Golden Globes 2017: The most awkward moments

Awards shows are inherently farcical affairs. A bunch of Hollywood A-listers congregate under one roof to backslap, give each other awards, and deliver heartfelt speeches to a room full of nodding sycophants.

No wonder this year’s Golden Globes delivered some cringe-worthy moments for the ages.

Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn wincing their way through Meryl’s speech

The show producers must have planned this. By putting two of Hollywood’s few conservative-leaning actors right next to each other (coincidentally, Mel directed Vince in ‘Hacksaw Ridge’) they were able to cut to their reactions when Meryl Streep stepped up to launch an excoriating takedown on Donald Trump. Vince looks furious, while Mel looks like he’s headed down Fury Road to confusionville.

Emma Stone’s brutal Seacrest putdown

“Talk us through your outift…” It’s the brainless red carpet question fired at Hollywood’s female stars since time began. Emma Stone, star of ‘La La Land’, responded to Ryan Seacrest with a superbly literal response – “it’s pink and there are stars on it.” That’ll learn you, Seacrest – ask better questions next time.

Emma Stone’s awkward three-way hug

Damien Chazelle has just won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. Gosling gives him a manly hug, Stone goes in for another, only to be denied by the director’s girlfriend Olivia Hamilton who beats her to it. It’s the physical equivalent of a hanging five, only much, much worse and it just gets better every time you watch it.

Tom Hiddleston’s belly flop of a speech

Incredibly, Tom Hiddleston managed to do something even more cringeworthy than that awful “I heart TS” t-shirt during his Golden Globes acceptance speech. His “white saviour in Africa” speech about his humanitarian work in Sudan went down like a fart in a lift, and the room responded with more side-eye than a Picasso portrait.

Hiddleston left hanging

His speech won’t be the only moment from the night that will keep Tom Hiddleston awake at night when he looks back last night. His ‘The Night Manager’ co-star Hugh Laurie cruelly left T-Hidds hanging when he went up to collect his trophy for Best Support Actor in a miniseries. Awkward.

“Hidden Fences”

It’s the most talked-about movie of the night… yet it doesn’t even exist. One red carpet presenter asked Pharrell about being nominated for “Hidden Fences”, yet his movie is called “Hidden Figures”. There’s another movie called ‘Fences’, but you can see in Pharrell’s eyes he’s not ‘Happy’ with this interview any more.

To make matter worse, Michael Keaton made the exact same flub earlier in the night while presenting an award during the show.

Know your Jessicas

This hapless red carpet pundit was left looking rather sheepish after he introduced Jessica Biel as Jessica ALBA. Her husband Justin Timberlake quickly stepped in to point out the error of his ways. They all laugh, but you know JT is ready to start crying another river.

Sofia Vergara’s awkward ad-lib

Columbian-born star Sofia Vergara stepped up to talk about the weird Miss Golden Globe title being awarded to Sylvester Stallone’s three daughters Sophie, Sistine and Scarlet (19, 17 and 14 respectively) when she decided to have a go at ad-libbing a play on words around the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s “annual tradition”. She went for “anal tradition” then “anus tradition”, and everyone watching just squirmed.

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