Spicy opening monologues and a disastrous speech: The most controversial moments in Golden Globes history

The 2026 Golden Globes are almost upon us, and we can't help but reminisce on ceremonies past.While the event has brought us some beautiful moments, its also been home to some of the most uncomfortable situations in awards show history.Keep scrolling to read about some of the most controversial moments ever to happen at the Golden Globes.Oliver Stone leaves audience 'hissing'In 1979, Oliver Stone was awarded the Golden Globe for best screenplay for the film Midnight Express.His acceptance speech started off odd, continued to get worse, and ended in disaster.The director delivered a speech about the United States' drug policy, with the audience booing him after he refused to leave the stage when the play-off music began.READ MORE: Every nominee battling it out at the 2026 Golden GlobesREAD MORE: Star confirms absence from major event amid bubbling feud rumoursREAD MORE: Golden Globes host reveals the one star she won't joke aboutHost Chevy Chase tried to tell him to leave, but eventually, Stone was escorted off-stage by security.In a 2020 piece written for GQ, Stone reflected on the disastrous night, blaming the moment on "a few hits of coke, a quaalude or two, [and] several glasses of wine over three hours"."There was something else growing inside me, but I couldn't articulate it," he wrote."I'd seen it in Vietnam. That the US was always quite ready to lecture others on how to behave, be it about drugs or human rights, while ignoring our own giant appetite for drugs at home.For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here."So when I got to centre stage to accept my Golden Globe and have my moment, I started to explain to the audience what I was really thinking, which wasn't necessary."My tongue was dry and heavy in my mouth, and I was trying too hard to explain my concept of how we condemned people to jail without recognising what we were doing to ourselves as a nation."But it got so lost because I hadn't written it in advance, and I was more zonked than I thought. I was losing them."I now heard a dead silence in the room ... then the hissing started, and it grew."Hollywood calls out lack of diversity in the HFPAWhen an LA Times expose revealed the complete lack of diversity within the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the industry finally spoke out.The HFPA had a major role in the nomination and voting process at the Globes, with actors such as Viola Davis and Lupita Nyong'o noticeably absent from the list of nominees over the years, despite being recognised by the Oscars.In 2021, Sascha Baron Cohen called out the "all-white Hollywood Foreign Press" in his speech, Tom Cruise returned his three Globe trophies in solidarity, actors such as Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo called their colleagues to "step back" from the Globes until reforms were put in place, and 2021 hosts Amy Poehler and Tina Fey directly called out the HFPA during the show.Soon, HFPA president Philip Berk was fired after allegedly sending an email referring to the Black Lives Matter movement as a "racist hate movement", and then the 2022 ceremony was cancelled by NBC.The allegations of corruption and racism within the HFPA snowballed, and the HFPA was eventually disbanded in 2023. Seth Meyers causes a stirSeth Meyers has never been one to shy away from a controversial conversation, and his hosting gig at the 2018 Golden Globes was no exception."It's time to address the elephant not in the room: Harvey Weinstein," the Late Night host said during his opening monologue."But don't worry, he'll be back in 20 years when he becomes the first person ever booed during the In Memoriam."He then turned his attention to Kevin Spacey, who had recently made headlines for accusations of sexual misconduct, which saw him fired from his role in All the Money in the World with Christopher Plummer coming in as his replacement."They're going to do another season of House of Cards. Is Christopher Plummer available for that, too?" Meyers asked the audience."I hope he can do a Southern accent because Kevin Spacey sure couldn't."Sacha Baron Cohen's outrageous speechThere's not too much to say here, not because the moment was uninteresting, but because we can't actually publish most of what was said.Sacha Baron Cohen took to the stage in 2007 to accept the award for best actor in a musical or comedy for his role in Borat, and in true Borat fashion, he delivered a wildly inappropriate speech.Here's just a snippet of what the actor said on live TV."Ken [Davitian], when I was in that scene and I stared down and saw your two wrinkled golden globes on my chin, I thought to myself, 'I better win a bloody award for this.'"The Tourist's nominationThe Tourist was a 2010 action/thriller starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, but despite the stacked cast, it was widely regarded as not very good, currently with a rating of just 21 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.So, when it was nominated for best musical or comedy, best actress, and best actor, some alarm bells were raised.The suspicious nomination sparked accusations of bribery against the Golden Globes, and it didn't help that the HFPA had an alleged history of accepting gifts and perks from studios in exchange for favouring certain productions at the event.Host Ricky Gervais even addressed the controversy in his speech, saying, "I'd like to crush this ridiculous rumour that the only reason The Tourist was nominated was so that the foreign press could hang out with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie."That was not the only reason; they also accepted bribes."The reputation of the HFPA was further tarnished when similar accusations were made following the nomination of Burlesque the following year. Emma Stone apologises for AlohaEmma Stone is one of Hollywood's sweethearts, but even our favourite stars make mistakes here and there.In 2015, she starred alongside Bradley Cooper in the movie Aloha, a film based on a true story.However, the controversy was found in the fact that Stone's character was meant to be a woman of Hawaiian/Chinese descent, so when she was cast in the role, she and the filmmakers faced fair accusations of whitewashing.Although the film wasn't nominated at the Globes, host Sandra Oh didn't hold back during her opening monologue, joking that Crazy Rich Asians was "the first studio film with an Asian American lead since Ghost in the Shell and Aloha".As the audience chuckled, Stone could be heard from the audience, loudly yelling, "I'm sorry" in response to the joke. Ricky Gervais lets ripRicky Gervais' name has become somewhat synonymous with controversy, so it's no shock he's said some out of pocket things over the five times he's hosted the event.Gervais hosted for three years in a row from 2010 to 2012, later returning in 2016 and again in 2020.Over the years, the comedian took several jabs at Hollywood's elite and the downfalls of the entertainment industry, receiving a mix of praise and criticism.Some of his jokes include warning nominees not to make political statements in their speeches since they're "in no position to lecture the public about anything", later adding that most attendees had "spent less time in school than Greta Thunberg".He came for major studios such as Apple, Amazon and Disney, making headlines when he told audience members that, "If ISIS started a streaming service, you would call your agent, wouldn't you?"The comedian also took aim at the Epstein scandal, Felicity Huffman's involvement with the college admissions scandal, Leonardo DiCaprio's dating history, and Robert Downey Jr.'s past substance abuse problem.The 2008 ceremony is cancelledOn November 5, 2007, the Writers Guild of America went on a strike, which didn't come to an end until February 12, 2008.With the Globes scheduled for January 13, 2008, the event fell right in the midst of one of Hollywood's biggest strikes.In solidarity with the Writers Guild, the Screen Actors Guild announced that they would be boycotting the event, which meant that most of Hollywood's biggest names would not be attending.As a result, the live ceremony was essentially cancelled. Instead, nominations were revealed at a small show, and the 2008 Golden Globes went ahead with no red carpet, no live audience, and no broadcast.FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.