Sarah Jessica Parker gets the Golden Globes’ Carol Burnett Award and a cosmo toast

By Canadian Press on January 8, 2026.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Matthew Broderick presented his wife of nearly 30 years Sarah Jessica Parker with the Golden Globes’Carol Burnett Award for a life of achievement in television, and suggested that if she’d listened to him, it might not have happened.

“Do you really want to do TV?” the actor recalled asking Parker when she was first presented with the script for her career-making role as Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City” in the 1990s. She would go on to win six Golden Globes and two Emmys.

“It has been a privilege and a dream to call myself an actor,” Parker said accepting the award.

Helen Mirren was also being honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award later in the Thursday night CBS telecast of the inaugural version of Golden Eve, a separate ceremony held Tuesday for honorary career awards at the Beverly Hilton hotel during the run-up to Sunday’s Golden Globes. Both women will be acknowledged then too.

Parker got a tearful tribute from longtime “Sex and the City” co-star Kristin Davis and a toast with cosmopolitans — Bradshaw’s favorite drink that the show turned into a craze — led by Colman Domingo.

The Carol Burnett Award is given for “outstanding contributions to television on or off screen.”

The most recent winner — Ted Danson — and its namesake and 2019 first winner — Burnett — opened the night of kudos.

“My darling Sarah,” Burnett, age 92, said on a mic from her table. “Welcome to the club.”

Parker also talked about the time creator Darren Star offered her “Sex and the City,” and what it would mean to take it. The original HBO show became a cultural phenomenon. It ran for six seasons, spawning two feature films and the recent reboot series “And Just Like That….”

“I met Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, Samantha Jones, and Miranda Hobbes,” Parker said, “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.”

Broderick also talked about the way “Sex and the City” changed their lives.

“The president,” he said, “came to our house.”

Parker is 60 but has been acting for more than 50 years, including playing the title role in “Annie” on Broadway as a child. She said her big moment of inspiration came while watching her mother and future stepfather in an Ohio production of “Once Upon a Mattress.” The show had been Burnett’s big break on Broadway, and Parker later starred in a Broadway revival.

“I thought, oh my gosh, yes, that is what I most want,” she said.

Mirren, 80, an Oscar winner for her 2006 portrayal of Elizabeth II in “The Queen,” has also won three Golden Globes and is up for a fourth this year for her role in the series “MobLand.” She was named a Dame of the British Empire in 2003.

The DeMille award dates to 1952, when it was given to the legendary filmmaker himself. Other recipients include Walt Disney, Judy Garland, Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks.

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press

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