Politics goes back a long way in Hollywood

While Meryl Streep's rant about Donald Trump at the Golden Globes is dominating headlines - and Trump's own Twitter timeline - political speeches are of course nothing new at awards shows.

Perhaps it's the captive audience, the live national broadcast or the room full of (mostly) like-minded celebrities, but for decades, awards shows have been the home of pointed, and sometimes controversial, advocacy statements by celebrities.

Just last year at the Golden Globes, Leonardo DiCaprio made headlines when, halfway through his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a Drama for "The Revenant," he moved on from thanking cast and crew members to advocating for Native Americans who live in and near the locations in which "The Revenant" was filmed.

DiCaprio would go on to discuss global warming at the Oscars a few weeks later, after winning his first Academy Award.

It's hard to say how much of an effect these celebrity rants actually have on the public. The Washington Post's Aaron Blake took a look at some historical polling on how much people actually care. He boils it down to one central question:

"There are basically two camps right now on ever-partisan social media: Those who think Meryl Streep's speech criticizing President-elect Donald Trump at the Golden Globes was great, and those who think this kind of thing is basically Why Donald Trump Won - i.e. elite Hollywood liberals going after the guy blue-collar voters chose to be their president."

That same dynamic emerged when DiCaprio gave his speech last year - and in fact, is ever-present in the long history of political speeches at these shows.

Take Marlon Brando's 1973 Oscar win for "The Godfather." Brando declined to attend the show himself, or accept his award, in protest of poor treatment of Native Americans by the film industry, instead sending Native American activist and Apache tribe member Sacheen Littlefeather in his place. Littlefeather was booed my some members of the audience, while others clapped over the booing.

In more recent years, various actors and directors have used the popularity of their films to highlight specific issues.

In 2000, screenwriter John Irving won the Oscar for "The Cider House Rules," and used his time to thank the Academy for honoring a film that tackles abortion.

And more recently, in 2010, the filmmakers behind the documentary "The Cove," an exposé on dolphin hunting practices in Japan, held up a sign urging viewers to text a number to get more information on the subject.

But most of the Hollywood celebrities who make political statements out of their award wins have historically fought for a specific issue, rather than attacking a politician by name, like Streep did last night.

One other Hollywood celebrity who went directly after a president, though, was Michael Moore, who after winning the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2003, took the opportunity to blast President Bush over the impending invasion of Iraq.

It's hard to say how much of an effect these political speeches have on the public's perception or consciousness of an issue. But it's clear today, at least, that one celebrity's speech got the attention of the president-elect. And for Meryl Streep, that's likely "mission accomplished."

Biting back

• US President-elect Donald Trump wasted little time striking back at Meryl Streep's criticism, giving a brief interview to the New York Times shortly after the Golden Globes aired. He told the Times he had not seen the speech, but he dismissed Streep as "a Hillary lover" and said he was "not surprised" to be attacked by "liberal movie people".
(Streep spoke in support of Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.)

• Hours later he followed up with a trio of tweets lambasting Streep's speech, calling it an attack on him.

• In addition, Trump referred to her as "one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood" and "a Hillary flunky who lost big".

• He also tweeted: "For the 100th time, I never 'mocked' a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him 'grovelling' when he totally changed a 16-year-old story that he had written ... to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!"

• In her nearly four-decades-long career, Streep has been nominated for 30 Golden Globe awards and 19 Academy Awards, more than any other actor for either honour. She has won both awards multiple times, along with numerous Emmys and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

• When Streep was named as a Kennedy Centre Honours recipient, the performing-arts centre said: "The sheer breadth and joy of her artistry counts as one of the most exhilarating cultural spectacles of our time".