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Golden Globes 2018: The highs and lows


The network says the tweet was "in reference to a joke made during the monologue and not meant to be a political statement."

The joke that started it all »


HIGH: E! gets called out

In addition to wearing black for solidarity against sexism, a few bold stars — namely, Debra Messing, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Eva Longoria — called out the E! network for the pay inequality that led to the departure of E! News host Catt Sadler. (Sadler left in December after discovering that her male co-anchor was earning double her salary.) “I was so shocked to hear that E! doesn’t believe in paying their female co-hosts the same as their male co-hosts,” Messing told E!’s Giuliana Rancic. And we were shocked — and pleased — to hear that truth spoken on the red carpet.

LOW: Seth Meyers’s Weinstein fail

Once you invoke the name “Harvey Weinstein,” there’s no easy way to get a laugh. But Golden Globes host Seth Meyers made things so much for worse for himself by resorting to a leaden punch line in his monologue about how the disgraced producer will be booed in 20 years when he’s allowed back to the Globes … for the “In Memoriam” segment. Oof.

HIGH: Laura Dern, Reese Witherspoon, and Nicole Kidman speak truths

Toxic masculinity and domestic abuse were big themes of HBO’s miniseries Big Little Lies, for which Kidman and Dern received Golden Globes, and for which Witherspoon shared the award for producing. All three addressed these issues with moving acceptance speeches, drawing parallels between their Big Little Lies characters and the Time’s Up movement. “May we teach our children that speaking out without the fear of retribution is our culture’s new North Star,” said Dern (watch below).

LOW: Alexander Skarsgård misses the memo

Their co-star and fellow winner Alexander Skarsgård, on the other hand, missed an opportunity to call out the relevance of his abusive husband character — and referred to his Big Little Lies co-stars as “girls.”

HIGH: Sterling K. Brown’s heartfelt acceptance speech

Sterling K. Brown beat out a host of A-list competitors to snag the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama for his turn in This Is Us, and then delivered one of the show’s most moving moments when, at the end of his acceptance speech, he singled out showrunner Dan Fogelman for providing him with an opportunity given to few other African-American actors. With heartfelt emotion, Brown praised Fogelman for writing a role “for a black man. That could only be played by a black man. So what I appreciate so much about this thing is that I’m being seen for who I am, and being appreciated for who I am. And it makes it that much more difficult to dismiss me or dismiss anyone who looks like me. So thank you, Dan.”

Sterling K. Brown accepts the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama for This Is Us. (Photo: Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal via Getty Images) More

Story Continues


Because the New England Patriots had a bye last week and had no media obligations after the ESPN story detailing inner strife with the team came out, that story has bled into this week.

That story took many turns, and one was that there was a growing sense the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady/Robert Kraft triangle of power could be breaking up after this season. Kraft isn’t selling the team, Brady isn’t going anywhere after an MVP season with no backup quarterback plan on the roster anymore, so that leaves Belichick.

And Belichick isn’t going anywhere either, he says. When asked Monday if he intended to coach the Patriots next season he replied “absolutely,” according to NBC Sports Boston’s Michael Giardi.

While there were other parts of the story that were quite interesting, the one crucial element is if any of the purported power struggle affects if Belichick will be around in 2018, assuming Brady and Kraft aren’t going anywhere. If we take Belichick at his word — it’s not a binding contract to tell the media you plan to be back in New England for another season, and like Brady saying he has a “great relationship” with Belichick, there’s really no other way for Belichick to answer the question before a playoff push — then the story is just fun fodder and an interesting look behind the curtain. As long as Belichick and Brady are back in 2018, the rest just gets sports talk radio through the day.

As for getting Belichick to open up about any of the other parts of the ESPN story, good luck. Belichick said he hadn’t read the article, which is a bit hard to believe, but we’re talking about Belichick here.

“I know you want to report on things that are inaccurate and unattributable, and I’m not interested in responding to all those random and in a lot of cases baseless comments,” Belichick said, via Ben Volin of the Boston Globe.

Story Continues

The New England media even tried to get Belichick to answer about a New York Daily News story that claimed he had eyes for the New York Giants’ coaching job, which is open. That rumor ignored that Belichick is under contract with the Patriots and it’s impossible to imagine Kraft letting Belichick go. But all that matters to Belichick is Saturday night’s playoff game against the Tennessee Titans.

“Right now my interest is trying to do the best I can for our football team to get ready,” Belichick replied when asked about the Giants, via Giardi.

You’re not going to flummox the Patriots this easily. Whereas other teams seem to let off-field drama spiral out of control — the days and days of Steelers angst over Antonio Brown’s Facebook Live snafu last postseason comes to mind — the Patriots seem to ignore outside issues better than any other franchise. If anything, they’ll probably turn it into motivation. That’s what they do.

We’ll find out how deep the Patriots issues are this offseason if Belichick leaves, as unlikely as that seems. For now, everyone at the Patriots claims there’s nothing going on. Not that we expected a different answer.

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said he plans to be back with the team next season. (AP)

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Frank Schwab is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!




LeBron James is from Cleveland, and as such he is a Cleveland Browns fan. Well, when he’s not cheering for the Dallas Cowboys, that is.

Still, LeBron is an Ohio icon and one of the most powerful voices in sports. Meanwhile, the Browns were the worst team in football this year, going 0-16 in 2017-18.

Fans in Cleveland decided to lean in to the badness of their team by holding a parade honoring the winless season. It was covered at length, and now LeBron has decided to chime in.

Via Twitter and The Athletic:

LeBron James on how he'd feel about the 0-16 parade if he was a Browns player. Final Thoughts from Orlando… https://t.co/ySuBhzfQJ9 pic.twitter.com/Q617FzKS1J — Jason Lloyd (@JasonLloydNBA) January 7, 2018

That LeBron was cool with Browns fans doing the parade is actually pretty hilarious. Athletes tend to get sensitive about this sort of thing, so to see him so casual about the thing is refreshing.

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