Sarah Jessica Parker Reflects on 25 Years of Carrie Bradshaw as Helen Mirren Pays Tribute to the Actresses That Inspire Her at Golden Eve Ceremony

For the first time, the Golden Globes‘ two special honors — the Cecil B. DeMille Award and the Carol Burnett Award — were presented in a special televised ceremony called Golden Eve, with Helen Mirren and Sarah Jessica Parker as this year’s honorees.

The event aired Thursday night on CBS and Paramount+ after taping in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, in a star-studded celebration that began with cosmos, the signature drink of Carrie Bradshaw, being passed out to guests inside the Beverly Hilton. (Some quickly downed their drinks rather than saving them for the intended toast later in the evening, as Ted Danson called for a second round to his and Carol Burnett’s table.)

Danson, who was last year’s Carol Burnett Award honoree, kicked off the evening before quickly throwing to Burnett, who gushed, “I’m thrilled to be here tonight, and especially to be here for Sarah Jessica Parker. Sarah, my darling Sarah, welcome to the club.”

Parker’s husband Matthew Broderick, longtime Sex and the City costar Kristin Davis and Colman Domingo were all on hand to celebrate the star, as Domingo led the room in the cosmo toast (“for the woman who has been both a compass and a companion”), and Davis recalled meeting Parker 28 years ago at the beginning of their SATC journey, remembering “her warm attention, her gentle care taking and inquisitiveness. Little did I know that this would be the beginning of the most incredible life and work experience I could ever imagine.”

Broderick also looked back on his first run-in with Parker at a movie theater (“I thought, here comes a force to reckon with”) and spoke about her asking him to read the pilot script for Sex and the City.

“I read it and I knew that it was really good. And I also knew that if you’re in a successful TV series, your life is going to change. We live in New York City, we walk, we take the subway, and if the show took off, how would that impact her life? Well, spoiler alert, the show did take off, and her life did change,” he said, though noting she hasn’t given up on walking or taking the subway. “What neither of us counted on was how much Carrie Bradshaw would change other people’s lives. I’ve been with her in cities all over the world where women, girls and certain stylish young men approach her, sometimes in tears, and they say how much she and the show have meant to them, and they really mean it.”

Before bringing her on stage, Broderick teased, “I’m very proud of that, and I’m also very glad that I didn’t say the first thing I thought after reading that pilot script, which was, ‘Yeah, it’s great, but do you really want to do TV?’”

Receiving her honor to the SATC theme music, Parker shouted out Mirren and “north star” Burnett, as well as her team and longtime attorney who advised her decades ago to “keep the wardrobe.”

“It’s the nature of the journeyman to move on, but in 1997 because [agent] Kevin [Huvane] said I had to say yes, I met Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, Samantha Jones and Miranda Hobbes, and I spent 25 years with the most glorious ensemble of women and actors, where we treated all of New York like CBS Television City and the streets like Studio 33,” she continued. “Darren Star, thanking you for thinking me your Carrie seems inefficient, but it is what I everlastingly feel. And Michael Patrick King, our longtime leader, my partner and Carrie’s extraordinary narrator, you left no stone unturned for Carrie’s better or worse; only for my better.”

The star also spoke about “sitting in the audience at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and watching these spectacular actors who came in from New York City, and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, yes, that is what I most want.’ And it became my fervid wish to become a working actor.” Parker continued, “I had this desire to audition, to work hard, to care, to worry about the work, to be nervous, to fail, to be fearless and committed like Carol Burnett, to succeed, to have made friends, to be in another fitting, to fall in love with crews, to weep when saying goodbye to them all, to be challenged and to hear the word, ‘Action.’ I wish this for all young actors.” She concluded by thanking Broderick and their three children: “I love you so deeply and admire so much the people you are becoming, that every day at home and at work, I want to make you proud.”

The event then shifted to Mirren’s portion of the evening, with remarks from Tessa Thompson and a toast led by her husband Taylor Hackford. Viola Davis, who received last year’s Cecil B. DeMille Award, joked, “I realize I see you like two, three times a year, and we’re knocking back cocktails and we’re laughing and we’re maybe exchanging expletives and having bawdy sort of conversations; beautiful dresses, nice makeup, good food. But I’ve never told you how and what you meant to me,” with Mirren having particularly inspired Davis with The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover.

Harrison Ford, who starred alongside Mirren in Taylor Sheridan’s 1923, presented her the award, musing that when describing her, “The word that comes to mind is not dame, it’s badass,” and declaring, “I, for one, bow to her talent.”

Mirren began her speech by saying, “The DeMille Award was described to me as a career recognition, but I prefer to think of it as a life lived, a life survived, a life enjoyed, a life sweated and a life carried on, hopefully. And given that hope, I prefer to think of this as an ongoing reflection of my career, rather than a eulogy; I’m not writing my own eulogy. Although I have to say, if this were my memorial, looking out at this audience, I’m absolutely thrilled who showed up for me, and I am making a list of the no-shows.”

She acknowledged the powerhouse directors, writers and producers she’s worked with and the many lessons learned along the way, which includes “how to follow the great advice of the great Victor Mature, which is how to master speaking whilst holding your tummy in — actually, come to think of it, that advice is no longer needed, is it really now, with Spanx and Ozempic.”

Mirren then gave a special dedication to “the women who have and always will inspire me. Monica Vitti, Anna Magnani, Jane Fonda, Bette Davis, Judy Garland and those whose first names are all that are needed — Madonna, Barbra, Cher, Sarah Jessica, Meryl, Kate with a K and Cate with a C, and of course, my ultimate goddess, Viola,” as Davis teared up at her seat, who are all “shining goddesses that I worship.” With a special mention to her family, Mirren concluded, “Thank you so much, everyone. I’m going to have a cocktail now.”

Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgard, Walton Goggins, Natasha Rothwell, Mindy Kaling, B.J. Novak, Alan Cumming, Jon Voight and Marissa Bode, along with Sex and the City costars Evan Handler and David Eigenberg, were also among the stars in attendance at Golden Eve. The main Golden Globes telecast, hosted by Nikki Glaser, airs live on Sunday.

Golden Globes producer Dick Clark Productions is owned by Penske Media Eldridge, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge that also ownsThe Hollywood Reporter.