Backstage Report: Stars Dish After Winning Globes

Interviews and observations from backstage at the 2009 Golden Globes

Kate Winslet wins and reveals the joys of blotting papers. Laura Dern wins and revisits her 1980s-hair past.  

Here's a rundown of the night's backstage doings—and sayings:

5:20 p.m.: "I feel surprised…I feel relieved. I've been nervous all day," says Winslet, who still looks jittery. One's first major Hollywood award ever after a bajillion nominations will do that to one, apparently, and to Winslet, specifically.   

• When Winslet accepted her award, she opened her purse, revealing to the camera what appeared to be two pieces of paper. Were they two acceptance speeches, one for The Reader and one for Revolutionary Road, for which she's up for Best Drama Actress? Has the award-deprived Winslet come fully armed tonight? Yes, in a way. In the makeup department.

"They were blotting papers," Winslet tells me. "It wasn't a second speech. No further expectations."

• Blotting papers are papers used to, yes, blot. If you must know the nitty-gritty details, they're used to blot residue from your face. If your oily face has never heard of them, you've got company. "Somebody told me about them tonight," blotting-paper convert Winslet reports.

• The low-key Tom Wilkinson is back here now because the supercharged Jeremy Piven isn't. (Wilkinson beat Piven, et al, in the supporting TV actor category.) I'd ask Wilkinson the question I had ready for Piven, but I doubt Wilkinson knows if Piven is still radioactive.

• Who knew Wilkinson was a regular Winslet, minus the blotting papers? "I got terribly flustered [on stage]. It's much more unsettling than you think it's going to be, especially when you see Clint Eastwood and Bruce Springsteen," he says. "If I make a mistake they'll come beat me up."

• Laura Dern must have sprinted back here. I've never seen a star go from stage to backstage faster. Oddly, though, she's nowhere near as out of breath as Winslet was.

• Aren't reporters great? They dredge up stuff like how you were a Miss Golden Globe in 1982, and then ask you about it on your big night. Good sport Dern, a winner for Recount, doesn't mind the flashback. She even had one herself on the drive to the Beverly Hilton. "I remembered my grandma dropping me off to rehearse for the Golden Globes," she says.

• Aren't reporters great? They hunt around for a picture of your Miss Golden Globes past, and then post the link so everybody can enjoy your modestly feathered bangs.