The biggest controversy to come out of this year’s already contentious Golden Globes had nothing to do with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s sorry track record on diversity but, rather surprisingly, with the ceremony’s music.
Throughout Tuesday’s show, several winners gave touching, humorous, and occasionally slow-paced speeches, including a long-winded anecdote about teleprompters and a lengthy but hilarious screed from beloved White Lotus actress Jennifer Coolidge. Likewise, the play-off music became public enemy No. 1 throughout the first half of the show, with winners including Michelle Yeoh, Colin Farrell, and Austin Butler hushing the piano music in an increasingly cringey fashion.
It’s typical for celebrities to ignore play-off music while accepting major awards. However, people watching at home typically don’t see whoever is playing the orchestral music that begins to swell as the winners go over their allotted speech time.
In the case of the Golden Globes, viewers were given the impression that renowned instrumentalist Chloe Flower, the evening’s in-house pianist, was playing off the winners, as opposed to an unseen orchestra or recorded track. To many, it appeared as though she was directly being told to “shut up” by a few of the winners.
In particular, Yeoh, who won for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for Everything Everywhere All At Once, said, “Shut up, please,” before playfully threatening, “I can beat you up.” Farrell, who won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for The Banshees of Inisherin, said, “you can forget that piano” in the middle of his speech. And Austin Butler, who took home Best Actor in a Drama for Elvis, seemed equally vexed, saying, “You could at least play ‘Suspicious Minds’ or something.”
Of course, a bunch of rich celebrities appearing to scold one of the night’s employees for doing their job did not go over well on Twitter, with a slew of people rushing to Flower’s defense.
Host Jerrod Carmichael eventually addressed the controversy after a commercial break. “People on Twitter are mad, like she’s playing off people,” the comedian said of Flower, before clarifying, “It’s a track.”
Flower also took to Twitter during the show to assure people she was not the one playing the wrap-up music.
Regardless, celebrities should maybe understand that this is a timed event on a television network—and some of our parents and grandparents still watch the 11:30 p.m. local news!
Hopefully, all of this confusion didn’t sour the talented Flower’s first Golden Globes gig.
