Lifestyle
Nikki Glaser’s Monologue and Other Moments From the 2025 Globes
The bar wasn’t set very high for the Golden Globes on Sunday night. After last year’s host, Jo Koy, memorably bombed, the emcee this year, Nikki Glaser, could hardly do worse. But she wasn’t content to merely do better. After workshopping her opening monologue in dozens of club appearances over the holidays, she killed when it counted, cracking up the stars on hand at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif., and winning over viewers on social media. The rest of the night went more or less smoothly, with a mix of expected and surprise winners. But it wouldn’t be an awards ceremony if there weren’t some truly off-kilter moments. Here are the highs and lows as we saw them.
Best Host: Nikki Glaser
When Glaser began putting together her Golden Globes monologue in early December, she told her writing staff, “Don’t be scared to be weird.”
You saw evidence of this in her stellar monologue on Sunday, which included the kind of hard punchlines she is known for, including a good insult of Paramount+ and a joke about the effect of Sean Combs’s arrest on the after-party. But there was also an impression of Adam Sandler pronouncing Timothée Chalamet’s name that was just pure silliness — Sandler even joined in. Glaser doesn’t usually do impressions, but she committed and it went over really well, adding to the celebratory, fun tone to kick the night off.
If there was a joke that crushed in every test run, it was probably when she mentioned a few nominees: “‘Wicked,’ ‘Queer,’ ‘Nightbitch,’” then added “Not just things Ben Affleck yells after sex.” On Sunday, it killed again. — Jason Zinoman
Glaser’s night started on the red carpet with a billowing strapless gold ball gown. For her first onstage appearance, she changed into a sequined silver sleeveless gown. By 8:30, she was on her third dress of the night. An hour into the ceremony, she was on Dress No. 5 (a sequined pink sleeveless stunner). By the end of the night, she had donned what seemed like 47 more. All that was missing? We’d have loved to see a dupe of Demi Moore’s viral yellow “Substance” coat. — Sarah Bahr
Most Refreshing Development: Unexpected Winners
Thus far, it’s been an excitingly unpredictable awards season, and though the Globes certainly gave a lot of hardware to already-strong contenders like “Emilia Pérez” and “The Brutalist,” it still feels like a wide open field. In the acting races, unexpected wins for the likes of Demi Moore, Fernanda Torres and Sebastian Stan produced some of the most heartfelt speeches of the night and made already competitive Oscar categories even harder to predict. And a total shutout of “Anora,” which went into Sunday flying high, means that little is decided this season, a fun development after several years in which the ultimate Oscar winners seemed a foregone conclusion long before the Globes weighed in. — Kyle Buchanan
Least Refreshing Development: Retro Red-Carpet Looks
Given that Hollywood awards shows celebrate the art of playing a role, perhaps it shouldn’t have been a big surprise that the dominant trend of the 2025 Globes red carpet was … retro role-playing. Ariana Grande did her best Audrey Hepburn impression in 1966 Givenchy couture; Selena Gomez channeled Jackie Kennedy in ice-blue Prada and a stylized bob; and Nicole Kidman and Margaret Qualley sported enormous Catherine Deneuve bouffants — all in a sea of mostly traditional tuxedos.
You can call it a return to classicism, or a retreat to the past, or the legacy of Joan Rivers, who instilled the fear of mockery in celebrities everywhere. But by the time Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro had arrived in their newfangled Balmain and Dior versions of oldfangled 1950s ball gowns, it was hard not to wish that the stylists and designers working behind the scenes would start facing forward rather than back, and convince their clients to take a few more (unscripted) risks. — Vanessa Friedman
Read more about the red carpet looks.
Most Rousing Speech: Demi Moore
While the Globes have no direct bearing on Oscar nominations, academy members are surely paying attention, and Demi Moore, who won for “The Substance,” may have landed herself a spot in the best actress category with her rousing speech. Both poignant and relatable, Moore spoke movingly about her career struggles over more than 30 years, including being told she was a “popcorn actress.” She added that she had received the “bonkers” script for “The Substance” when she was at a low point in her career, thinking she was done.
But at 62, Moore has had a reversal of fortune and the stars in the room cheered her on, some even giving her a standing ovation. Thinking of “those moments when we don’t think we’re smart enough, or pretty enough, or skinny enough, or successful enough, or basically just not enough,” Moore said, a woman told her, “Just put down the measuring stick.” — Nicole Sperling
Most Sincere Speech: Tadanobu Asano
Many Golden Globe nominees have been to the Beverly Hilton before. And although the Globes are now a more serious operation than they once were, actors still treat wins with varying levels of reverence. That made Tadanobu Asano’s acceptance speech for “Shogun” stand out. It was his first win, on his first nomination, and it showed. “Maybe you don’t know me,” he began. “I’m an actor from Japan. My name is Tadanobu Asano. Wow!” His peers stood and cheered him on. And as he grinned and clutched his award, he added: “This is a very big present for me!” He sure seemed like he meant it. — Matt Stevens
Weirdest Honor: Box Office Achievement
The award for “cinematic and box office achievement” debuted in 2024, and this year it was, unsurprisingly, given to “Wicked.” The official criteria is that it is the “most acclaimed, highest-earning and/or most viewed” feature, which basically describes every nominated film. But it also must have made $150 million worldwide, with at least $100 million domestically, which is pretty much the dictionary definition of a blockbuster. (“Wicked” finished 2024 with well over $680 million worldwide.)
This is a weird award to give out, and its presenter Vin Diesel made it even weirder by contrasting, in his preamble, his own “Fast and Furious” series and the work of Steven Spielberg (who invented the summer blockbuster with “Jaws” in 1975). But it’s also just a tad participation trophy-ish to hand out a golden statue to celebrate a movie making bank at the box office, no matter how fun the movie is. To quote Don Draper: “That’s what the money’s for.” — Alissa Wilkinson
Biggest Lesson Not Learned
Amid an onslaught of commercials for weight loss injections and various pharmaceutical creams, pills, drops and supplements, Nikki Glaser took some of the usual potshots at Hollywood’s penchant for plastic surgery. “I love where you put your cheekbones!” she riffed to the audience in her opening monologue.
But unlike other hosts, she acknowledged that she had been getting her tweaks on, too. Claiming, with air quotes, that she had started healthy habits like “drinking more water,” she said: “I love how meditating removes your eyelids” — aka the common tuck known as an upper bleph. “I learned nothing from ‘The Substance,’” she added.
That that movie, a feminist body horror tale, won Demi Moore her first Globe for playing an aging star who finds a grotesque way to youthify herself, only added to the evening’s hall of mirrors. — Melena Ryzik
Best and Worst Innovation: Telecast Fun Facts
Hey, did you know that Mindy Kaling was named after the TV show “Mork & Mindy?” Or that Zoe Saldaña’s go-to karaoke song is “Piece of My Heart”? The Golden Globes went all “Pop-Up Video” during the telecast, sharing these “facts” about winners and presenters via onscreen text. At first, the addition seemed semi-clever, but it all became too much when the announcer shared more facts on top of the ones we had to read. Even if you’re celebrity-obsessed, this turned out to be T.M.I. — Mekado Murphy
I found the trivia at the Golden Globes to be refreshingly weird. Awards season fun-facts can feel so canned: who spent time with who to prepare for a role, when was the last big win for a nominee. T.M.I. or not, my night was greatly improved by learning that Demi Moore is an avid doll collector with a separate residence to house her more than 2,000 vintage dolls. — Annie Aguiar
Wisest Advice: ‘Hacks’
The Globes are a notoriously boozy affair, but after “Hacks” won for best television comedy, Paul W. Downs, a co-creator of the series, warned against giving his star a celebratory drink. The show is currently in production on its fourth season, and a 6 a.m. call time awaited the cast and crew the next morning.
“So if Jean Smart asks you for a shot, please do not give it to her, OK?” Downs said. “Kate Winslet, I’m looking at you, wherever you are. Give her water.” The camera cut to Winslet, who shook a finger at Downs. Downs relinquished, “Just a little shot. Maybe one.” — Esther Zuckerman
Most Supportive Presenter: Elton John
Elton John reacted like a proud parent when he announced that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross had won best original score for “Challengers,” yelping with utter, seemingly genuine delight. He was a good stand-in for those of us in the audience who were thrilled to see a win for that thumping, propulsive music. When Reznor and Ross took the stage, John could be seen grinning eagerly behind them, as if he had just won himself. — Kellina Moore
Strangest Camera Work
For an ostensibly glamorous ceremony, the show itself looked terrible onscreen. Presenters were filmed awfully close up, giving everything a harsh and casual vibe. The swirling camera work during some of the acceptance speeches felt like the red carpet slo-mo booth had broken out of its enclosure. And presenters did not face the entire theater, but rather turned directly to a camera off to one side. Seth Rogen called it out, saying “It’s inelegant. It’s strange. This whole half of the room can see my bald spot. I would have filled that in. I said no, but I regret that now.” — Margaret Lyons
Sunday Puzzle
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This week’s challenge
Today’s puzzle is a tribute to Mimi. Every answer is a familiar two word phrase or name in which each word starts with the letters MI-.
Ex. Assignment for soldiers –> MILITARY MISSION
1. Pageant title for a contestant from Detroit
2. One of the Twin Cities
3. Nickname for the river through New Orleans
4. Super short skirt
5. Neighborhood in Los Angeles that contains Museum Row
6. Just over four times the distance from the earth to the moon
7. Goateed sing-along conductor of old TV
8. American financier who pioneered so-called “junk bonds”
9. Little accident
10. Land-based weapon in America’s nuclear arsenal
11. In “Snow White,” the evil queen’s words before “on the wall”
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge comes from Benita Rice, of Salem, Ore. Name a famous foreign landmark (5,4). Change the eighth letter to a V and rearrange the result to make an adjective that describes this landmark. What landmark is it?
Answer
Notre Dame –> Renovated
Winner
Chee Sing Lee of Bangor, Maine
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from James Ellison, of Jefferson City, Mo. Think of a popular movie of the past decade. Change the last letter in its title. The result will suggest a lawsuit between two politicians of the late 20th century — one Republican and one Democrat. What’s the movie and who are the people?
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, April 23 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
This story is part of Image’s April’s Thresholds issue, a tour of L.A. architecture as it’s actually experienced.
A landmark is a landmark because it tells you that you’re home now — the piece of earth you’ve chosen to inhabit saying, “You’ve made it back, congratulations.” We identify our cities with their landmarks, and because we identify with our cities, we identify with the landmarks too. They are us and we are them, mirroring each other through eternity. A city like New York or Chicago, with the Chrysler Building, the Bean, etc., has landmarks that exist in the world’s popular consciousness. But L.A.’s most cherished landmarks belong to us and us alone, a secret you’re let in on if you live here long enough and pay attention.
The Fashion Nova baddie in horizontal sprawl off the Vertigo, for example, is an emblem for those in the know. Our twisted version of a capitalist guardian angel, patron saint of spandex in a cropped matching set. Welcome to El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Fashion Nova. Merging on the 110 South from the 10 East while the sunset burns and traffic thickens is a miracle in more ways than one, and in the spirit of compulsively performing the sign of the cross when you pass a church on the freeway, this billboard is deserving of its own acknowledgment.
It may not be the landmark L.A. asked for, but in Sayre Gomez’s painting “Vertigo,” you begin to understand why it’s the one we deserve. At the opening for “Precious Moments,” Gomez’s solo show at David Kordansky, the room was vibrating. A game of energetic ping-pong unfolded underneath the gallery’s fluorescent light, beams of identification, recollections or stabs of grief bouncing off each piece in the exhibition. People were seeing hyperspecific parts of a city they love reflected in a hyperspecific way — for better and for worse. Recognition has two edges and they both happen to be sharp. Gomez twists the knife deeper for a good cause: He wants you not just to look but to really see.
In his work exist iconic signs of beloved local establishments — like the Playpen — the blinding glint reflecting off downtown’s skyline, telephone poles regarded as totems. The line to see Gomez’s replica of L.A.’s graffiti towers, “Oceanwide Plaza,” snaked through the gallery’s courtyard. Once inside, at least three graffiti writers whose names were blasted on the replica pointed it out proudly, even gave out stickers to take home. The truth can be beautiful and it can be ugly — in this case it’s both — on the flip side showing up in the form of smog, tattered flags and an abandoned graffiti tower that starkly represents the pitfalls of capitalism and greed, a neon arrow pointing to the homelessness crisis.
Because the Vertigo is something everybody who lives here recognizes as central to a sort of framework of Los Angeles. And I think the encampment has become that as well. It’s connecting these integral components — something that’s more revelatory and more fun with something that’s more grave.
— Sayre Gomez
In the main gallery, I was stuck on “Vertigo.” On the 12-foot canvas, my eye went to the place out of focus: the thin strip of billboard in the background featuring a young woman with sand-dune hips, patent knee-high boots and long black hair laid up on her side, wearing cat ears and a tiger bodysuit as flush as second skin. The model made the kind of eye contact that felt dangerous — might cause an accident if you’re not careful. “#1 Halloween Destination … FASHION NOVA,” it read. I knew her, anyone who has driven through the two main arteries of Los Angeles knows her. The black-and-white smiley motif of the Vertigo, an events space, sat right next to her face, just happy to be there, it seemed, above a painted sign that says “Ready to Party?”
The sky was the color of cotton candy, but the stale kind that’s been hardening in a plastic bag for days after the fair. Something rancid about it. In the foreground of the painting was a car encampment with a tattered floral sheet woven through the windows, cloth tarps and couch cushions creating a shield against the elements. Small plastic children’s toys lined at the top of the car — dinosaurs and dump trucks and sharks — creating their own shrunken skyline in front of the Vertigo, signaling that young kids likely lived there. It’s less juxtaposition for juxtaposition’s sake and more an accurate reflection of the breakneck duality of living in a place like L.A.
Even angels exist within the context of their environments. Our Fashion Nova baddie hangs off the Vertigo, a building that has used its ad space as physical clickbait and political posturing for over a decade. It’s promoting the kind of fast fashion brand that’s been regarded as a case study on the industry’s environmental impact. In the years the billboard has been up, it’s looked over dozens and dozens of car encampments like the one depicted in Gomez’s piece.
She feels dubious, yes. But no less like ours.
Julissa James: I’ve lived in L.A. for 13 years now. For me, the city and the architecture of the city is less the Frank Lloyd Wrights and Frank Gehrys — there’s that — but other landmarks that signal, “Oh, I’m home.” The Fashion Nova baddie above the Vertigo has always been that for me. Your piece is layered and there’s so much more to it than just that, but that’s the first thing I saw and was like, “Whoa. I need to talk to Sayre. We need to talk about ‘Vertigo.’”
Sayre Gomez: It’s like L.A.’s Statue of Liberty. It’s the city of anti-landmarks, you know what I mean? I mean, there’s the Hollywood sign, which I think is so telling, because it’s the remnants of a real estate venture. The city is built by real estate schemes and 100 years later we’re feeling the effects of it. You’ve got empty skyscrapers and a massive homeless catastrophe. L.A. doesn’t really have real landmarks. It has anti-landmarks.
JJ: When did the Fashion Nova billboard above the Vertigo click for you as something that felt representative of the city, or something that you wanted to depict?
SG: My studio is in Boyle Heights, so I pass that billboard multiple times a week. This is my 20th year in L.A. and that building’s always been a big mystery to me. It was empty when I moved here before this guy Shawn Farr bought it and turned it into Casa Vertigo. I think he probably makes more money on it with the ad space than anything. I know nobody who has ever been there. Very mysterious to me. So that’s what I was drawn to.
(Paul Salveson from David Kordansky Gallery)
The Vertigo has always been mysterious to me. And that whole fashion industry is mysterious to me — the kind of shmatta, American Apparel-adjacent, or maybe coming out of the wake of that. These kinds of businesses, or the representations of these businesses, how do they function and how do they flourish? Is it aboveboard? What more perfectly encapsulates that than that building? It’s this weird thing you can’t quite figure out but somehow it has a lot of money and then it’s an event space, supposedly billed as that. Clearly it’s this big ad thing, and I’m very interested in the changing dynamics of capital. The capital of yesteryear, which was based on the brick and mortar, where things are being made in a specific location, maybe on an assembly line or in a specific way, to a kind of capital that is based solely on advertising or on viewership. These beautiful buildings acting as pedestals for some kind of ad space, you know? It becomes an anti-landmark for me. Something where I’m like, “Oh, there’s that thing again.”
JJ: It’s this gorgeous Beaux Arts building …
SG: It’s a Freemason building!
JJ: When I’ve talked to some people about the Vertigo, they’re like, “the Fashion Nova building?”
SG: They always have the woman in the same pose — same pose, different clothes. If you remember before Fashion Nova, they would have these provocative ad campaigns or provocative slogans. “Twerk Miley” was up, remember that? They did a Trump one: “TRUMP NOW.” They did one for Kanye when he ran for president. The 10 and the 110 are literally the crossroads of the city, so it’s really poised to be a special building. It has a special designation because of the location.
JJ: Talk to me about the process of doing this piece. Where did it start and how did it evolve?
SG: I was cruising around that vicinity trying to see if I could get a good vantage point to take photos of Vertigo. And then I stumbled upon this car — the car that’s in the foreground of the painting. Anytime I see an encampment that has kids’ toys, things that reference back to the lives of children, it hits hard. But I like to lay it all out there. I like to make things confrontational. I want it to be difficult. The painting isn’t based on a one-to-one photo [Gomez paints from a composite rendering of images he’s taken around town], but I knew that I wanted to use that car, and I knew I wanted to get the Vertigo building, and so I started just messing around with different iterations. I could never find a good angle to take a good photo of the building, so I just went on Vertigo’s website and I was like, “I’m just using these.” I switched the sky and put a more moody, atmospheric sky in.
JJ: Which I loved, because we know that feeling — you’re merging onto the 110 and you see a beautiful sunset. The euphoria of like, “L.A. is the best city in the world.” But you know what? What I found so interesting about your piece is that it was revealing to me about myself, but also about so many of us that live in L.A. and have lived here for years and have developed a jadedness. When I saw your piece, immediately I was like, “Oh my God, the Vertigo! The Vertigo! The Vertigo!” And then I was like, “OK, wait, hold on, there’s so much more going on here.” But the fact that my eye went to that first instead of the car encampment, the kids’ toys, brought up a lot of questions about my own relationship to the city and the things that we choose to see, the things that maybe we’ve seen so much of that we subconsciously filter it out. Why was it important for you to put these two things up against each other in this way?
SG: Because the Vertigo is something everybody who lives here recognizes as central to a sort of framework of Los Angeles. And I think the encampment has become that as well. It’s connecting these integral components — something that’s more revelatory and more fun with something that’s more grave. That’s what I’m doing in my work at large. I use the sunsets and the beauty to create a dialogue, to entice people to sort of look a little bit at how things are contextualized, how things act, what’s actually happening. I don’t make things in a vacuum. I was working on this show and I was going to really push this agenda of incorporating more of my experience with my kids into the work. That’s also a double-edged sword. I wanted to interject some levity, because the work can get so dark. I wanted to bring in some iconography from their world and things that they get excited about. When you’re juxtaposing that with really stark things, it becomes darker. I want to thicken the stock a little bit. Make things a little more complex.
Phil Pritchard of the Hockey Hall of Fame works the 2019 NHL Awards at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on June 19, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
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This week’s show was recorded in Chicago with host Peter Sagal, judge and guest scorekeeper Alzo Slade, Not My Job guest Phil Pritchard and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Adam Burke, and Dulcé Sloan. Click the audio link above to hear the whole show.
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