A handful of stars were able to rise and even occasionally shine for the announcement of this year’s Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globe nominations, held in Beverly Hills during the wee, small, predawn hours this morning. One of the early risers on hand was even rewarded with a nomination herself, placing her in an elite company led this year by the films Chicago, The Hours, Adaptation, Gangs of New York, and About Schmidt.
Actors Noah Wyle (ER), Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under) and Colin Farrell (Minority Report) joined show producer Dick Clark and HFPA president Dagmar Dunleavy onstage at Merv Griffin’s Beverly Hilton Hotel for the announcement, made live to the eastern time zone at 5:30 a.m. Los Angeles time, kicking of the Hollywood awards season in cheeky style–appropriately, since the Golden Globes have become not just the leading indicator of the Oscar race, but also Tinseltown’s party of the year.
But if the Jan. 19 ceremony will keep the stars out all night, a different kind of sleep deprivation was the topic of the morning for the team of presenters.
“I woke up at ten after four in Malibu,” revealed a groggy-looking Clark, earning him some teasing from Dunleavey.
“You look it,” she said.
A bleary-eyed Wyle nearly read the list of TV comedy actor nominees twice. A few minutes later, Farrell jumped the gun on a cue and cut off Griffiths on the way to the podium, prompting the Aussie actress to rib the Dublin-born actor good naturedly, “The Irish are always first in the bread line.” Griffiths understood his plight; she was a sleepy celeb herself, mangling the name of The Sopranos‘ Michael Imperioli during her turn at the microphone.
Griffiths‘ early morning fortitude paid off, however, when she was listed among the nominees for best actress on a television drama–a surprise to some since Griffiths took home the supporting actress award last year. But the HFPA had more surprises in store.
Movies: Something To Sing and Dance About
The splashy big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical Chicago, which has yet to be released in theaters, led the pack with eight nominations overall, including nods for stars Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones (both for best actress in a motion picture musical or comedy), Richard Gere (best actor in a motion picture musical or comedy), Queen Latifah (best supporting actress in a motion picture musical or comedy), John C Reilly (best supporting actor in a motion picture musical or comedy), director Rob Marshall and screenwriter Bill Condon. With all those honors, it’s not surprising that the film itself was nominated in the best motion picture musical or comedy category as well.
Unlike the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes splits many of its awards categories between comedic and dramatic films, allowing The Hours to also score high with seven nominations in the drama categories, including best motion picture, best supporting actor (Ed Harris), best director (Stephen Daldry), best screenplay (David Hare), best original score (Philip Glass). Two of the film’s stars, Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep, received noms for best actress.
Streep also scored a nod for best supporting actress (a category that includes both dramatic and comedic contenders) for the offbeat comedy Adaptation, which garnered six nominations, including one for best motion picture comedy. Lead actor Nicolas Cage, supporting actor Chris Cooper and director Spike Jonze were also nominated, as was–in a first as mind-bending as the film itself–screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and his credited collaborator and likely fictional twin brother Donald Kaufman, both of whom are played by Cage in the film.
Julianne Moore, who appears along with Streep and Kidman in The Hours, needn’t feel left out: the actress joined her co-stars in the dramatic actress category with her nomination for the 1950s melodrama tribute Far From Heaven. Although the critically acclaimed film did not dominate as many categories as expected, it did earn nods for supporting actor Dennis Quaid and for the screenplay written by director Todd Haynes.
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As expected, Jack Nicholson landed a dramatic actor nomination for his subtle, masterful performance as retiree Warren Schmidt in About Schmidt, and film fared well with four additional nods for best dramatic motion picture, best director (Alexander Payne), best screenplay (Payne and Jim Taylor) and best supporting actress (Kathy Bates). Scoring equally high marks with five nominations was the 19th-century drama Gangs of New York, with bids for best dramatic motion picture, best director (Martin Scorsese), best actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), best song (“The Hands That Built America” by U2) and a surprise nomination for Cameron Diaz as best supporting actress. Although that film’s star Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t make the final cut, he was instead nominated in the best dramatic actor category for his leading role in the film Catch Me If You Can.
The season other major “big” picture, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, snared just two nominations, for best dramatic motion picture and best director (Peter Jackson). One film from earlier in the year, About a Boy, had strong staying power in the voters’ minds, earning kudos in the best motion picture comedy or musical category and for leading man Hugh Grant.
With contenders chosen by a relatively small group of international journalists, the HFPA has an established tradition of using the Golden Globe nominations to shine the spotlight on films and performances that might otherwise get lost in the race toward Oscar, and this year was no exception. The independent film Igby Goes Down was feted on the comedy side with noms for stars Kieran Culkin (best actor in a musical or comedy) and Susan Sarandon (best supporting actress), while on the dramatic end director Roman Polanski‘s Holocaust drama The Pianist received nods for best picture and for lead actor Adrien Brody.
Also receiving a vote of confidence from the HFPA was the little movie that could, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which grabbed nominations for best musical or comedy and for star Nia Vardalos as best actress in a musical or comedy, a category she shares with another surprise up-and-comer, Maggie Gyllenhaal of Secretary. The inclusion of Michael Caine as best actor in a drama for The Quiet American should also draw attention to that art house favorite.
The nomination of Adam Sandler‘s critically hailed turn in Punch-Drunk Love in the best actor in a musical or comedy category was a pleasant, if unexpected, inclusion, as were the nods for Diane Lane (Unfaithful) and Salma Hayek (Frida) in the dramatic actress category and for Paul Newman (Road to Perdition) as best supporting actor. More difficult to explain was the inclusion of Goldie Hawn for the critically panned and commercially under-performing The Banger Sisters.
Perhaps most significantly absent from the movie lists were a famous pair of pals, director Steven Spielberg and actor Tom Hanks, both of whom had two high-profile films in release this year (Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can for Spielberg, Road to Perdition and Catch Me If You Can for Hanks). Christopher Walken‘s widely praised turn in Catch Me If You Can failed to score, and there was no mention at all of Denzel Washington‘s much-heralded directorial debut Antwone Fisher. Also conspicuously absent was Road to Perdition director Sam Mendes, The Good Girl‘s Jennifer Aniston and any nominations for the cast and crew of the year’s biggest box office hit, Spider-Man.
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TV: You Get What You Pay For
Pay-cable king HBO continued its reign of creative dominance among the television networks, garnering a whopping 26 nominations overall–exactly twice that of its closest competitor, NBC, which nabbed 13 nods collectively. Two of HBO’s signature original series, The Sopranos and Six Feet Under, will take on 24, The Shield and The West Wing in the best TV drama race; two HBO comedies, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Sex and the City, will vie alongside Friends, The Simpsons and Will & Grace in the best TV comedy field; and three of the cable net’s original films, The Gathering Storm, Live From Baghdad and Path to War, will contend with A&E’s Shackleton and Sci-Fi’s Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken in the TV movie or miniseries category.
The dramatic acting categories are filled with faces now familiar and TV awards celebrations. Griffiths (Six Feet Under), Edie Falco (The Sopranos), Jennifer Garner (Alias), Marg Helgenberger (CSI) and Allison Janney (The West Wing) filled the lead actress slots, while Michael Chiklis (The Shield), James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), Peter Krause (Six Feet Under), Martin Sheen (The West Wing) and Kiefer Sutherland (24) rounded out the lead actor field.
The lead actor categories for TV comedies were more adventurous, with surprise nominees Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm), Matt LeBlanc (Friends) and Tony Shalhoub (Monk) joining now-regulars Bernie Mac (The Bernie Mac Show) and Eric McCormack (Will & Grace). Among the nominees for lead actress in a TV comedy, Bonnie Hunt (Life With Bonnie) was a fresh standout among usual suspects Aniston (Friends), Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Debra Messing (Will & Grace) and Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City).
Some of the more unexpected contenders go head to head in the supporting actor and actress match-ups, which mix liberally from TV comedies, dramas, movies and miniseries. That’s why in the extra-crowded supporting actor category you find sitcom vets Sean Hayes (Will & Grace) and Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle) vying with dramatic stalwarts Dennis Haysbert (24), Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos), John Spencer and Bradley Whitford (The West Wing) as well as with big-time movie stars Jim Broadbent (The Gathering Storm), Alec Baldwin and, in the same year as his son Kiefer, Donald Sutherland (Path to War).
Similarly, in the supporting actress category, you’ll see series laugh-getters Megan Mullally (Will & Grace), Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City) pitted against Gena Rowlands (Hysterical Blindness) and Parker Posey (Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay).
In such a crowded field, Kristin Davis was once again the only overlooked regular cast member of The Sex and the City, despite a stand-out season as Charlotte, as were two-thirds of the Friends cast and any nominees from the perennially popular Everybody Loves Raymond troupe, which dominated at this year’s Emmy Awards. Also missing from the lists were members from The Sopranos’ deep bench (beyond Gandolfini, Falco and Imperioli), which included particularly powerful turns this season from Drea DeMatteo, Tony Sirico and Joe Pantoliano, among others.
The TV movie and miniseries lead acting categories remain a prime place for Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated thespians to add to their mantles. Among the performers receiving Golden Globe nods this year are the Academy-honored Helena Bonham Carter (Live From Baghdad), Albert Finney (The Gathering Storm), William H. Macy (Door to Door), Shirley Maclaine (Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay), Helen Mirren (Door to Door), Vanessa Redgrave (The Gathering Storm) and Uma Thurman (Hysterical Blindness); other stars known for their work on the big screen earning nominations were Michael Keaton (Live From Baghdad), Michael Gambon (Path to War) and Linus Roache (RFK).
