Golden Globes 2018: After rape-accused Kirk Douglas' standing ovation, Twitter loses its collective calm

The 75th edition of the Golden Globe Awards took place in Beverly Hills, California on 7 January and the night revolved around calling out sexual harassment, sexual assault and gender disparity in all fields.

Almost all the stars showed up to the award function dressed in black as a show of solidarity and a movement called Time’s Up was set in motion to combat all the above mentioned issues. Most of the speeches of the night focused on talking about sexual abuse and several notable people were called out for their past sexual misconduct.

The night also saw Catherine Zeta-Jones present an award for Best Screenplay alongside her wheelchair-ridden father-in-law and veteran actor, 101-year-old, Kirk Douglas.

The awards show took a moment to honour Douglas and all the antendees got to their feet as they gave acclaimed senior actor a standing ovation.

Twitter however, was not having it. There was intense (and immediate) backlash as the Twitterati was quick to point of that Douglas himself has been accused of sexual assault and been mired in a rape case for several years.

It is rumoured that Douglas had raped deceased actor Natalie Wood in a hotel room when she was 16, according to an article in Gawker in 2012. The article saw an anonymous comment by someone who was widely believed to be Robert Downey Jr. (although this was denied by representatives of the actor) and it talked about the entire ordeal in great detail.

Several people took issue with the fact that Douglas was celebrated on a night which was centered around calling out sexual abuse and declaring that the time for putting up with that quietly is up.

Here are some of the tweets that showed the public’s outrage

Natalie Wood is a perfect example of a young actress who was abused, beaten, raped, then shamed into silence by powerful men, who threatened her career. You just gave that abuser a standing O tribute @goldenglobes. Shame on you.

— Taylore ✨ (@nymphaeals) January 8, 2018

Hollywood gives Kirk Douglas a standing ovation on a night everyone chose to wear black to protest sexual abuse and rape in their industry. Natalie Wood is rolling in her grave. #goldenglobes2018  #timesup  #kirkdouglas

— Nightingale (@chronomoogle) January 8, 2018

Maybe not the night to honor Kirk Douglas https://t.co/5opXtw1zi8

— Kyle Bunch (@bunch) January 8, 2018

This is...not a good look to be honoring Kirk Douglas tonight at the #GoldenGlobes considering it's built on the #WhyWeWearBlack #TIMESUP movements.

— @alishagrauso.bsky.social (@AlishaGrauso) January 8, 2018

Kirk Douglas may be a legendary actor and all of that you just don’t get to wear black and mock Harvey Weinstein when you BRING OUT THR ACTUAL LIVING 100 YEAR OLD EXAMPLE THAY NOBODU CARES ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULT IN HOLLYWOOD.

— scorsexy (@bettydrapers) January 8, 2018