by Holly Huffstutler

Created on: January 20, 2010   Last Updated: January 21, 2010

The 2009 Golden Globe Awards was a low key affair that was punctuated by the occasional weird joke and a wild range of acceptance speech tone.

Ricky Gervais, he of the perpetual smile and bitter joke, hosted and presented a mildly entertaining transitional presence to an awards ceremony that has gone successfully hostless for a few years now. But his reliance on older than dirt Hollywood jokes (“A lot of wonderful work has been done this year…by plastic surgeons”) and tired jokes about his own career (he invented The Office, Carrell gets all the credit blah blah blah) didn’t exactly get the evening off to an energetic start.

What did start the evening off right was M’onique’s acceptance speech for her Best Supporting Actress win for “Precious” In thanks to her husband she recounted the time when she promised him that they would both be stars one day and he said “You first.”

The rest of the evening followed suit, with the focus shifting away from typical award show comedic bits onto letting the people who won thank the people who helped them win in a variety of sweet and quirky ways.

Christoper Waltz used his acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor (“Inglorious Basterds”) to create a word based tribute “globe” to all the people involved with his part in the film. It must be noted that he did the same with the Critic’s “Choice” Awards. The Oscars are going to be a bit of a verbal stretch for him.

Meryl Streep was nominated twice in the Best Comedy Actress category and deservedly won for “Julie & Julia.” She got up there with her flustered “I’m sorry they think I’m so awesome, I don’t mean to steal your thunder” look and honored both the great Julia Child and her own mother before eloquently addressing the importance of  contributing to Haitian earthquake relief and being very grateful that her success gives her the opportunity to do so.

Robert Downey Jr. took home a Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for his “Sherlock Homes.” It’s hard to say whether this was a retroactive win for last year’s “Iron Man” and “Tropic Thunder,” one two punch of comeback awesome, but the star thanked all his people with trademark snark by pretending not to thank them, ie “I’m certainly not going to thank Guy Ritchie”

Jeff Bridges bashfully accepted a standing ovation along with his long deserved Best actor in a drama win for “Crazy Heart,” saying “you’re gonna ruin my underappreciated status.” 

Surprises of the evening came in the form of the two best movie awards and Best Director. Best Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical went to the wacky Vegas comedy  “The Hangover” while James Cameron took home trophies for Best Motion Picture-Drama and Best Director for “Avatar.” It seemed as much of a shock to him as to many in the audience, he expressed confusion over why he took Best Director over “The Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow and apparently couldn’t resist confessing that he “had to pee something fierce” Thanks for that, Jim.

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