Seth Meyers pulls no punches with jokes about Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey at Golden Globes

Seth Meyers, host of the Golden Globes, confronted the "elephant not in the room" on Sunday night, kicking off Hollywood's first major awards show of 2018 with a series of barbed jokes about Harvey Weinstein and the sexual misconduct scandal that has roiled the entertainment industry.

"Good evening ladies and remaining gentlemen," opened host Seth Meyers at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

In punchlines on disgraced movie mogul Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Hollywood's deeper gender biases, Meyers scored laughs and maybe a sense of release.

"Happy New Year Hollywood! It's 2018. Marijuana is finally allowed and sexual harassment finally isn't," quipped host Meyers to wild applause from the A-list audience in Beverly Hills.

"There is a new era underway," he went on. "It's been years since a white man was this nervous in Hollywood."

Multiple allegations against actors, filmmakers and Hollywood agents since October 2017 have led to many of the accused being fired, forced to step down, or dropped from creative projects.

Harvey Weinstein scandal: Hollywoods harassment hall of shame

Some of the A-list stars who attended the Globes ceremony had given their own harrowing accounts.

“Harvey Weinstein isn’t here tonight because, well, I heard rumours that he’s crazy and difficult to work with,” said Meyers. “Don’t worry, he’ll back in 20 years. He’ll be the first person to ever boo during the In Memoriam.”

“They tried to get a woman to host this show, they really did,” he said. “They said: ‘How would you like to come and be judged by some of the most powerful people in Hollywood?’ [The women] said: ‘Where is it?’ And they said it’s at a hotel and long story short, here I am.”

Referring to the male nominees gathered for the top television and movie awards, Meyers said, "This is the first time in 3 months it won't be terrifying to hear your name read out loud."

Tackling the scandal around Spacey, who has been accused of numerous allegations of sexual misconduct, Meyers suggested Christopher Plummer could replace the actor in House of Cards.

“I hope [Plummer] can do a Southern accent, because Kevin Spacey sure couldn’t,” he said.

“Oh, is that too mean?” he added after certain audience members booed. “For Kevin Spacey?”

The host won praise for the way he tackled the controversy.

 The evening began with the normally colourful red carpet transformed into a sea of black gowns worn by celebrities to show solidarity with victims of sexual harassment inside and outside the entertainment industry.

Angelina Jolie, Emma Stone, Amy Poehler, Gal Gadot, Jessica Biel, Kerry Washington, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Laura Dern and Claire Foy were among the majority who wore black in support of the Time's Up Campaign, launched earlier this week, to fight sexual harassment in the workplace.

Men also joined in, with the likes of Justin Timberlake and Ricky Martin wearing black shirts to match their tuxedos.