Golden Globes Pre-Party Honors Viola Davis, Ted Danson

If Friday night’s “Golden Gala: An Evening of Excellence” is any indication, Sunday’s Golden Globes 2025 ceremony is shaping up to be a loose and rousing affair. The pre-party for the big event, which honored Ted Danson and Viola Davis for their bodies of work, was marked by a bawdy on-stage anecdote from Danson’s wife, Mary Steenburgen, an emotional and tearful exchange between Davis and Meryl Streep, and affectionate heckling from Carol Burnett, giving the actual Golden Globes a lot to live up to.

Friday night’s shindig at The Beverly Hilton also counted Jane Fonda, Anthony Anderson, Steve Guttenberg, and Babyface among its guests, all watching as Streep presented a crying Davis with the 2024 Cecil B. DeMille Award. (A rep for the event notes that this handoff was an intentional callback to 2017, when it was Davis handing Streep that same award.)

Pictured: (l-r) Actress Viola Davis, winner of Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for ‘Fences,’ and honoree Meryl Streep, recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award, at the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on January 8, 2017.

Christopher Polk/NBC

Davis accepted with a 16-minute-long speech about the challenges she’s faced in the industry—and how she had to make some tough decisions when choosing roles. “Let me tell you something, not to be a contradiction, but when I started off in my career, I took a lot of jobs because of the money,” she said. “Sometimes, for a dark-skinned, Black woman with a wide nose and big lips, that’s all there was out there. If I waited for a role that was well-crafted and written for me, well crafted, then I wouldn’t be standing up here.” (Variety has published Davis’s speech in full.)

When Steenburgen took the stage to hand the 2024 Carol Burnett Award to her husband, she began by detailing the earliest days of their relationship, saying her assumption that he was a “slick guy” was upended the more she got to know him. “How wrong I was,” she said. “Slick guys don’t say ‘gosh-a-rooney’ after making love,” then, gently wincing, said “I’d like to apologize to my granddaughters now.”

In his acceptance speech, Danson said, “I have to admit I’ve always had a confusing relationship with awards. If I win, I feel a little embarrassed and lonely. If I don’t win, I feel a little embarrassed and lonely.”

“But not tonight. Not tonight. I am so thrilled to get this award, Carol. I cannot tell you how much it means to me. You have brought so much joy and happiness into households all over the world. You radiate kindness. I love you so much.” From the seated crowd, Burnett—still razor sharp at age 91—hollered “I love you” up at the stage in response.

“As Sam Malone said, I truly am the luckiest son of a bitch I’ve ever met,” the 77-year-old Cheers star said in conclusion. “And Carol, you know what’s wonderful about this award is that every year, we are gathered together to celebrate laughter and joy. We will celebrate you, Carol, and we will celebrate all the funny men and women that came before us.”

Both Davis and Danson’s honors will be acknowledged again tomorrow, when the 82nd annual Golden Globes are broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount+. The show kicks off at the Beverly Hilton Hotel at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, January 5.