Jimmy Fallon‘s tribute to La La Land‘s musical freeway number, which opened last night’s Golden Globe Awards telecast, was beautifully done — hats off, seriously, to the team behind this. Perfectly done. Not easy to get this stuff right.

Casey Affleck and Emma Stone did well with their acceptance speeches, I thought, which will certainly help as far as the Academy fence-sitters are concerned. Huzzah for La La‘s seven wins. I was sorry about Manchester being blanked except for Casey (Kenneth Lonergan‘s screenplay is absolutely the pick of the litter) but “the HFPA guys live in their own little world,” as one guy commented.

The Golden Globe gathering was the happiest, most full-hearted social gathering…actually, the only truly happy and full-hearted family event I’ve taken part in since the 11.8 election. Hundreds upon hundreds of people who “get it,” who walk the walk, who know how to dress (except the 20- and 30something guys who wore shiny plastic shoes), who all behaved in a well-mannered and super-considerate fashion, and who for the most part despise Donald Trump and perhaps (if they think like me) the mostly downmarket, dull-witted low-lifes who voted for him.

Not everyone, of course. I passed the silver-haired, arch-conservative Jon Voight in the lobby, and I resisted the urge to say “yo, Jon!…you gave some of the greatest performances of the ’70s (Coming Home, Deliverance) and you’re supporting a President who’s appointed a climate-change denier to head the EPA? What’s wrong with you, man?”

All hail Elle‘s Isabelle Huppert and Paul Verhoeven, who both won awards last night — Best Actress, Drama, and Best Foreign Language Film.

Hats off and best wishes, in fact, to all of last night’s winners. Except for Aaron Johnson, that is. Yes, I’m sorry but really, I mean this. Sitting through Johnson’s performance in Nocturnal Animals, a no-holds-barred inhabiting of a repulsive scurvy animal of the lowest biological order, was easily one of my most distasteful moviegoing experiences of 2016. And they gave him an award for this? Why? To what end?

Mahershala Ali just before they announced the winner of the Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actor: “Okay, be cool…it’s happening. You’re on a roll, dawg, and everyone is with you. And your notes are in your inside breast pocket. Be cool, wait for it, any second now…what?”

Why did I watch the Golden Globe awards telecast last night from the Fox viewing party adjacent to the Beverly Hilton? Because I wanted to be there, had to be there, needed to be. It was necessary. And thank you enormously, Fox publicists, for inviting me. Seriously — it meant a lot.

True, the less-than-brilliant sound system and the wallah-wallah from the guests, especially during the final 40 minutes or so, resulted in my missing 80% of the material, but them’s the breaks. I wanted to be there, and I wanted to hit the parties and schmooze around like everyone else.

Hyman Roth: “This is the business we’ve chosen. I didn’t ask who installed the shitty sound system. I didn’t ask the 30something yappy-yappies to please tone it down and show a little respect while Meryl Streep was speaking. I was polite and smiling the whole time, which is another way of saying I sat there and took it like a man.”