It was the biggest moment of Liza Huber’s professional life, and she was drugged up.
Back in 2000, the then-25-year-old was a soap-opera actress on NBC’s “Passions.” As the daughter of the genre’s reigning queen, Susan Lucci, she had been around celebrities before. But the Daytime Emmys are a world away from the Golden Globes, with its A++-list movie stars.
Huber had been tapped as the year’s Miss Golden Globe, which meant she would be on camera for most of the night, gracefully whisking celebrities on and off stage. George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts were among the year’s nominees; even the TV honorees, including Martin Sheen and Sarah Jessica Parker, were glittery. And, no doubt, Jack Nicholson would be in the front row, cocking a lascivious eyebrow Huber’s way.
But at the press conference during which it was announced that she had beaten out all the other Hollywood spawn vying for the Miss Golden Globe title, “I had the flu so bad,” Huber, now 38, tells The Post. “It was a blur. I took so much DayQuil that I powered through. But I look back at the pictures now and think, ‘Oh my goodness.’ ”
Although it involves neither a sash or a tiara, being named Miss Golden Globe is the most coveted honor for celebrity children looking to make it in Hollywood themselves — or those whose parents wish to nudge them into the family business. It’s a sort of coming-out party in movie society, as well as a chance at unprecedented exposure: Viewership for the 2013 ceremony was nearly 20 million.
“A couple of years later, it’s still one of the coolest things I’ve ever done,” Rainey Qualley, Miss Golden Globe 2012, says. “I got to meet every actor and actress I’ve ever admired.”
While Huber left the business to raise her four children and start her own baby food product line, 24-year-old Qualley, the daughter of Andie MacDowell and model Paul Qualley, has roles in three upcoming independent films. How much of a springboard to success the Globes honor is, though, is debatable. Have you ever heard of Lisabeth Shatner (Miss 1985, daughter of William), Lily Costner (Miss 2004, daughter of Kevin) or Gia Mantegna (Miss 2011, daughter of Joe)?
Rarer is the Miss Golden Globe who returned to the stage as a nominee: Anne Archer (Miss 1971) for 1987’s “Fatal Attraction”; Joely Fisher (Miss 1992) for TV’s “Ellen” in ’98. Linda Evans, Miss 1964, won for “Dynasty” in ’82. Melanie Griffith won for “Working Girl” 14 years after serving as Miss 1975. Miss 1982, Laura Dern, has won thrice, most recently in 2012 for the HBO show “Enlightened.”
The honor is occasionally an equal opportunity affair: There have been a handful of Mr. Golden Globes, including Freddie Prinze Jr. in 1996 and, last year, Michael J. Fox’s son, Sam. The now-24-year-old was called out by co-host Tina Fey, who told Taylor Swift to “keep her hands off” him.
It wasn’t the first time a Golden Globes kid was mortified at the show. Just ask Kaitlin Hopkins, Miss 1991 and the daughter of Shirley Knight (“As Good As It Gets”).
“Dana Delaney and Steve Guttenberg were the hosts,” remembers Hopkins, who’s since nabbed guest spots on a plethora of TV shows. “Steve kept making jokes about my ‘golden globes’ — which at the time was funny and I’m sure now would be considered very inappropriate.”
This year, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick’s daughter Sosie Bacon, 21, will take the spotlight. Her biggest fear is her sky-high stilettos.
“I do everything I can to avoid walking in heels, so that whole aspect of it — very nerve-wracking,” Bacon says. “[But] I think it’s good to get myself out there . . . to just show the world that this is what I’m doing now and I’m acting.”
Bacon says her interview with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organization that holds the awards, consisted of questions about her career goals and her work as an actor. (She’s appeared with her mom on the TNT series “The Closer” and in the short film “Another Life.”)
“This year, it really did not take us long to come up with Sosie. I spoke to her for half an hour and after less than a minute, I knew she was this year’s choice,” HFPA President Theo Kingma says, noting that it was between Bacon and one other person. “I found [her] extremely grounded, spontaneous.”
Though he won’t name names, Kingma admits he’s already being lobbied for Miss Golden Globe 2015.
Barry Adelman, the executive producer of the Globes, has worked on the show since the mid-’90s and says proud parents are sometimes very involved on the big night.
“I remember Demi [Moore] talking to Rumer [Willis] before the show,” he says of the 2008 show. “We had a room for them because Demi was presenting that night — mom and daughter got dressed together and got their hair and makeup done together.”
He recalls Frances Fisher coming to every rehearsal with Francesca Eastwood, her daughter with Clint Eastwood, last year. And it was a special moment for Andy Garcia when his daughter, Dominik Garcia-Lorido, was Miss Globe in 2003.
“What’s great about the Andy Garcia story is that he was a waiter in that room in the Beverly Hilton [where the award show takes place] before he was a star,” Adelman says of the “Ocean’s Eleven” actor. “That was a proud moment for him to see his daughter be Miss Golden Globe.”
The longest Miss Globe tradition started when Tippi Hedren’s daughter Melanie Griffith took the stage in 1975 and Griffith’s daughter, Dakota Johnson, was Miss 2006. Johnson, of course, landed one of the most buzzed-about movie roles last year when she was cast as the lead in “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
The Globes weren’t always a nepotistic debutante ball. Anne Archer (the daughter of actors Marjorie Lord and John Archer) was the first second-generation actress to get the gig in 1971. But the tradition began in 1963 with actress Eva Six and “Beverly Hillbillies” star Donna Douglas.
“Oh my goodness, best night ever,” Douglas, 80, says. “Of course, the show was so big at the time — the ‘Hillbillies,’ I’m speaking of — everything was so . . . exciting.”
Douglas, who lives outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, still remembers rubbing elbows with stars like Jackie Gleason and Sidney Poitier.
“Right now, the awards are so, what’s the word, stylized? Everything is correct,” Douglas says. “It wasn’t so stressful back then.”
Douglas doesn’t get many questions now about being Miss Globe, but Hopkins, who teaches drama at Texas State University, can’t avoid her past as a statue-holder.
“[My students] Googled me and found footage, and they think it’s just hilarious to post it on Facebook,” Hopkins says. “I had great big hair — it was the ’90s! They really get a kick out of it and they always want to hear stories about famous people.”