Lily Gladstone Is the Golden Globes’ First Indigenous Best Actress Winner 

US actress Lily Gladstone poses with the award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama for "Killers of the Flower Moon" in the press room during the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)
US actress Lily Gladstone poses with the award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama for "Killers of the Flower Moon" in the press room during the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)
TT

Lily Gladstone Is the Golden Globes’ First Indigenous Best Actress Winner 

US actress Lily Gladstone poses with the award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama for "Killers of the Flower Moon" in the press room during the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)
US actress Lily Gladstone poses with the award for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama for "Killers of the Flower Moon" in the press room during the 81st annual Golden Globe Awards at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on January 7, 2024. (AFP)

When Lily Gladstone took the stage Sunday night to accept her first Golden Globe, she spoke to the live TV audience in the Blackfeet language.

“This is a historic win,” she said, becoming the Globes' first Indigenous winner of best actress in a drama. "This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told — by ourselves, in our own words — with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from and with each other.”

Gladstone, 37, won for her role as Mollie Burkhart in Martin Scorsese’s epic “Killers of the Flower Moon.” In the film, her character’s family was murdered in a reign of terror in which the Osage were targeted for the headrights to their oil-rich land in Oklahoma.

In the audience, co-star Leonardo DiCaprio wore a pin in solidarity.

“I have my Osage pin on tonight because, you know, the Osage nation, we’re standing in unison with them for this movie,” he said before the show.

Gladstone and DiCaprio walked the red carpet with their respective mothers. After her win backstage, she paid homage to her parents for supporting her dreams.

The actor said her father watched from home, where they will have a “big ol' feast.”

“Every time I’ve felt a level of guilt or it wasn’t really possible, my mom and my dad my whole life never once questioned that this is what I was meant to do,| said Gladstone, who is an only child. “They would always support me when it was the times of famine and the times of feast.”

It's "a beautiful community, nation, that encouraged me to keep going, keep doing this,” Gladstone said of the Blackfeet Nation. “I’m here with my mom, who, even though she’s not Blackfeet, worked tirelessly to get our language into our classrooms so I had a Blackfeet-language teacher growing up.”

The actor, who grew up between Seattle and the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, was named one of 2023’s AP Breakthrough Entertainers.

Gladstone said she typically greets people in her Blackfeet language.

“It’s often how I introduce myself in a new group of people, especially when it’s significant,| she said. |It was one of the more natural things I could do in the moment.”

On the subject of a possible Oscar win, Gladstone told The Associated Press: “It would be an incredible moment in my life, but it would mean so much more than just me.”

“It is, of course, something I have to think about, insofar as I would just really love to speak some of my language — and teach myself a little bit more of my language — to have and to hold in that moment,” she continued.

Gladstone is the second Native actress to receive a nomination at the Globes after Irene Bedard, who received a nod for the 1995 television movie “Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee.”

“I don’t have words,” Gladstone said. “I’m so grateful that I can speak even a little bit of my language, which I’m not fluent in, up here, because in this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English, and then the sound mixers would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera.”

Speaking of the award, Gladstone said: “It doesn’t belong to just me. I’m holding it right now. I’m holding it with all my beautiful sisters in the film.”



Joyful Musical ‘Titanique’ Puts Celine Dion Center Stage

Canadian Singer Celine Dion performs at the Eiffel Tower at the conclusion of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France. (Reuters)
Canadian Singer Celine Dion performs at the Eiffel Tower at the conclusion of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France. (Reuters)
TT

Joyful Musical ‘Titanique’ Puts Celine Dion Center Stage

Canadian Singer Celine Dion performs at the Eiffel Tower at the conclusion of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France. (Reuters)
Canadian Singer Celine Dion performs at the Eiffel Tower at the conclusion of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on July 26, 2024 in Paris, France. (Reuters)

Imagine if singer Celine Dion had been on the Titanic, survived, and wanted to revisit her version of events. That is the premise of the musical "Titanique" that has opened in London's West End.

Featuring Dion’s back catalogue, the show's light-hearted tone is a break with previous more somber accounts of the story of the ocean liner that hit an iceberg and sank in 1912.

It blends elements from the plot of the 1997 movie version, which starred actors Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as lovers Rose and Jack, and other pop culture references.

Tye Blue, who directs and also wrote the musical along with actor and writers Constantine Rousouli and Marla Mindelle, describes it as "a joy machine".

The story is told through the eyes of the character Celine Dion, played by Lauren Drew.

"This is very much a love letter to Celine Dion....paying homage to her and her craft and her strength," Drew said after coming off stage. "It's completely embodying her kookiness, her craziness and her talent. So I just I love that I get to do that every night."

Blue said Dion's team came to see the show after it opened in New York and that "they loved it" and "kind of unofficially gave us their blessing".

Last year Dion returned to the live stage with a performance at the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris.

The 56-year-old singer said in late 2022 that she had been diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder called stiff-person syndrome that causes muscle spasms.

The music from the show includes ballads such as "Titanic’s" award-winning hit "My Heart Will Go On" and Eric Carmen’s "All by Myself" that Dion released in 1996.

"Titanique" is playing at the Criterion Theater until March 2025. Other versions of it are playing in Sydney, Toronto and Montreal, and another is set to open in France in April.