The Golden Globes joke that shocked the room

TINA Fey and Amy Poehler had the crowd in stitches during their Golden Globes opening monologue, then they went somewhere no one thought they would.

Stephanie Marcus

2 min read

January 12, 2015 - 11:46AM

Huffington Post

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TINA Fey said there would be Bill Cosby jokes during the Golden Globes, and she wasn’t kidding.

At the 72nd annual Golden Globes, Fey and co-host Amy Poehler didn’t tiptoe around the growing number of allegations of sexual assault against Cosby.

In describing the fairytale musical movie Into The Woods, Poehler joked, “Cinderella ran away from her prince, Rapunzel was thrown from a tower ... and Sleeping Beauty just thought she was getting coffee with Bill Cosby.”

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Jessica Chastain (bottom left) was shocked by the jokes.

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Fey chimed in, asking the audience if they heard Cosby finally spoke out about the allegations against him, telling reporters, “I put the pills in the people.” Poehler then did her own Cosby impression and repeated the joke.

The 77-year-old comic has come under fire in recent months after decade-old allegations of sexual assault became a national talking point. More than a dozen women have since come forward with their own claims.

Tina Fey, left, and Amy Poehler in their first outfits of the night.

Tina Fey, left, and Amy Poehler in their second outfits of the night.

While representatives for Cosby and his wife, Camille Cosby, have denied the allegations, the actor himself has yet to address the scandal head-on — though he did seemingly reference the claims during a recent stand-up set.

“You have to be careful about drinking around me,” Cosby reportedly told a woman getting up from her front-row seat to get a drink at the comedian’s London, Ontario, show on Jan. 7. Many of Cosby’s accusers claim the actor drugged their drinks.

In the United States, there’s a time limit on bringing legal proceedings before courts in what’s referred to as a statute of limitations.

The shelf life varies from state to state, and often between offences, but the allegations against Cosby took place a decade or longer ago. Too much time has likely passed to file charges now.

Another issue for prosecutors would be the lack of physical evidence against him.

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George Clooney, left, and Amal Clooney dazzle on the red carpet.

Earlier in the night an E! interview fell flat when host Ryan Seacrest presented George Clooney and new wife Amal Alamuddin with ‘Game Over’ T-shirts, supposedly because he didn’t get to congratulate them before their September 2014 wedding.

The camera then panned to the E! crew, who were all wearing shirts emblazoned with the logo, which featured a sad faced man and a smiling woman, too.

Thankfully, a surprise appearance by singer Prince was a highlight of the night as was the sea of beautiful dresses worn by the likes of Kate Hudson, Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Aniston. John Legend’s inspiring acceptance speech for the song behind the movie Selma about the Civil Rights Acts in America also drew much applause as did the always funny Ricky Gervais.

However Kevin Spacey managed to drop the F-bomb during his acceptance speech for Best Actor in a TV Series for House of Cards while George Clooney took the opportunity in accepting his Lifestime Achievement award to put the Sony hacking scandal, which outted his hurt over poor reviews for his film Monuments Men, behind him.

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