And so it came to pass that Lady Gaga won a Golden Globe.
The singer-actress won Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television for her role in American Horror Story: Hotel and was sure to make her moment in the spotlight shine.
In the end, though, it was pretty much just weird. After blinking, wide-eyed, at the Globes audience and musing that she felt like "Cher in the John Patrick Shanley movie Moonstruck," Gaga thanked American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy and then her team:
You guys pick me up every single day and the things I put my body through and my mind through when I'm working, it makes me like a child. I can't even do things on my own. And you allow that.
Like we said: weird.
Not only did Gaga win, she also beat out some of the night's stiffest competition. While Flesh and Bone's Sarah Hay was probably the biggest underdog in the Best Actress race, the other contenders were Kirsten Dunst (Fargo), Felicity Huffman (American Crime), and Queen Latifah (Bessie).
Not only was the American Story: Hotel role one of few scripted acting roles that Gaga has ever performed (the others being Sin City and a voice cameo on The Simpsons), but Dunst, Huffman, and Latifah all turned in performances that would usually be irresistible to award shows. So what happened?
No one but the Hollywood Foreign Press knows for sure, but the organization's track record as a voting body suggests its members are quite fond of celebrity. Even Cecil B. DeMille award winner Denzel Washington put the HFPA's preferences on blast in his acceptance speech following Gaga's win, telling a story of how his publicist told him to always humor HFPA members' requests for pictures so he could win (probably for Glory, for which he won his first Golden Globe in 1989).
The HFPA loves first-timers, buzzy shows, and celebrities. Lady Gaga in American Story: Hotel: This Time We're Getting REALLY Freaky is a bull's-eye for all three.
