People Kept Being Stunned by Oprah at the Golden Globes

Oprah Winfrey is receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2018 Golden Globes, becoming the first African-American woman to receive the award. That means Oprah is sitting right up front at the Golden Globes — and a lot of stars are star-struck.

That shouldn’t be too surprising, given that the Hollywood Foreign Pres Association gives out the Cecil B. DeMile Award to honor people who have made “an incredible impact on the world of entertainment.”

Seth Meyers was first to acknowledge Oprah, bringing her up during his opening monologue. He joked that Cecil B. DeMille would be honored that Oprah is winning the award named for him. He also suggested, as others have before him, that Oprah should run for president.

“Oprah, while I have you, in 2011 I told some jokes about our current president at the White House Correspondents Dinner — jokes about how he was unqualified to be president, and some say that night convinced him to run,” Meyers said. “And if that’s true I want to say: Oprah, you will never be president! You do not have what it takes to be president.”

Rachel Brosnan was the first award winner to acknowledge Oprah when she got on stage. Brosnahan took home the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series, Comedy or Musical for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” and kicked off her acceptance speech with “Hi, Oprah!”

Later, Sterling K. Brown started his acceptance speech with a bit of reverence for Winfrey. Winning the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama TV Series for his role in the ABC show “This is Us,” Brown started his acceptance speech by looking down into the audience and just saying, “Oprah.”

Reese Witherspoon presented Winfrey’s Cecil B. DeMille Award and spent the speech talking about how great hanging out with Oprah was while the pair worked on their upcoming film, “A Wrinkle in Time.”

There are a lot of people known on a first-name basis, but there’s only one person whose name is a verb, an adjective and a feeling, and that is Oprah,” Witherspoon said. “I got to work with Oprah on our movie “a wrinkle in time” where we spent four hours in the makeup trailer almost offer single day. If you can find a way to be stuck in a small space with Oprah for four hours, do it. It’s like going to Wharton Business School combined with a spiritual retreat, all in one.”

Oprah’s acceptance speech was about as powerful as anyone could have hoped. Culminating the night’s ongoing focus on women and the #TIMESUP movement, Oprah delivered a speech about uplifting women and working together.

“What I know for sure is that speaking your truth is the most powerful tool we all have,” she said. “And I’m especially proud and inspired by all the women who have felt strong enough and empowered enough to speak up and share their personal stories. Each of us in this room are celebrated because of the stories that we tell, and this year we became the story. But it’s not just a story affecting the entertainment industry. It’s one that transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics, or workplace.

“So I want tonight to express gratitude to all the women who have endured years of abuse and assault because they, like my mother, had children to feed and bills to pay and dreams to pursue. They’re the women whose names we’ll never know. They are domestic workers and farm workers. They are working in factories and they work in restaurants and they’re in academia, engineering, medicine, and science. They’re part of the world of tech and politics and business. They’re our athletes in the Olympics and they’re our soldiers in the military.”

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