The Globes Wet and Earnest

J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times Drew Barrymore on the red carpet at the Golden Globe awards.

If you weren’t sort of half paying attention to the Jets-Chargers game as you finished off a nice Spanish red, you may have noticed that some of the red-carpet smiles were more forced than usual this year at the Golden Globe awards. Getting out of a limo while you haul a couple of pounds of damp couture silk behind you isn’t exactly a blast. Heidi Klum, poured into a soupy Cavalli, actually seemed annoyed by the number of steps she had to negotiate — and she had Seal Coach Backpack, her manly husband.

No, they didn’t seem to be happy campers in their designer frocks and “Mad Men” hair. So much trouble … Though a 360-degree “glam-cam” view of Julia Roberts’s sleek black mini dress wasn’t available Coach Bracelets, the sensible choice made the actress seem very wise indeed. And if she had bothered to do anything special with her hair, it wasn’t evident. Since one doesn’t overlook Julia Roberts, who walked the red carpet with her husband and Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, one wouldn’t say she was dressing to be inconspicuous. Rather, her entire look said she didn’t take the event too seriously.

Jason Merritt/Getty Images Anna Kendrick, in Marchesa ruffles.

And where did that leave everyone else? Earnest and over-the-hill? Matronly in their Champagne-beige ruffles? Dying to please?

It would have been nice to see someone look playful, friendly and sexy — an I-don’t-care-kind-of-girl. Instead the soggy n’ safe red carpet of the Globes served up one-shoulder gowns (Amy Poehler in red Jay Godfrey cheap football jerseys, Marion Cotillard in black Dior, Drew Barrymore in something beige and stuffy), lots of forceful bosom (Mariah Carey, a convincing battleship in black) and far too many renditions of “Mad Men” hair. Can’t we give it a rest?

Three cheers, then, for Tea Leoni’s pale blue cotton shirt and slim skirt (I didn’t have a complete view). Was the outfit her first choice or an afterthought? Either way, it was refreshing. And she will probably have a better time than those sitting with damp wads of fabric around the ankles.