It was one of Hollywood's worst-kept secrets, but Jodie Foster officially "came out" as a lesbian for the first time as she accepted her Cecil B DeMille lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. "I guess I have a sudden urge to say something I've never really been able to air in public, a declaration that I'm a little nervous about – maybe not quite as nervous as my publicist right now. I'm gonna need your support on this: I am single," she joked.

That isn't coming out …

Hold on! Growing increasingly passionate, she added: "I already did my big coming out about a thousand years ago in the Stone Age, in those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family, co-workers and then gradually, proudly, to everyone who knew her." Nowadays, Foster complained, "every celebrity is expected to honour the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a primetime reality show". Perhaps the 50-year-old actress didn't understand the irony of preaching about privacy to millions of television viewers, as she went on: "If you had been a public figure since the time you were a toddler, if you had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe you too would value privacy above all else."

How did the speech go down?

Some, including Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried, the young stars of Les Misérables, appeared baffled by some of Foster's more bizarre comments. However, as she moved away from talking about films and on to her former partner Cydney Bernard, her children and her mother Evelyn, who has dementia, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Sienna Miller, Marion Cotillard, Kate Hudson all welled up, while Anne Hathaway predictably cried the best tears of all those present. Hopefully, the speech will silence gay activists who attacked Foster for remaining firmly in the closet. In 1991, the OutPost campaign group cruelly plastered her photograph around Manhattan, accompanied by the slogan "Absolutely Queer". At least Foster won't have to worry about stunts like that anymore.