Well, hot damn! Awards season kicked off in full swing on Sunday, January 8, when Jimmy Fallon hosted the 74th annual Golden Globe awards — and they didn’t disappoint. The late-night host began the evening with an epic re-creation of La La Land’s opening number, and Brad Pitt stole the end of the show when he surprised the audience by gracing the stage, making one of his first official appearances since his nasty split from estranged wife Angelina Jolie.
Did we mention that Ryan Gosling dedicated his Best Actor win to his daughters and wife Eva Mendes? Because, yes, that swoonworthy moment happened too.
Relive the highlights from the awards show, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, in the video above and get all the details below:
1. Jimmy Fallon Re-Creates La La Land’s Opening Musical Number
The awards-show host pulled off the unimaginable and enlisted the help of Nicole Kidman, Amy Adams, Kit Harrington, Justin Timberlake, the cast of Stranger Things and a bevy of other A-listers to spoof the award-winning film’s opening scene. To the tune of “Another Day in the Sun,” Fallon danced with the stars on top of and around limos after pretending to be stuck in traffic.
2. The Teleprompter Breaks During the Opening Monologue — Cue Mariah Carey
During Fallon’s opening monologue, the teleprompter decided to quit on the 42-year-old funnyman. “Welcome to the Golden Globes. Already the teleprompter is down. This is a great way to start the show,” he told the crowd, while trying to stall for time. “I can do impressions. What do we do here? I can think of something. Cut to Justin Timberlake, please,” he joked. “Just wink at me or something.” After the issue was resolved, Fallon later jokingly compared his technical error to Mariah Carey’s disastrous New Year’s Eve performance. Fallon joked that Carey had called him and said it was Dick Clark Productions again.
3. Goldie Hawn Needs Her Reading Glasses
Snatched costars Goldie Hawn and Amy Schumer presented the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical Film and had viewers equally entertained with their comedy chops. Hawn, 71, pretended to not be able to read the prompter, causing Schumer to jokingly ask the Death Becomes Her star’s longtime partner, Kurt Russell, if he’d brought her reading glasses. “You’re nailing it,” Schumer encouraged Hawn after she mixed up the words “tainted” and “musical” for “talented” and “musical.”
4. Ryan Gosling Makes Us All Swoon, and Then Some
Gosling delivered an emotional and heartfelt speech thanking his “lady” Mendes and their two daughters, Amada and Esmeralda, and dedicating his win to her late brother, Carlos (who died of cancer), while accepting the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy for La La Land. After thanking his costar Emma Stone, Gosling said that if it weren’t for Mendes, his win wouldn’t have been possible. “I would like to try to thank one person properly and say while I was singing and dancing and playing piano and having one of the best experiences I’ve ever had on a film, my lady was raising our daughter, pregnant with our second and trying to help her brother fight his battle with cancer,” Gosling said while looking directly into the camera. “If she hadn’t have taken all that on so that I could have this experience, it would surely be someone else up here other than me today. So, sweetheart, thank you. To my daughters, Amada and Esmeralda, I love you.”
5. Andrew Garfield and Ryan Reynolds Kiss, Break the Internet
Did we just see that?! Andrew Garfield and Ryan Reynolds were caught kissing as Gosling made his way to the stage to accept his Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy. In a bromantic moment that quickly went viral, the two actors lock lips while seated at the same table as Reynolds’ wife, Blake Lively, as she watches Gosling’s big moment seemingly unfazed. The internet was quick to react, dubbing 2017 the best year yet.
6. Meryl Streep Delivers Fiery Anti–Donald Trump Speech
While accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the three-time Oscar winner took aim at President-elect Donald Trump for mocking disabled New York Times investigative reporter Serge F. Kovaleski, who suffers from a congenital joint condition, during a campaign rally last year. “There was one performance this year that stunned me,” Streep told the room, who offered her their full attention. “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. I still can’t get it out of my head because it wasn’t in a movie. It was real life.” The legendary actress went on to urge her peers to “protect journalists because we’re going to need them going forward. And they’ll need us to safeguard the truth.”
7. Brad Pitt Makes a Surprise Appearance — and Gets a Big Round of Applause
Pitt was greeted with a loud round of applause as he made a surprise appearance at the Golden Globes. The actor, who looked handsome in a clean-cut suit, was on hand to present a segment highlighting Best Picture drama winner Moonlight, which his company Plan B produced. The moment marked one of Pitt’s first official appearances since his nasty split from estranged wife Angelina Jolie.
