From Michael Douglas’ Yiddish exclamation to more success for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel to Regina King’s Hebrew-letter tattoo, the 2019 Golden Globes had its fair share of Jewish moments.
Rachel Brosnahan is not Jewish, but she does a convincing job playing a very Jewish woman in Mrs. Maisel. She won best actress in a comedy show for the second year in a row. During Sunday night’s awards from the Beverly Hills Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, she earned praise for the way she thanked her Jewish show runner Amy Sherman-Palladino, saying: “Our village is a matriarchy led by Amy Sherman-Palladino.”
Brosnahan edged out fellow Jewish best actress nominees Alison Brie (Glow) and Debra Messing (Will & Grace).
Michael Douglas accepted the best actor award for a TV musical or comedy from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his role as aging acting coach Sandy Kominsky in The Kominsky Method. Douglas thanked the show’s Jewish creator, Chuck Lorre, and acknowledged his co-star and “dancing partner” Alan Arkin. He paid tribute to his 102-year-old father Kirk Douglas, then elicited laughter by raising the award and shouting “Alte kockers rule!” — using a Yiddish equivalent of an ”old fart.”
It was Douglas’ third Golden Globe, which include his roles in 1988’s Wall Street and 2014’s Behind the Candelabra. He also received the Cecil B. Demille Award for outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment in 2004.
The Kominsky Method also won best comedy TV series, bringing Lorre his first award after seven Emmy Award nominations.
“This doesn’t happen to me,” he said during his acceptance speech. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’m up here trembling like a leaf.”
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The Americans‘ series creator, writer and executive producer Joe Weisberg accepted the best drama series award for the sixth and final season of his show about the Cold War as lived by two married KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington, D.C., during the Reagan administration. The show had previously been nominated for five Golden Globes.
The omnipresent Jewish songwriter, producer and DJ Mark Ronson — who has collaborated with the likes of Bruno Mars and Miley Cyrus — was part of a team of four, which included singer Lady Gaga, to collect the award for best song for Shallow, from the movie A Star is Born. Andrew Wyatt, and Anthony Rossomando make up the rest of that team.
“You took a heartfelt, honest tune and you gave it emotional resonance that we could’ve only dreamed of,” Ronson told Lady Gaga in accepting the award. “Seriously, the way you weaved the lyrics into the film and the narrative of your beautiful heartbreaking film is why we’re standing up here tonight, I believe.”
Actress Glenn Close took the Golden Globe award for best actress in a drama film for her role in The Wife, which is based on a book by Jewish author Meg Wolitzer.
In accepting the 2019 Cecil B. DeMille Award, actor Jeff Bridges thanked Ethan and Joel Coen, who directed him in the 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski. Bridges’ character in that film, known as The Dude, is widely considered to be his most iconic role.
“If I’m lucky I’ll be associated with The Dude of rest of my life. I feel so honoured to be a part of that film,” Bridges said in thanking the Coens, whom he called “true masters.”
Meanwhile, as it seems to do during every recent awards ceremony, social media was going bonkers trying to figure out what the tattoo made up of three Hebrew letters on actress Regina King’s left forearm means.
King, who won best supporting actress for If Beale Street Could Talk, has addressed the tattoo in interviews with mainstream media. The three Hebrew letters show up in the list of “72 names of God” according to the mystical Jewish tradition and have been interpreted by Christians and New age practitioners as meaning “unconditional love.”