump. While Streep’s comments were aggressive albeit impersonal, Trump’s response as soon-to-be leader of the free world was incredibly inappropriate. It is yet another sign that this man’s temper and emotional state balances on a thin wire, easily able to be knocked off, causing an unpredictable response.
Who will knock it off next?
