Annette Bening saddened by Globes protests

WENN, Monday, January 17, 2011, 4:16am (PST)

Annette Bening has praised Golden Globe organizers for refusing to let anti-gay protesters spoil the ceremony, after a group demonstrated outside the venue on Sunday night.

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Members of the right-wing Westboro Baptist Church, known for taking an extreme stance against homosexuality, picketed the event at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles as part of an anti-gay protest.

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Bosses at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), who organize the Golden Globe Awards, made sure the demonstrators did not get near the star-studded show, and Bening, who stars as a lesbian mother in Globe-winning movie "The Kids Are All Right," admits she found the protests disturbing.

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She tells the Hollywood Reporter, "That made me very sad. They may have had ["The Kids Are All Right in mind."] I think that gives us all the more reason to go to the Golden Globes, and for the HFPA to see beyond that, [not] caught up behind the narrow mindedness."