'The Social Network,' 'Glee' Dominate at Golden Globes - NYTimes.com

On Sunday night the Hollywood Foreign Press Association handed out its Golden Globe awards at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Melena Ryzik (a k a The Carpetbagger), Cathy Horyn, the Hollywood reporters Brooks Barnes and Michael Cieply and the television critic Mike Hale covered the red carpet and the ceremony live. Related Article | List of Winners and Nominees | Red Carpet Slide Show | More Awards Season Coverage

Melena Ryzik: As expected, nerds, stammers, perfectionists and violent ex-cons all took home prizes tonight, in a show with few surprises among the winners but some drama in the hosting, from Ricky Gervais. Now comes a whirlwind of parties, back-slapping and celebration, which we will attend on your behalf, and report back. You’re welcome.

Mike Hale: You wonder whether each crack Ricky Gervais makes about Hollywood royalty might be his last gasp on the Golden Globes. (The Twitterverse was abuzz that he had been muzzled because of his long absence in the middle of the show.) But his closing joke â€" touching on a frequent Gervais theme that had nothing to do with the movie business â€" had an even more valedictory sound to it: “And thank God for making me an atheist.”

Michael Douglas presents the award. He says, “There must be an easier way to get a standing ovation.”

The actor wins for “The King’s Speech.”

Melena Ryzik: In the press room, the Gleekers took up the entire stage. “I think we have the largest cast on television. Most of the time we have two units rolling,” Ryan Murphy, the show’s co-creator, said. The series is written by only three people though. And Jane Lynch is the diva of the cast, she says.

Mr. Murphy says he ran into one of his dream guest stars, Anne Hathaway, at the Globes and she told him that she was interested in appearing on an episode.

The movie wins in the best comedy or musical category.

Mike Hale: “Glee” took the last television category, meaning that the broadcast networks grabbed four Golden Globes versus seven for cable â€" and three of the networks’ four awards were won by Fox’s “Glee.” It’s a repeat win for “Glee” in the TV comedy/musical category. Also, it comes two years after “30 Rock” won three awards (comedy series, comedy actor and actress.) The only other show and network represented: CBS for “The Big Bang Theory.” Among the cable channels, HBO reasserted its dominance â€" for the moment, at least â€" with four awards, outpacing Showtime, FX and the Sundance Channel with one each.

The networks’ four awards actually continued an upward trend: since they won six in 2007, they had registered totals of one, three and three in the intervening years.

The actress wins for “Black Swan.”

Brian Stelter: The Sundance Channel says its win for “Carlos” is its first Golden Globe ever. The miniseries will reair Jan. 20 and reach on-demand Feb. 2.

The actor wins for “Barney’s Version.” During his speech he marveled at being paid for smoking and drinking. And then he saluted the nation of Canada.

‘Glee’ wins best TV series.

The director wins for “The Social Network.”

He said he’s glad the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association decided on his Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award before they got a chance to review “Little Fockers.”

Then, referring to those voters: “Many of them were deported right before the show, along with most of the waiters and Javier Bardem.”

Melena Ryzik: “Two years ago when I Googled the title of my movie, the only thing that came up was Martin Luther King, I have a Dream,” Tom Hooper said on the red carpet. “Now if you Google ‘The King’s Speech,’ you have to go a few lines down before you find his birthday. And it’s kind of nice that we’re here on the eve of the birthday, which reminds us of the incredible importance of speech-making that changed national consciousness at the time, at key moments in history, like the speech in this film and like his speech did.”

Was there more pressure on him to give a stellar speech? ” Yes, but it could go either way equally,” he said. “If I end up a stammering wreck, it’s probably the one time it’s okay. I could just go, [stammering] ‘I’m doing this in honor of the King and then walk off, in tears.”

The actress wins for “The Fighter.”

He takes the award for best actor in a TV comedy or musical.

Mike Hale: Laura Linney’s expected â€" and, in this group at least, well-deserved â€" victory as TV comedy actress for “The Big C” breaks the “Glee” streak. Lea Michele’s defeat means that the Fox comedy can at best win in four of its five categories. Its final two nominees both have a good shot but face tough competition: Matthew Morrison is up against Jim Parsons of “The Big Bang Theory” for best comedy actor, and the best comedy/musical series award is considered a toss-up between “Glee” and “Modern Family.”

The actress takes home the award for best performance by an actress in a television series, comedy or musical.

“A category no one in America cares about.”

The movie from Denmark wins.

Melena Ryzik: In the press room, Al Pacino said he liked playing real people like Jack Kevorkian and, he said, Frank Serpico. “It is an advantage to be able to play a real character,” he said. “It gives you access and in a strange way what it does, it stimulates your imagination, because you feel a kind of credibility when you play a real person.”

Talking about his role in “The Merchant of Venice” on Broadway, Mr. Pacino said. “I think I’m enjoying it more now than I would have 30 years ago,” when he first played the role.

“I believe I do have a bit of the performer in me,” he added. “I’m not showing it now. I’m trying to keep away from turning into Robin Williams in front of your eyes. It would be disturbing.”

He continued to be low-key in his answers.

“I can almost put myself to sleep,” he said, of his longer remarks. “I feel myself drifting off, I think this is good, I can catch a couple of winks.”

Best Supporting Actress in a TV Series, Mini-Series or Movie.

Mike Hale: Al Pacino’s award for best actor in a TV movie or miniseries for the HBO film “You Don’t Know Jack” â€" perhaps the least surprising victory of the night â€" is his fifth Golden Globe. The amusing thing is that he’s won two of them after he won the Globes’ Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in 2001. Before tonight’s victory, he took the same award for HBO’s “Angels in America” in 2004. Overall, he’s been nominated 16 times, winning film-acting awards for “Serpico” in 1974 and “Scent of a Woman” in 1993. (He was nominated for “The Godfather,” “The Godfather Part II” and “Dog Day Afternoon” and didn’t win, losing to Marlon Brando and, twice, Jack Nicholson. Those were the days.)

Aaron Sorkin wins for “The Social Network.”

Melena Ryzik: “People say I don’t need E,” the hyper-energetic David O. Russell said on the red carpet, referring to the drug ecstasy. “There’s a lot of love flowing through my veins.”

“It’s very surreal and strange,” he added of his experience on the awards circuit after a few up-and-down years as a filmmaker. “I’m just happy to be part of it. Everybody in Lowell is so happy for us.” Mr. Russell said he had spoken with the Ward-Eklund clan in Lowell, Mass., where he shot the movie, and that 79-year-old Alice Ward, the real-life matriarch of the boxing brothers who is hospitalized, hoped to be able to watch the Globes.

The actress wins for “Temple Grandin.”

The actor wins for “You Don’t Know Jack.”

Melena Ryzik: On the red carpet, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, winners for best original score, talked about why they appreciate the accolades from the film industry.

“I think that the impact of the film in our current society is much deeper than where music is currently,” Mr. Reznor, the front man for Nine Inch Nails, said. “That doesn’t mean I don’t think music is very important but the music business has very much done everything it can to lessen the weight and importance of music as art because it’s commercialized it to the point it’s rewarded if it’s disposable and shallow, and just seeing the amount of attention we’ve gotten from our score as opposed to an album. It’s been an interesting thing to watch from afar.”

Mr. Ross: “If we turned in that as an instrumental album, it probably would be rejected.”

The actress wins for “The Kids Are All Right.”

Justin Bieber and Hailee Steinfeld present the award to “Toy Story 3.”

Melena Ryzik: On the red carpet, Diane Warren said she was nervous, despite having racked up many nominations and worked with Cher dozens of times. “I wanted to write the ultimate song,” she said of “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me” from “Burlesque.” “I’ve had to drag her to do songs, she didn’t want to do ‘If I Could Turn Back Time.’ This is one she fought to have in the movie. She had her hair dryer on full blast when she heard it â€" and she loved it.”

Meanwhile, Steven Antin, the director of “Burlesque,” took issue with the way the film was received. “It really wasn’t what I was aiming for, the camp,” he said. “I wanted to make a fun film that was a throwback to Hollywood’s golden age of musicals, and people perceived it as camp for obvious reasons. I was surprised it was perceived that way.”

Mike Hale: Stiff, dull and a pale and weirdly politically correct pastiche of older and better gangster dramas â€" in this critic’s opinion, if no one else’s â€" “Boardwalk Empire” wins for best TV drama. And in the best actor in a drama category, that show’s seriously miscast star, Steve Buscemi, defeats three former winners (Michael C. Hall, Hugh Laurie and the favored Jon Hamm).

It’s beating a dead horse to even mention this, but the most dumbfounding thing about those two categories â€" as well as lead actress in a TV drama and both supporting acting categories â€" is that “Friday Night Lights” will close out its run this year without having received a single Golden Globe nomination during the five seasons it spent as one of the two or three best shows on television.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross win for “The Social Network.”

Melena Ryzik: Kevin Spacey on whether he will have more heart-pounding moments in his category, best actor in a comedy/musical for “Casino Jack,” or for any of the categories for “The Social Network,” of which he is a producer:

“I don’t think I have a rat’s chance in hell of winning in my category,” Mr. Spacey said. “But certainly for “The Social Network” and for so many reasons. If a film like this does well â€" and it’s certainly done well in terms of box office â€" and all kinds of recognition but maybe it will encourage other studios, that you can make films about relationships that aren’t about distracting an audience every three seconds, and they will be successful. Because if we go back and look at the kind of films that studios made in the 1970’s and even into the 80s, Hal Ashby, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Mike Nichols, these are the movies, themes, the kind of drama that we should be striving for and maybe because a film like ‘Social Network’ does so well it might make the path a little easier for the next film maker who wants to tell a story like that.”

“You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me” from “Burlesque” wins with music and lyrics By Diane Warren.

Melena Ryzik: “The long hair is unemployment,” best supporting actor winner Christian Bale, who hasn’t made a movie since “The Fighter,” said of his hairstyle in the press room.

Mr. Bale said he felt liberated by playing a real character, Dicky Eklund, the down-and-out boxer at the center of the movie. “You meet Dicky and you realize you can do anything,” he said. “If I had gone to David [O. Russell, the director] and said, I’ve come up with this character, he’d have said this is way overboard.”

On the red carpet, David Hoberman, a producer of “The Fighter,” said they long-gestating movie was always meant to be unflinching in its portrayal of a hardscrabble family best by problems including drugs and crime.

“My feeling was sort of the darker it was, the higher it inclines,” he said, “so we weren’t really ever afraid of doing some of the things that were true of the film. It always had a ‘Rocky’ element to it but in its core it’s always been a love story between the two brothers.”

The HBO show wins best drama.

Ricky Gervais explaining why Eva Longoria’s task of introducing the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Philip Berk, wasn’t so daunting: “I just had to help him off the toilet and pop in his teeth.”

The actor wins for “Boardwalk Empire.”

Melena Ryzik: Olivier Assayas, the director of the five-and-a-half hour, multilingual “Carlos,” whose star, Edward Ramirez, spoke four languages (English, French, German and Spanish) on the red carpet â€" on its award chances: “Well, when we were putting it together and the film was happening we basically had no idea what we were doing and what shape or form it had and where it would end so somehow it kind of sneaked it’s way in places..

Was there pressure to make it a feature-length?

“No because the thing is once we decided that we would cut in three and kind of structure it financially as some kind of miniseries, it was kind of an event France, basically they gave me free range,” Mr. Assayas said. “Only the French, and only once in a while.”

Mike Hale: It’s probably not surprising that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association didn’t choke in the TV movie and mini-series category, which chose one of the most obviously deserving winners in awards show history with the French mini-series “Carlos.” Nothing else in the category even belonged in the same sentence. The director, Olivier Assayas, will be the most talented filmmaker to appear onstage tonight.

The category would have looked a little better if the Globes had ignored another European production, the risible “Pillars of the Earth,” and recognized the HBO series “Treme.” But David Simon has never received a Golden Globes nomination.

He takes home the award for best supporting actor, TV series, mini-series, TV movie.

Mike Hale: The television awards begin with a fairly significant upset: Katey Sagal, a critics’ favorite as the motorcycle mama on the cable series “Sons of Anarchy,” wins over the favored Julianna Margulies of “The Good Wife,” the defending champion. It’s hard to quibble with the choice of Ms. Sagal, but Margulies is magnificent â€" if she deserved it last year, she deserved it this year.

The Golden Globe goes to “Carlos.”

Katey Sagal wins for “Sons of Anarchy.”

Cathy Horyn: As the carpet fashion parade winds down, I’d say this has not been a very sexy evening. Halle Berry and January Jones (in pleated red Versace), yesâ€"but Jennifer Lopez, her shoulders veiled in white, seemed to acknowledge a short-coming of the Globes carpet. She said, “I can give a little leg sometimes,” pulling at her skirt. And I caught Tilda Swinton in the background. The actress appeared to have on a Jil Sander yellow skirt with a classic white shirt.

The Golden Globe goes to Christian Bale, “The Fighter.”

Ricky Gervais dismissing the fact that “The Tourist” was nominated only because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association wanted to hang out with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp: Rubbish, he said. “They also accepted bribes.”

Cathy Horyn: Claire Danes looks gorgeous in Calvin Kleinâ€"a pink-coral silk halter dress. And the Miss Kitty award goes to…Christina Aguilera, in an ultra-tight, flouncy lace dress. The style seems perfect for running a saloon in a TV western.

Melena Ryzik: Trent Reznor, a nominee with Atticus Ross for the score for “The Social Network,” has won Grammys for his day job as the frontman of Nine Inch Nails. But despite the wins and multiple nominations, he has never attended the Grammys or its afterparties.

It just didn’t feel like my thing,” he said. “Not to be disrespectful, but the weight of a Grammy feels much less important than the film side of this. The music business has very much done everything it can to lessen the weight and importance of music as art.”

He and Mr. Ross said they came in support of the film.

“We’re both kind of reclusive and the idea of appearing on the red carpet is as far away from what we normally do” as possible, Mr. Reznor said. “We thought let’s make this a positive thing â€" this could be the only time, let’s just roll with it, try to have fun with it. And so far it’s been nerve-racking but interesting.” A pause as he looks around. “What we’re doing right now feels absurd.”

Mr. Ross: “I could be on acid right now!”

Is he?

“No I’m not,” he said. “Definitely not.”

But it feels as surreal as if you were having an acid trip?

“Yeah. A good one. I only ever had bad trips. We went through all the challenges of doing the score and everything. The biggest challenge is definitely coming to these and feeling good.”

More Photographs

Cathy Horyn: The year of the bosom ruffle (now Sofia Vergara in red Vera Wang). Angelina Jolie seemed ready to reveal the designer of her dark green sequined dress but the NBC red-carpet maven did not ask the main-event question. Back to E! for the purely frivolous.

Cathy Horyn: Meaningful quotes from the carpet: “I’m always wearing Spanx.” (Julie Bowen). “I always dress like a 12-year-old child.” (Helena Bonham Carter, in Westwood and mismatched shoes).

Cathy Horyn: Surprise, surprise: Natalie Portman tells Ryan Seacrest her pale pink satin dress with a beaded red rose in the front is by Viktor & Rolf. People thought the actress, who is expecting her first child this summer, would wear Dior or Rodarte.

Brooks Barnes: In the ballroom, where the ceremony will be held, centerpieces of red and burnt orange roses reside on the tables and a color motif of blue and silver (reminiscent of the “Tron: Legacy” neon) dominates. HBO, always a big winner at these events, is definitely holding court, with Nancy Lesser, a senior executive, dressed in full gown regalia and standing with a list to direct people (mostly, it seems, to the second tier).

Cathy Horyn: So far lots of color: Elisabeth Moss (“Mad Men”) in dark emerald Donna Karan; Julie Bowen (“Modern Family”) in gray-violet ruffles; but I like the pencil-slim sharpness of Piper Perabo’s black Oscar de la Renta dress. Pony tail, red lipsâ€"pretty and classic. And the dress fits perfectly. I have a feeling some dresses will be challenged in the fit category tonight.

Melena Ryzik: Lee Unkrich, the director of “Toy Story 3,” wore a silver pin of the numeral 3 on his lapel and matching cufflinks â€" gifts his wife had made for finishing the movie.

Mr. Unkrich, a frontrunner to win for best animated film, said he prefers to be in a competitive year. “Nobody wants to be in a category where it’s a foregone conclusion that you’re gonna win,” he said. “That’s no fun. You wanna earn, you wanna feel your heart pound. That’s what this is all about.”

Brooks Barnes: The lobby of the Beverly Hilton, home to the Golden Globes, is its usual hive â€" publicists demanding red carpet accreditation of those who were not granted it in advance, twentysomething crashers who succeeded in making it as far as the lobby bar, Kelly Osbourne, who inexplicably may have been the first star to arrive, the older ranks of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and eight police officers wearing “bomb squad” shirts and scanning everywhere with three dogs.

It’s the most random mix of people. A guy in a t-shirt and flip flops walking next to a lady (a guest) pulling a suitcase next to a starlet teetering in 7-inch platform heels. A cart carrying a bowl of shrimp destined for the InStyle party on the other end of the hotel is so big it requires three men to push it.

Cathy Horyn: E! just had a shot of Helena Bonham Carter leaving her limo in a stiff froth pinned with black netting. I’m dying to see the rest of her outfit. I saw murky color, a hint of the historicalâ€"my guess, Vivienne Westwood. If you caught Jennifer Love Hewitt, her dress was by Romona Keveza.  Natalie Portman has just arrived, in strapless pale pink Victor & Rolf.

Melena Ryzik: “Did I say I was thirsty or did I just think it?” Jennifer Lawrence, the 20-year-old star of “Winter’s Bone,” said as her publicist handed her a bottle of water on the red carpet. Ms. Lawrence is perhaps too green to know that Hollywood publicists are paid to read your thoughts before you have them (or write them to begin with).

But that’s what’s charming about Ms. Lawrence. On the way over in the limo, “I made a video of me dancing to ‘Beat It’ and sent it to my friends,” she said.

Cathy Horyn: If Jennifer Love Hewitt’s eyelashes were any longer, they’d meet the top of her ruffled dress.

The first of the clothes horses has arrived on the Globes red carpet. Olivia Wilde (“House”) is wearing a beaded, many layered tulle gown by Marchesa. The glitter quotient of Ms. Wilde’s dress could indicate the ladies will not be understated tonight.