Lady Gaga and Glenn Close both win Best Actress due to tie at Critics' Choice Awards
Two stars took home the Best Actress prize at Sunday night's Critics Choice Awards – and in a stunning development, it wasn't even the only tie of the night.
"This is crazy, we got a tie," actor Willem Defoe said while presenting the award. "One Critics Choice Award goes to Glenn Close, 'The Wife,'" he announced. After Close accepted the award, Defoe stepped back to the microphone to announce the second winner. "The other Critics' Choice Award goes to Lady Gaga, 'A Star is Born.'"
Each winner had her chance to give an acceptance speech. Close spoke about solidarity among actresses. "You know the world kind of pits us against each other in this profession," she said. "And I know from all the women in this category – and I think I can speak for all the women in this room – we celebrate each other, and we are proud to be in this room together."
Close stayed on the stage but stepped aside when Gaga's name was called. "Glenn, get over here," the "A Star Is Born," actress said when she got on stage. "My mother and Glenn are good friends, so I'm so very happy that you won this this evening."
Gaga said she was honored for the win, which she received for her role as Ally in the remake of the classic Hollywood story. Coincidentally, Barbra Streisand, who played the lead female role in the 1976 version, once split a Best Actress win with another star.
In 1969, both Streisand and Katherine Hepburn won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Streisand was taking home her first Oscar for "Funny Girl" and Katherine Hepburn was taking home her third Best Actress Oscar for "The Lion in the Water."
So, this improbable tie for Best Actress is not heard of. In fact, it happened twice on Sunday night. Close and Gaga's shared win came after both Amy Adams and Patricia Arquette won the award for Best Actress in a Movie Made for TV or Limited Series. The actresses shared the microphone then both gave shout-outs to their loved ones.
Like Close, Arquette used her stage time to celebrate women. "A lot of friends of mine who might be bigger body types said, 'Thank you. For once in my life I got to see a bigger-boned woman or a different-body-type woman be sexual, unapologetic and not have it be fetish or a joke. So thank you,'" she said.
