Last night’s Golden Globes wasn’t just a party for the rich and famous, it was also a celebration of free speech. To that end, some of the stars found ways to honour the victims of Charlie Hebdo.
While protesters marched across Europe to show their support for the victims of the horrific terror attack in France earlier this week, Hollywood handed out the annual Golden Globes awards to happy celebrities.
In France alone, more than three million marchers (including more than 40 world leaders) chanted “Liberté” and “Je suis Charlie” as they honoured the 17 victims of the terrorist attacks which have rocked the nation – and the world.
It all started with Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine which refused to back down and censor its criticism of political and religious issues, and paid the highest price imaginable.
The topic of free speech was already on Hollywood’s radar, after December’s Sony hacking scandal, and the outrage that followed Sony’s temporary decision to give into the hackers’ demands and cancel the North Korean parody The Interview.
And at tonight’s Golden Globes, the stars offered some sympathy for the Charlie Hebdo victims – although maybe not enough.
Related: 2014 Golden Globes: See the winners!
Ahead of the event, movie producer Harvey Weinstein penned an open letter to the Globes in which he said, “Charlie Hebdo is a reminder of the beauty of art and the beauty of language. No one can ever defeat the ability of great artists to show us our world.”
“I hope we can all raise glasses and that someone like Tina [Fey], Amy [Poehler] or George Clooney will urge us to toast with 300 million viewers around the world: ‘Je suis Charlie, je suis juif, je suis Ahmed’,” he said.
The closest the event got to such a moment was when Dutch journalist and Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Theo Kingma got people on their feet to salute the victims.
Further, several stars individually expressed their support both on the stage and behind the scenes.
George Clooney and his wife Amal were both seen wearing “Je suis Charlie” pins on the red carpet, and Clooney used his acceptance speech (he won the Cecil B. DeMille Award, bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment”) to reference the tragedy:
“Today was an extraordinary day,” he reminded the room. “There were millions of people that marched, not just in Paris but around the world. They were Christians and Jews and Muslims, they were leaders of countries all over the world. And they didn’t march in protest, they marched in support of the idea we will not walk in fear. We won’t do it. So, Je suis Charlie. Thank you.”
Clooney also took the opportunity to remind the crowd how privileged they are. “For the record, if you’re in this room you’ve caught the brass ring,” he said. “You get to do what you’ve always dreamed to do and be celebrated for it, and it ain’t losing.”
Backstage, Clooney shared his worry that the world will react to what has happened in the wrong way. “Right now, we’re trying to process the idea of what the world is going to look like,” he says. “There’s a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe, and we need to make sure that doesn’t get combined in this fervor.”
Jared Leto also took the opportunity to make a statement, when presenting an award to Boyhood‘s Patricia Arquette.
“To our brothers, sisters, friends and families in France, our thoughts, our prayers, our hearts are with you tonight. On vous aime. Je suis Charlie,” he said.
A few other stars found ways to express their support on the red carpet. Dame Helen Mirren, Josh Jackson, Diane Kruger, and Kathy Bates all held up signs bearing the words “Je suis Charlie.”
We are left wondering whether an awards ceremony which celebrates artistic expression – and which celebrates a culture in which one is free to express powerful statements and share them with the world – did enough to show solidarity with the artists at the Charlie Hebdo magazine.