Golden Globes spread love around, except to North Korea

The 72nd annual Golden Globes Awards spread the love around to everyone except North Korea and Bill Cosby.

The awards season favorite, Richard Linklater's 12-years-in-the-making "Boyhood," won best director for Linklater and best supporting actress for Patricia Arquette.

Perhaps the chief Oscar rival to "Boyhood," Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's backstage romp "Birdman," also fared well. It won best actor in a comedy or musical for its lead, Michael Keaton, who plays a former superhero star tinged with his own history, and best screenplay.

Kicking off the show, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler wasted no time in mocking Hollywood's most tender subjects: the hacking of Sony Pictures over "The Interview" and the sexual assault allegations against Cosby.

The hosts welcomed Hollywood's "despicable, spoiled, minimally talented brats" to the Globes to celebrate "all the movies that North Korea was OK with." A North Korea government character, played by Margaret Cho, voiced her displeasure.

The hosts also relished their favorite target: Clooney. Of the night's Cecil B. DeMille honoree, Fey suggested the lifetime achievement award might have been better off going to his new wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.

"It's a humbling thing when you find somebody to love," George Clooney later said.

The recent terrorist attack in Paris at the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo hung heavily over the show. Clooney and others wore "Je Suis Charlie" pins, and Helen Mirren was among the people holding up signs that read the same on the red carpet.

Hollywood Foreign Press Association President Theo Kingma drew a standing ovation for a speech pledging support of free speech "from North Korea to Paris."

The night had an orchestrated but carefree spirit, filled with the usual high dose of glamour, celebrity cameos (Prince!) and even the drink-swilling return of an old Globes villain, the former host Ricky Gervais.

The DreamWorks sequel "How to Train Your Dragon 2" took best animated film over the favorite, "The Lego Movie." The Stephen Hawking biopic "The Theory of Everything" won best score for Johann Johannsson. The Russian entry "Leviathan" took best foreign language film.

Amy Adams surprised in taking best actress in a comedy or musical for her performance in "Big Eyes." ''I didn't even reapply lip gloss," said an unprepared Adams.

As the only major awards show to honor both movies and TV, the Globes have also benefited from television's rise. Fey and Poehler alluded to that by leading the crowd in a call-and-response cheer, chanting "Movies ... Awesome! TV ... Better!"

Amazon, crashing the party like Netflix did before it, celebrated its first Golden Globes for the sexual identity comedy "Transparent," winning best TV series, musical or comedy. The show's star, Jeffery Tambor, landed best actor in the category, dedicating his award to the transgender community.

AMC's adaptation of the Coen brothers' acclaimed 1996 film, "Fargo," came in the leading TV contender with five nominations and promptly won best miniseries or movie, as well as best actor, miniseries or movie, for Billy Bob Thornton.

The Globes have been on a terrific upswing in recent years. Last year's awards drew 20.9 million viewers, the most since 2004. Accepting the Globe for best original song for "Glory" in the civil rights drama "Selma," the rapper Common raised the status of the group behind the Globes even higher: "I want to thank God and the Hollywood Foreign Press."

The Hollywood Foreign Press, a group of mostly freelance journalists, has lately cleaned up its reputation for idiosyncratic choices and awards swayed by celebrity. Last year, the HFPA chose the eventual Academy Awards best-picture winner, "12 Years a Slave," as best drama and "American Hustle" as best comedy.