The Hungarian Holocaust movie Son of Saul (read our review here) and the star of the Jewy show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Rachel Bloom, won Golden Globe Awards last night.
Son of Saul won for best foreign film and Bloom was named best actress in a television series, musical or comedy when the awards were handed out Sunday night. Aaron Sorkin won in the best screenplay category for the film Steve Jobs. Bloom and Sorkin are Jewish.
The televised ceremony included host Ricky Gervais roasting presenter Mel Gibson, who made anti-Semitic slurs to a sheriff’s officer during a widely publicized DUI arrest in 2006.
In Son of Saul, a film funded in part by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the character of Saul Auslander is a member of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz-Birkenau who is forced to cremate the bodies of fellow prisoners gassed by the SS. In one corpse, Saul believes he recognizes his dead son. As the Sonderkommando men plan a rebellion, Saul vows to save the child’s corpse from the flames and find a rabbi to say Kaddish at a proper funeral.
Bloom, along with being the star of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, is the creator of the CW series about a successful New York lawyer, Rebecca Bunch, who follows her summer camp ex-boyfriend to small-town California, even though he has a serious girlfriend. Rebecca’s Judaism is a major element of the show.
Gibson was presenting for the best picture nominee Mad Max: Fury Road when he felt the wrath of Gervais, who had also insulted Gibson at the 2010 Golden Globe Awards ceremony.
“A few years ago on this show I made a joke about Mel Gibson getting a bit drunk and saying a few unsavoury things,” Gervais said Sunday night. “We’ve all done it. I wasn’t judging him, but now I find myself in the awkward position of having to introduce him again. Listen, I’m sure it’s embarrassing for both of us, and I blame NBC for this terrible situation. And Mel blames … well, we know who Mel blames.”
Gibson later apologized for the anti-Semitic remarks he made to the police officer.
Gervais ended the show by saying: “From myself and Mel Gibson, shalom.”
