After news of filmmaker Jeff Baena’s death broke, it seemed unlikely that Baena’s wife, Aubrey Plaza, would attend Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony. Shortly before Baena’s death, the Golden Globes Association announced that Plaza would be a presenter at the show’s Jan. 5 ceremony. But, unsurprisingly, Plaza was nowhere to be seen on the red carpet outside or inside Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton Hotel.
Plaza married Baena in 2021 after the couple had been dating for 10 years. She also starred in his films “Life After Beth” and “The Little Hours,” the latter of which she co-produced. Plaza was also nominated for a Golden Globe award last year for her role in Season 2 of HBO’s “The White Lotus.” It’s not known who filled in for Plaza, or which award she was slotted to present.
But though Plaza was absent from the ceremony, the love from her industry peers was not. During his acceptance speech for Best Director of a Motion Picture, “The Brutalist” director Brady Corbet made sure to mention Plaza and Baena just as he was capping off his address to the audience.
“I would also be remiss not to mention that I am humbled to be in such excellent company, filmmakers I genuinely admire,” Corbet said on stage. “Hundreds of very devoted people worked on this film for years, before, during and after its realization.”
As he reached the end of his time, Corbet gave a brief, heartfelt shout-out to Plaza. “Finally, tonight my heart is with Aubrey Plaza and Jeff’s family,” Corbet said before bidding the audience goodnight.
