Stay golden, Golden Globes

The more casual, spontaneous precursor to the Academy Awards honors some unexpected newcomers -- and plenty of unexpected remarks.

By Heather Havrilesky

Read more: Arts & Entertainment, Golden Globes, Heather Havrilesky, Arts & Entertainment Features

Reuters/Mike Blake

Helen Mirren holds her two Golden Globes after winning best actress in a motion picture (drama) for "The Queen" and best actress in a TV miniseries or motion picture for "Elizabeth I," Jan. 15, 2007.

Jan. 16, 2007 | Monday night's Golden Globes included a bevy of unexpected winners, from Sacha Baron Cohen (who won best actor in a musical/comedy for "Borat") to Eddie Murphy (who took home his first major award, best supporting actor for his role in "Dreamgirls"). But the unexpected comments were the highlight of the night.

Isaiah Washington got things off to a good start on the red carpet when, in a clumsy attempt to make up for his alleged homophobic slurs on the set of "Grey's Anatomy" earlier this season, he announced, "I love gay. I wanted to be gay. Please let me be gay." Yes, please let us be gay, too. Let us be a gay, black man. No, let us be a straight, Latino teenage girl. No, maybe we'd rather be a thriving rhododendron, or a hamster with an outgoing personality ...

Then again, we might want to be a female actor, now that they're not all hungry-looking beauty queens. Amazingly enough, this was a very good year to be a nonwhite, non-anorexic woman (Jennifer Hudson won best supporting actress for her role in "Dreamgirls," America Ferrera won best actress in a TV comedy for "Ugly Betty," and Shonda Rhimes' "Grey's Anatomy" won best TV drama) or an older woman (Helen Mirren won for lead roles in both "The Queen" and the HBO miniseries "Elizabeth I," and Meryl Streep won a best supporting actress award for "The Devil Wears Prada").

Of course, what we all really want to be is Jack Nicholson, with his perpetual grin of self-satisfaction and his excellent courtside seats at Lakers games. Since sometime in the early '90s, award winners at both the Golden Globes and the Oscars can hardly get to the part where they thank their agents without interrupting themselves either to say "I can't believe I'm staring at Jack Nicholson right now" or to address Jack directly by his first name. Jack invariably responds with that inscrutable grin and, if they rate in his book (which means they're either a Hollywood legend or Kobe Bryant), he growls something witty that the microphones can't pick up.

But even with big names like Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman around, there were still lots of fresh, unexpected faces in the crowd this year. When accepting her award, "American Idol" finalist and "Dreamgirls" actress Hudson gushed, "I have always dreamed, but I never ever dreamed this big!" Then she added, "You don't know what this does for my confidence!"

Despite being referred to as "ugly" constantly, Ferrera's confidence got a boost as well when she beat out Felicity Huffman and Marcia Cross of "Desperate Housewives," Julia Louis-Dreyfus of "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and Mary-Louise Parker of "Weeds." (As nice as it is to see so many female-dominated comedies on the air these days, it's a little sad that women have to be referred to as desperate, ugly, old or stoned to catch our attention.)

"It's such an honor to play a role that I hear from young girls on a daily basis how it makes them feel worthy and lovable and they have more to offer the world than they thought," Ferrera rambled weepily. Such an unforeseen burst of heartfelt sweetness assured that there wasn't a dry eye in the room. The camera quickly cut to a bunch of actresses blinking back tears: Salma Hayek, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Teri Hatcher, Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett Smith ... Then Ferrera twisted the knife by thanking her mom and -- gulp! -- calling her "Mommy." Hey! That's my mom's name too. (Sniff.)

Next page: Tom Hanks on Warren Beatty's "balls"