None of the dozen Jewish nominees, including such respected actors as Natalie Portman, Liev Schreiber or Jonah Hill, made it to the winner’s podium.
By JTAUpdated: JANUARY 9, 2017 14:56Actress Isabelle Huppert poses backstage with her award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for her role in "Elle," at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards.(photo credit: REUTERS)
It was not the best of times for Jewish talent at Sunday evening’s Golden Globe awards.None of the dozen Jewish nominees, including such respected actors as Natalie Portman, Liev Schreiber or Jonah Hill, made it to the winner’s podium.It was left to two artists, hardly mentioned in the advance Jewish tip sheets, to uphold the tribal honor, buttressed by one young director who might be classified as an “honorary” Jew.Justin Hurwitz’s musical gifts contributed immeasurably to the success of La La Land, the runaway seven-time winner in the musical or comedy film category. He was rewarded with Golden Globes for the movie’s original score and for the original song “City of Stars.”Hurwitz is 31, as is Damien Chazelle, the film’s director, and they were roommates as undergraduates at Harvard. Chazelle, who won the Golden Globe nods both as director and screenwriter of La La Land, was raised by his two Catholic parents.But, as Chazelle told the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles last year, the parents were dissatisfied with their son’s education at a church Sunday school and enrolled him in the Hebrew school of a liberal synagogue.Over the next four years, Chazelle recalled, “I had that period of my life where I was very, very into Hebrew and the Old Testament, and then I went with my class to Israel when we were in the sixth grade. I don’t think they even knew I wasn’t Jewish; I was, like, ‘passing.’”
Veteran French film star Isabelle Huppert won the top spot as best actress in a drama for her role in the French film Elle, which also received a Golden Globe for best foreign-language movie.Huppert, who plays the role of a successful businesswoman who plots an elaborate revenge on the home intruder who raped her, is the daughter of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. Her parents married while France was under Nazi occupation, with the father hiding his Jewish roots.Also during the awards ceremony, a montage honoring actress Carrie Fisher and her mother actress Debbie Reynolds, who died late last month two days apart, was screened.The evening’s big loser at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills was absent President-elect Donald Trump, who was the target of a number of jibes and denunciations, though without actually mentioning his name.Most outspoken was actress Meryl Streep, who received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.“Thank you, Hollywood Foreign Press. Just to pick up on what Hugh Laurie said, you and all of us in this room really, belong to the most vilified segments in American society right now. Think about it, Hollywood, foreigners, and the press,” she said.“But who are we, and what is Hollywood anyway? It’s just a bunch of people from other places,” Streep continued, singling out various actors and actresses and saying where they grew up, including actress Natalie Portman, who was born in Jerusalem.After denouncing the unnamed Trump for mocking a disabled New York Times reporter and after asking the audience to back the Committee to Support Journalists, Streep ended with a strong warning.“Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence,” she said. “And when the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose.”Trump responded immediately by telling the New York Times that such words would have no impact on attendance at his upcoming inauguration.“We are going to have an unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout for the inauguration and there will be plenty of movie and entertainment stars,” Trump said. “All the dress shops are sold out in Washington. It’s hard to find a great dress for this inauguration.”