Jennifer Coolidge won the Golden Globe for her role as Tanya McQuoid in The White Lotus and all is right in the world. Coolidge took home the award for best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a limited series, anthology series, or motion picture made for television — and she had a memorable look (and acceptance speech) to mark the occasion.
When asked by E! on the red carpet who parties more, the cast of the first or second season of the HBO smash hit, Coolidge replied that she thinks the Italians partied harder. Fittingly, for the 2023 Golden Globe Awards, Coolidge called upon Italian couturiers for the ultimate party dress.
Reportedly a last minute fashion choice, Coolidge chose a dazzling Dolce & Gabbana gown for the occasion. The classic black sequin form-fitting long-sleeve dress featured an off-the-shoulder neckline with a pleated bust and thin straps. The actress wore her blonde tresses in a voluminous curls, parted down the middle.
In true Coolidge style, she delivered a heartfelt, and quintessentially hysterical acceptance speech, starting off by asking if she could put down her award. “I don’t work out, you know? I can’t hold it that long,” she said.
“I just want to say — some of the people in this room — there were like five people that kept me going for 20 years with these little jobs, and Ryan Murphy, you were one of them,” she said. “These little jobs kept me going. It was you, Ryan, and let’s see we’ve got — well who else was there? It was just you, Ryan.”
She continued, “I didn’t know anybody, and [my career] was just sort of this thing that wasn’t going anywhere. And then there were these people that would give me these cute little jobs, and it would be enough to get the next one and next one.” She credited Sex and the City‘s Michael Patrick King, Reese Witherspoon with Legally Blonde, Paul and Adam Weitz for American Pie to which she said, “I milked that [franchise] to the bone.”
Coolidge thanked her agents and talked about the music that played her off the stage at the 2022 Emmy Awards (when she won for her role in White Lotus, season 1). “This hook came out and took me off the stage at the Emmys,” said the actress. “I didn’t get to say what I really wanted to say. Truly, I just want you all to know that I had such big dreams and expectations as a younger person but what happened was, they get sort of fizzled by life and whatever, and I thought I was going to be Queen of Monaco, even though someone else did it,” Coolidge said. “But I had these giant ideas and you get older.”
“Mike White, you’ve given me hope,” she said of The White Lotus creator and director. “You’ve given me a new beginning, even though this is the end because you did kill me off but it doesn’t matter because even if this is the end you sort of changed my life in a million different ways. My neighbors are speaking to me, things like that. I mean it. I was never invited to one party on my hill and now everyone’s inviting me! It’s to you Mike White.”
Coolidge continued, “If you don’t know Mike White, this is what you should know. He’s worried about the world, he’s worried about people, he’s worried about friends of his that aren’t doing well, he’s always worried about people, you’re worried about animals and I just — he really is one of the greatest people I’ve ever met. He gives me so much excitement. You make people want to live longer and I didn’t.”
“Mike, I love you to death,” said Coolidge. “This is really a f***ing fun night. Thank you!”
