By Emily Brookes*
Zendaya low-key told the world she was engaged to Tom Holland via some sparkles on her ring finger. Photo: Xavier Collin/ Image Press Agency / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP
With the gongs given out and the red carpet rolled up, these are the moments we're still talking about from Monday's 82nd Golden Globes.
Nikki Glaser roasts Diddy
US comedian and host Nikki Glaser arrives for the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 5, 2025. Photo: AFP / Etienne Laurent
The Globes needed a winning host after last year's Jo Koy was considered a flop, and in Glaser - a comedian best known for performing "roasts", whose announcement as host raised a few eyebrows - they got it.
Glaser's 10-minute opening monologue was jam-packed with gags that came at the expense of everything from the "holding space" meme between Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo that went viral during the Wicked press tour, politics, the Globes' US streaming platform Paramount Plus, and, of course, celebrities themselves - "Welcome to Ozempic's biggest night", was her opening line.
Photo: Golden Globes, X
Her most on-the-nose joke, though, took aim at disgraced rapper P-Diddy. Speaking of Zendaya's star turn in Challengers, Glaser said: "That movie was more sexually charged than Diddy's credit card."
The stand-up comedian doubled down referencing Diddy's infamous "freak offs".
"I'm sorry, I'm upset, too. The afterparty isn't gonna be as good this year. But we have to move on - 'Stanley Tucci freak off' doesn't have the same ring to it - no baby oil this year, just lots of olive oil."
When re-watching the 2025 Globes five years from now, she predicted, "you'll see someone in one of the crowd shots and say: 'Oh my God, that was before they caught that guy!'"
Zendaya soft-launches her engagement
In the hours since the Golden Globes red carpet, frenzied speculation appears to have been confirmed: Yes, that giant sparkler on Z's ring finger was an engagement ring and yes, she and her Spider-Man co-star Tom Holland have made it official.
US actress, singer Zendaya arrives for the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 5, 2025. Photo: AFP / Etienne Laurent
Zendaya herself hasn't commented on the rumours - she's far too classy for that - but the internet has widely accepted their truth based on such unassailable clues as: her make-up artist liking a post about the rumoured engagement, her hairdresser posting a pic of Zendaya displaying the ring, and her jewellery partner Bvlgari stating they supplied one ring, which she wore on her right hand.
With the likes of TMZ and People now quoting "sources close to the couple" confirming the pair are engaged, we've probably come about as close as we're going to get to this famously private couple doing so themselves.
Kieran Culkin's acceptance speech
The Globes' usual inebriation felt dialled back this year, but special mention must go to Kieran Culkin, who received the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture (the Globes categories are very clunky) for his role in A Real Pain.
Jazz Charton and Kieran Culkin, winner of the best performance by a male actor in a supporting role in any motion picture award for 'A Real Pain', at the 82nd annual Golden Globe Awards on 5 January, 2025 in Beverly Hills, California. Photo: Amy Sussman / Getty Images / AFP
"My wife and I did a shot of tequila with Mario Lopez," he said through squinted eyes from the podium. "Definitely feeling that. Whole speech is gone. Rip it, Kieran, you're doing fine."
Culkin's fast-talking, free-wheeling style would have been familiar to those who know him as Roman Roy, the sardonic, snarky youngest Roy child in the hit series Succession - or indeed those who heard his acceptance speech for that role on this very stage one year ago.
Those Canadians are pretty funny, eh?
Canadians Seth Rogen and Catherine O'Hara came close to stealing the show as they took co-presenting duties. Their free-wheeling, R-rated and, I'm guessing, mostly unscripted bit saw them riffing about their fictional backgrounds in pornography before they arrived in the US.
Seth Rogen and Catherine O'Hara. Photo: Golden Globes, YouTube
"You see, in Canada, we don't have America's puritanical roots. So pornographic films are as lauded as much as non-pornographic films," Rogen observed before reminiscing about movies with titles like Log Rider, Sticky Syrup and the Moose Knuckles trilogy.
Elsewhere, O'Hara praised Rogen for his work as a young Ryan Gosling in Gosling: The Ryan Gosling Unauthorised Biopic. It was very, very funny.
Demi Moore finally wins a gong
No awards show would be complete without a seasoned actor winning their first major prize and getting emotional about it. This year, that actor was Demi Moore for her role in The Substance.
'The Substance' actress Demi Moore poses with Golden Globe Award for best performance by a female actor in a motion picture - musical or comedy in Beverly Hills, California, on 5 January, 2025. Photo: AFP / Robyn Beck
Accepting the award for Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy (clunky), 62-year-old Moore recalled being described as a "popcorn actress" early in her career.
"At that time, I made that mean that this wasn't something that I was allowed to have, that I could do movies that were successful, that made a lot of money, but that I couldn't be acknowledged," she said. "I bought in, and I believed that, and that corroded me over time."
She said the Globe was "a marker of my wholeness… and being reminded that I do belong."
* Emily Brookes is a freelance entertainment writer.
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