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Backstage Report: Glee Cast Gets Loud, Sandra Bullock Gets Worried, Meryl Streep Gets Potatoes (Finally)

All the scoop from the night's big Golden Globe winners, including Drew Barrymore on her "date" and Michael C. Hall on his cancer

By Joal Ryan Jan 18, 2010 5:25 AMTags
Sandra BullockKevin Winter/Getty Images

The cast of Glee lived out loud. Sandra Bullock had second thoughts about her gown. Drew Barrymore dished on her "date." Michael C. Hall dished on his hat. And Meryl Streep made some shocking culinary—and Avatar—confessions.

Here's what was cooking backstage at the 67th Golden Globe Awards:

5:35 p.m.: Mo'Nique, who's taken heat in the Oscar blogosphere for not playing the Oscar game, sure seems like she knows how to play. She's put-together, she's composed and she's working the room. Everybody's "baby" or "sugar."

I ask the Precious star if she could've written a speech as powerful as the one she delivered off the top of her head (and from the bottom of her heart). She's not even going there. "I [didn't] want to prepare when they call my name," she says. "We'll just let it happen. Thank you, sister." That's me, sister.

I try asking another question, but Mo'Nique demurs—first, "sugar," she wants to field Q's from other reporters. That's me, sugar.

Based on her performance tonight, if Mo'Nique does decide to get into the Oscar game, then the game will be over for her competition. She's good.

Steve Granitz/Getty Images

Dexter's Michael C. Hall seems fine. It's we reporters who seem out of sorts. After respectful applause for Hall's entrance, the room falls silent. "Am I supposed to talk?" Hall asks.  

Our own Ted Casablanca does not shy away from broaching the subject of Hall's health—the actor revealed last week he'd been diagnosed with cancer. "I had every intention of keeping it quiet," Hall tells Casablanca, "but because the award shows were imminent, I thought I'd make a statement."

OK, so about Hall's headwear: Yes, it's a treatment-related accessory, but more importantly, it's comfy. "I wanted something that was pretty simple, but a maybe a little fancier than your normal thing," he explains.

Everything in Hollywood is nipped, tucked or altered. Even Hall's hat. He says it used to run longer.

OK, so about Dexter (finally): Hall says the show's writers, they of last season's shocking finale, head back to clean up the mess and start the new season on Wednesday. "I think I'm excited as all the viewers to see what's in store," he says.

5:45 p.m.: In case you were wondering, no, it's never a bad thing to run into George Clooney, as The Good Wife's Julianna Margulies did on her way to accept her Globe. "That was the best. I got a little flustered," she tells us of the impromptu ER reunion. "I couldn't get up there [to the stage], and then I saw this face. This familiar face. It was very heartwarming."

Meryl Streep always wins, right? Tell that to the living legend. Make that the living, breathing-heavy heavy.

The obligatory cooking question has been asked of the Julie & Julia star, and the answer is: "I cook constantly," Streep says, "but not well."

Miss Streep—that's how she's addressed back here, by the way, as Miss Streep—reveals she did not know what a potato looked like until she was 10. To repeat: Did not know what a potato looked like. Consider that further warning if you're ever invited for dinner at the Miss Streeps.

Kevin Bacon starred in a movie about the military (Taking Chance) and not Julia Child, so he gets the obligatory Haiti question. "You feel weird, you feel guilty putting on your monkey suit," Bacon tells us. "But on the flip side, it's good to come out to talk about it."

6:35 p.m.: What is Justin Long to Drew Barrymore exactly? He is her "date." That's how the Grey Gardens lady describes Long, her off-again, on-again whatchamacallit (and red-carpet companion), whom, she reminds us, she forgot to thank in her acceptance speech.

Barrymore also failed to call out her Grey Gardens costar/mother, Jessica Lange, in her speech. Given the second chance, she announces, "I wish I could split this award in half." (She makes no such pledge to her "date.")

The word amazing has so many definitions. While Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner is talking about all the "amazing shows" on TV today, January Jones lets out a howl for Jersey Shore. "In our category, January," Weiner clarifies.

Jon Hamm looks exactly like this. Really, truly, it's a show-stopper of a beard. The explanation for it, however, is ordinary. "I just got very tired of shaving," he says, "and this is the result"

Big Love's Chloë Sevigny walks up to the mic like she's the Queen. It turns out she's waiting for the proper greeting. "That was such a tinkle of applause," she laughs, before working the room into a proper frenzy.  

For the fashion record, Sevigny is wearing torn Valentino tonight. The tear's courtesy of the Globes elf who escorted her up to the stage—and stepped on her dress. Not that Sevigny noticed…

Steve Granitz / Getty Images

7:25 p.m.: Martin Scorsese is…um…He's…Well, the Globes' esteemed Cecil B. DeMille honoree is being drowned out by some crazy, loud screaming coming from behind a nearby curtain.

I peak behind the curtain. It's the victorious cast of Glee. Kids…

What exactly was going on, if it weren't obvious? Wait a second—it was obvious. "We were very joyous and drunk," Glee creator Ryan Murphy tells us.

Hope the Glee kids aren't getting too joyous. "We're shooting tomorrow at 8 in the morning—a big choir scene," Murphy says.  

In Glee, Lea Michele's the one who can't stay away from the microphone. Back here, Michele's staying on the sidelines; Jane Lynch is the one who's in the middle of every sound bite. Guess which actress says she has a party-friendly 5 p.m. call tomorrow?

Go figure, the cast of the let-it-all-hang-out The Hangover is not nearly as raucous as that of Glee.

Go figure, Mike Tyson is one of the most touching stories we've had back here tonight. The ex-champ says that he was in a dark place before Hangover director Todd Phillips called. "This gave me a new lease on life," he says.

Good thing for Tyson that Tyson had seen Phillips' Old School. "I didn't have too much faith in [The Hangover]," Tyson says. "Someone told me the guy did Old School, so once they told me that, I wanted to do it."

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

7:45 p.m.: If Meryl Streep still gets taken back at awards shows, imagine how newbie Sandra Bullock feels. "I don't know how to operate," the surreally serene Blind Side actress says. "I don't know what to do."

"My dress isn't see-through—you guys would tell me, right?" Bullock suddenly asks. (No, it's not. And, yes, we'd tell her. Right after we blogged about it.)

Robert Downey Jr. is still bantering with his Sherlock Holmes-producing wife, Susan. "Did you or did you not say Matt Damon was going to win?" Downey asks his spouse. (For the record, Susan Downey says she did not; she tells us she merely pointed out that the blogosphere said Damon was going to win.)

As if Avatar needs another plug...Crazy Heart's Jeff Bridges says winning an award is like seeing James Cameron's titanic 3-D hit: "I was expecting to be surprised...but I wasn't expected to be moved."

In person, the cast of Avatar looks much smaller. Except for Sigourney Weaver.

Being in a movie that just won the Globe for Best Motion Picture, Drama, and may soon be the world's biggest moneymaker ever can change a man's life—not to mention his outlook on airports. "I get through customs easier," the Aussie-accented Sam Worthington says. "I don't get the rubber glove anymore."

According to Cameron, who related a recent conversation he had with Streep, the actress thinks a motion-capture performance, à la Avatar, is about the same as doing voice-over work, à la The Fantastic Mr. Fox.

For those keeping score at home, here's a list of things Meryl Streep doesn't know much about: (1) potatoes and (2) what James Cameron does for a living.

Someone tries to get Cameron to reassert himself as "The King of the World." The leading question doesn't work. Well, maybe at the Oscars…

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