Tina Fey & Amy Poehler on Amal Alamuddin’s trophy husband - Women's Agenda

Tina Fey & Amy Poehler on Amal Alamuddin’s trophy husband

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have once again taken this year’s Golden Globes by storm. The pair entertained the audience with a series of witty remarks, mostly at the expense of Hollywood, and one target they returned to again and again was the way Hollywood treats women.

They raised the issue of older women being excluded by directors (brought to our attention by some helpful advice recently offered by Russell Crowe), of Hollywood’s unattainable beauty standards, and Bill Cosby’s sexual assault allegations. 

The most incisive, though, was their commentary on George Clooney and his new wife Amal Alamuddin, a high-profile human rights lawyer who was repeatedly portrayed as a “trophy wife” in the media when their engagement was announced last year. Poehler and Fey mount a decent argument that Clooney is the trophy in that partnership.

“Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an advisor to Kofi Annan regarding Syria, and was selected for a three person UN commission investigating rules of war violations in the Gaza strip. So tonight, her husband is getting a Lifetime Achievement Award!”

Poehler also uses the movie Boyhood, which was filmed in real time with the same actors over a 12 year period, to satirise Russell Crowe’s recent suggestion that Hollywood doesn’t have an older woman problem: “Boyhood proves that there are still great roles for women over 40, as long as you get hired when you’re under 40.” 

Fey also doesn’t miss an opportunity to make a joke about the pressure women experience in Hollywood when it comes to their looks. She provides a clear and witty comparison between how men and women in Hollywood are expected to approach their physical appearance: “Steve Carell’s Foxcatcher look took two hours to put on, including his hairstyling and make-up. Just for comparison, it took me three hours today to prepare for my role as human woman.”

And finally, they brought up the very serious and persistent issue of sexual assault and harassment perpetrated by male celebrities in Hollywood. The reference point for which, of course, was the series of recent sexual assault accusations leveled against comedian Bill Cosby

“In Into the Woods, Cinderella runs from her prince, Rapunzel is thrown from a tower for her prince, and Sleeping Beauty just thought she was getting coffee with Bill Cosby.”

The funny feminist power-couple once again did a great job of drawing attention to the real and pressing issues still facing women in Hollywood. This is their final year as hosts so let’s hope their successors are equally spot on when it comes to the big issues.

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