[GOLDEN GLOBES] Schmooze and schmaltz on the red carpet

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They didn’t kick off their Sunday shoes and break into dance, but Zac Efron did come toe to toe with Kevin Bacon for the first time on the red carpet at Sunday’s Golden Globes.

Efron is slated to reprise the role of toe-tapping rebel Ren McCormack in an upcoming remake of Footloose. Bacon shot to fame when he originated the role nearly 25 years ago in the original 1984 film.

“Finally, I meet you,” Efron, accompanied by his girlfriend and High School Musical co-star Vanessa Hudgens, exclaimed as he intercepted Bacon on the carpet.

The pair chitchatted for several minutes while Bacon’s wife, Kyra Sedgwick, who was nominated for a Globe for best TV actress for The Closer, conducted red carpet interviews.

“I was always a really big fan,” Efron told Bacon.

Tom Cruise must have gotten comfortable in that fat suit.

Cruise, nominated for a supporting actor Golden Globe for his nearly unrecognizable performance as fat, balding, foul-mouthed movie executive Les Grossman in the Ben Stiller comedy Tropic Thunder, said he and Stiller are considering bringing the character back in some other format.

“I don’t know. We’ll see. We keep talking about maybe doing something for the Internet,” Cruise said on the red carpet before Sunday’s Golden Globes.

“We really haven’t had a moment to talk about it thoroughly but it would be fun,” Cruise added. “It’s a fun character to play.”

For Tina Fey, Sunday night offered not only an opportunity to add to her collection of Golden Globes but to even some scores with her cyberspace critics.

Fey, a frequent target of catty Internet blog postings, collected her second consecutive Golden Globe for best actress in a TV musical or comedy for 30 Rock, which also took the award for best TV series, musical or comedy.

“If you ever start to feel too good about yourselves, they have this thing called the Internet,” she said as she accepted her award. “And you can find a lot of people there who don’t like you.”

Then, in colorful terms, she went on to name a handful of them, saving her strongest criticism for someone who posts under the name “cougar-letter.”

“All year you’ve been on me. All year,” she said, as several famous faces in the audiences laughed and nodded in agreement.

Recalling co-star Heath Ledger’s tragic death still chokes up Maggie Gyllenhaal, even during the excitement of the Golden Globes.

“It’s so hard to really feel how sad it is with the lights and the television and everybody screaming, but you know it’s also very sad,” Gyllenhaal, her voice choking, said on the red carpet before the show.

Ledger, who died in January last year of an accidental drug overdose, won the Golden Globe on Sunday as supporting actor in a motion picture for his performance as Batman’s nemesis The Joker.

“Our movie I think is great, actually. But I think he elevated it to a completely different place,” Gyllenhaal said of Ledger’s performance. “It’s hard to be that good in a movie that big.”

A subdued Dark Knight director Chris Nolan accepted Ledger’s award.

“For any of us lucky enough to work with him ... for any of us lucky enough to enjoy his performances, he will be eternally missed but he will never be forgotten,” Nolan said.

File portions of Mickey Rourke’s acceptance speech under “Things Most Likely to be Bleeped in the Tape-Delayed Version.”