MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Finally, yesterday was a big award tonight for Hollywood - "Les Miserables" and "Argo" took home top movie prizes at the 70th annual Golden Globes. And there are a few speeches that people are still talking about.
Here to catch us up and also look ahead with Oscar picks is Sheila Marikar. She is an entertainment reporter and producer with ABC News.com. Sheila, welcome back. Thanks for joining us once again.
SHEILA MARIKAR: Thanks for having me, Michel.
MARTIN: You were telling us that last night was a big night for women in Hollywood. How so?
MARIKAR: It really was. It felt like women were kind of coming into their on the stage in a way that we hadn't previously seen in the award season. You know, Lena Dunham from "Girls" really proved that she's a force in Hollywood to be reckoned with. And many of the most memorable speeches were made by women last night. Of course, Jodie Foster's speech was absolutely incredible. I don't think anyone was expecting that lifetime achievement award acceptance speech to become such a huge thing that people are definitely still talking about this morning.
MARTIN: Let me play a short clip for people who may not have seen it. And I have to say pretty mixed reviews. I mean clearly...
MARIKAR: Definitely.
MARTIN: ...people we're talking about it so it had an impact. But let me play a short clip and then you can tell us a little bit more about it.
JODIE FOSTER: I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago, back in the Stone Age. In those...
(APPLAUSE)
FOSTER: ...those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends, and family, and coworkers and then gradually, proudly, to everyone who knew her. To everyone she actually met. But now, apparently I'm told, that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a primetime reality show.
MARTIN: OK. So you were live blogging and tweeting last night and I think it's pretty clear that she's saying that she's gay.
MARIKAR: Yes.
MARTIN: That's pretty clear. But what else was she saying? At the end of the day, what you think Jodie Foster wanted us to know?
MARIKAR: You know, I think at the end of the day she wanted us to know that she has been in this business for 47 years, which is an incredibly long time, and yeah, that she's sort of scene the paparazzi and the media coverage of Hollywood go from what it was a few decades ago to the total, you know, insanity that it can be sometimes now. I think that she wanted people to know that she sort of doesn't define herself by what the media and what other people are saying about her, and that she's sort of trying to chart her own path and figure out whether she do now after, you know, nearly five decades in the industry, what's her next move. And she sort of implied that she is retiring from acting and then later said no, of course, I'm not retiring. And it's interesting. We'll have to see what she does next.
MARTIN: Now you are saying that this was a big night for women. But one of the other, you know, enduring questions in Hollywood is where are the people of color in this increasingly diverse country?
MARIKAR: Definitely.
MARTIN: So what was the story there?
MARIKAR: Well, we saw Don Cheadle win best actor in a comedy for "House of Lies." And I wasn't expecting that to happen. That show didn't get the best critical reviews with its first season. You know, one thing that I did think was interesting was that Quentin Tarantino won for best screenplay for "Django Unchained" then Jamie Foxx got no nominations. It's just kind of interesting that he didn't get that acknowledgment at all and he really carries that entire movie.
MARTIN: That's interesting. So are the Golden Globes a good way to predict what's going to happen at the Oscars?
MARIKAR: They can be. You know, a lot of the movies that are up for best picture of the Globes are also in the Oscar best picture nominee list. And it's hard though, because the Golden Globes is a much, much smaller organization than the Academy. And traditionally, they like to nominate an award people that are big celebrities, like remember Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp and "The Tourist" winning a few years ago and people saying oh my gosh, this was a horrible movie. Why would it get nominated?
(LAUGHTER)
MARIKAR: You know, the Oscars does have a little bit more of that prestige, that old Hollywood sort of feel. So we'll have to see. The Screen Actors Guild Awards are coming up and based on that see who's actually going to go home with those big trophies on February 24th.
MARTIN: There is an interesting thing about the Oscars is that the youngest person ever nominated for best actress is this young girl, this adorable little girl, an African-American actress, Quvenzhane Wallis...
MARIKAR: Yes.
MARTIN: ...who starred in the movie "Beasts of the Southern Wild." And I'll just play a short clip.
(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD")
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
QUVENZHANE WALLIS: (as Hushpuppy) The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, the entire universe will get busted.
MARTIN: I think this was one of those films that a lot of critics loved, people who saw it loved it but I don't know that it ever really found much of an audience. I don't know. That's just my impression. What do you think? Does she have a shot?
MARIKAR: You know, it was a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival last year and it became this huge indie sensation that yeah, is now kind of come onto the mainstream level. And I think it's amazing that she was nominated. I also think her performance was absolutely breathtaking and really probably the best part of that whole film. And being the youngest actress ever nominated, she is also up against the oldest actress ever nominated for best actress for an Oscar. It's I think that it's something that it's fun to talk about. I think that it is kind of a, you know, nice unique factoid about this upcoming Academy Awards. Whether she has a chance to win it, you know, it's going to be hard. She's up against Jessica Chastain, who won the Globe last night, also Jennifer Lawrence who won a Golden Globe last night for "Silver Linings Playbook." And that category is traditionally very hard. So I would love to see her recognized. You know, she got an award at the Critics' Choice Awards last week and was so cute with her acceptance speech. It would be really great to see her get recognition in Hollywood and definitely keep acting and have one of these amazing careers, like say, Jodie Foster.
MARTIN: Say, like say, Jodie Foster.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: And then she can give a speech 50 years from now that everybody will be scratching their heads about.
MARIKAR: Exactly.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: But before we let you go, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosting the Golden Globes. What was your - a lot of advanced publicity about it. It could've been kind of risky, I mean in the sense that if they were bad everybody would've known it. What was your sense of how they did?
MARIKAR: I thought they were absolutely amazing. And let us please finally bury this idea that women can't be funny. I mean they were phenomenal. I thought they were better than Ricky Gervais last year. I think they were better than Ricky Gervais over all in the three years that he hosted. They really towed the line between kind of poking fun at Hollywood and making fun of people but not alienating anyone and making the room feel sort of super awkward. I thought that they were gorgeous and brilliant and just I wanted to see more of them. I wish that they got more camera time.
MARTIN: Sheila Marikar is an entertainment reporter and producer for ABC News.com. And she was kind enough to join us from New York.
Sheila, thank you.
MARIKAR: Thank you.
MARTIN: And that's our program for today. I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Let's talk more tomorrow.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.