by John Walters

Starting Five

Streep Fighting Man*

*The judges will also accept, “The Devil Wears Trump Ties Made In China”

Accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award (lifetime achievement) at the Golden Globes last night, Meryl Streep took up where Hugh Laurie had left off, noting that the tosser of last night’s event, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, had three words in its name that were anathema to Deplorables. Then she went all in:

An actor’s only job is to enter the lives of people who are different from us, and let you feel what that feels like. And there were many, many, many powerful performances this year that did exactly that. Breathtaking, compassionate work.

But 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. It kind of broke my heart when I saw it, and I still can’t get it out of my head, because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life. And this instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody’s life, because it kinda gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. And when the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose. O.K., go on with it.

Of course, this morning the man above is claiming president-electsplaining that he was not mocking The New York Times reporter, Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from arthrogryposis. And then he doubled down by becoming a film critic:

 

Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn’t know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2017

 

Then this happened, from professional blonde news reader Tomi Lahren:

These Hollywood elites wouldn’t know average, every day hard-working Americans if we bit them in the ass. #GoldenGlobes

— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) January 9, 2017

But as someone else pointed out, the person she is defending lives in a 32-story glass tower on Fifth Avenue with his name in gold letter atop it. But he’s not an “elite?”

2. More from The Golden Globes

–Host Jimmy Fallon recovered well from his teleprompter not working at the outset of the show. And he still got off this zinger: “What would it be like if King Joffrey had lived?” Fallon asked. “Well, in 12 days we’re going to find out.”

–Thoughts and prayers to Tom Hiddleston, who probably took the stage with good intentions of sharing the plight of people in South Sudan but instead came off sounding like a wanker. That was like a scene out of Extras.

–God bless Emma Stone, who double-hugged director Damien Chazelle as he was leaning over in the other direction to hug his babe, and who then said, “God, that was really awkward.”

–You could park a bus in the area that was open on Jessica Chastain‘s dress above the midriff. It seemed like a competition between she and Mandy Moore to show more decolletage.

–I think the director of Elle has the hots for the star of Elle.

—Brad Pitt: separation suits you. Notice the extra-long applause Pitt received. It was like the room was saying, “We’ve been wondering for years when you were going to open your eyes about that woman.” I half-expected Billy Bob Thornto to jump up and high-five him (also, Angelina Jolie and Tom Hiddleston would be a terrific match, no?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_QQgz74qpo

—Steve Carell‘s Fantasia anecdote was the best. “I never saw my father again after that day.”

–Jessica Chastain, Amy Adams and Emma Stone: Ginger is the new black.

–“Golf Boy” sounds like a film Adam Sandler would make and that I would not see.

–Such a strange evening, I still don’t believe it. The movies/shows I was rooting for (La La Land, The Crown) got their just due while those I found somewhat overrated (you know, like Meryl Streep) did not. And I don’t even know if I heard the words “Modern Family” except for when Sofia Vergara did her anus joke. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if someone had done a Vinyl “In Memoriam.”

3. Howlin’ Wolfpack 

Okay, so call it the second-most unbelievable basketball game ever staged at The Pit in Albuquerque. On Saturday evening Nevada trailed New Mexico by 25 with 11 minutes to play, by 19 with just over four minutes remaining and by 14 with 90 seconds to play.

The Wolfpack won, 105-104 in overtime. How’d they do it? By making eight threes in the final four minutes and by the Lobos (who are also a wolf pack, just a Spanish-sounding one) missing six of their final 10 free throws. What a game.

4. Stolen Car-ma

On Friday on Long Island, someone stole a 2010 Honda. Yesterday afternoon a state trooper on the Long Island Expressway noticed the car (apparently there’s a gadget that reads license plate numbers and alerts the fuzz if it’s a license plate of a stolen vehicle). The trooper did not turn on his lights but followed the vehicle at a safe distance as he called for backup.

At some point after pulling off the LIE, the driver noticed he was being tailed and sped up. The problem? The temps were in the teens yesterday and many roads were slick. As the driver attempted to make a sharp right turn, the car skidded off the road way and rolled over upside down into a frozen pond. The driver and two other occupants died before they could be rescued.

5. Oh, The Places They Invite You To Go: Detroit, Tijuana and the South Bronx!

The New York Times came out with its list of 52 places you should visit in 2017. It’s very well done, really.

Music 101

December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)

Franki Valli and The Four Seasons were already your parents’ band when this song was released in late December, 1975. It wound up soaring to No. 1 on the charts in March of 1976 and remaining there for three weeks. All of this came at least a dozen years after those Jersey boys had been in their prime. The lead vocals here are not sung by Valli (he sings backup and bridge) but by drummer Gary Polci. An essential time-capsule song of the Mid-Seventies.

Remote Patrol

Alabama vs Clemson

8 p.m. ESPN

Despite an alarming lack of pregame analysis, they’re still going to rush ahead and play this game (I’ve studiously avoided any ESPN studio chatter on the game; they’re ruining Christmas for me here). Always tough to win a rematch (ask Apollo Creed), but I like the Tide because that defense is filthy. Minkah Fitzpatrick is a future NFL star.