BEVERLY HILLS, December 18, 2003 — “I feel like I got to be Santa Claus for other people, so my presents are done,” Uma Thurman told Hollywood.com, looking all too perfect and put-together with her classically coiffed blonde hair and Gucci pantsuit for the 5 a.m. presentation the nominations for the 61st Annual Golden Globe Awards. “I’m Mrs. Claus–Mrs. Golden Globe Claus–and then there was a present for me!”
Thurman, of course, was talking about her own nomination for best actress in a motion picture, drama, for her role in as The Bride in Kill Bill–or, as her extremely excited co-presenter Alicia Silverstone called it, “Bill Kill.” Silverstone, who whispered a sheepish “sorry” to Uma as she returned to her seat, was forgiven, not only for any discombobulation caused by the early, early hour at the Beverly Hilton hotel, but also because just moments earlier she’d received a Globe nod herself when Kelsey Grammer announced her as nominee for best actress in a musical or comedy series for Miss Match.
“There’s no old hat,” said Uma, who won a Golden Globe last year for her starring role in the HBO telepic Hysterical Blindness and was nominated in 1995 for her landmark role in Pulp Fiction. The main twist was being there to hear her name called in person, she said. “My first time getting nominated was in bed, and I believe Harvey Weinstein called me, so this is very different.”
Her previous trophy is on the bookshelf at home. “I never got the plaque attached to it so maybe I’ll catch up on that now.” Still, she’s hedging her bets when talk turned to assembling a matching set of bookends. “We’ll see, we’ll see,” she mused. “The nomination is really great, the movie’s an amazing piece of cinema and I’m lucky to be in it. It was a real adventure.”
But the real adventure is just beginning, for despite the recently unveiled picks of a few choice critics groups, the Golden Globes announcement marks the official kick-off of the annual Hollywood awards season, the glitzy orgy of self-congratulation and canny campaigning that’s often as brutal and bloody as Kill Bill‘s kung fu.
Movies: In the Race and on the Sidelines
Indeed, aside from Thurman‘s nomination, Kill Bill appears to be an early casualty in the latest awards derby if the Globe noms can be considered an early prognosticator for the Oscars and other galas–and, of course, they always are, perhaps this year more than ever, given that the Academy Awards date has been accelerated by a month in hopes of curtailing the cutthroat studio campaigning that has gotten nastier and nastier in recent years. Writer-director Quentin Tarantino‘s film was edged out among the nominees for best drama, and the director failed to grab a nod himself.
But the film’s studio, Miramax (one of the most creative of those campaigners), and its head, Weinstein, had plenty to be happy about. Its other major release, Cold Mountain, led the 2003 pack with eight nominations, including a nom as best motion picture, drama; nods for stars Nicole Kidman (actress, drama), Jude Law (actor, drama) and Renee Zellweger (supporting actress, drama); director Anthony Minghella (director and screenplay) and nominations for both the score and song.
Joining Cold Mountain in the best picture, drama, race are The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River and Seabiscuit.
The Globes, handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a relatively small group of about 90 journalists working for overseas markets, traditionally anoint a smaller and/or independent film in a bid to up the movie’s profile for other awards nominations, and this year’s choice appears to be Lost in Translation. Although the quirky film itself was edged out of the best picture race, Sofia Coppola was nominated for both best director and best screenplay, while the film’s stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson each received comedy nominations in the actor and actress categories.
With today’s announcement, Johansson becomes a double nominee at the tender age of 19, receiving a dramatic nod as best actress for Girl With a Pearl Earring. Another youngster, 16-year-old Evan Rachel Wood, also scored a dramatic actress nod for her turn as the troubled teen in thirteen.
Unlike the Oscars, the Globes separate the best picture race into two categories, drama and musical or comedy. Joining Lost in Translation in the best picture, musical or comedy, field were the little Brit import that could, Bend It Like Beckham; the year’s most popular box office film, Finding Nemo; surprise nominee Big Fish; and the romantic bon-bon Love Actually. Oddly, the well-reviewed box office hit School of Rock, both musical and a comedy, did not rank, although Jack Black snared a nom for best actor, musical or comedy.
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The voters also obviously hoped to boost the indie The Cooler, giving props to co-stars Maria Bello (supporting actress) and Alec Baldwin (supporting actor). They didn’t, however, squeeze in nods for the film or its star William H. Macy in his biggest “luckless loser” performance ever–but Macy himself remained fortunate with a nomination for best supporting actor as Seabiscuit‘s race announcer Tick-Tock McLaughin.
Joining Law among the best actor, drama, picks were perennial nominees Russell Crowe (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) Tom Cruise (The Last Samurai), Ben Kingsley (House of Sand and Fog) and Sean Penn for Mystic River. Missing along with Macy were early contenders such as Seabiscuit‘s Tobey Maguire, The Human Stain‘s Anthony Hopkins and LOTR‘s Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood.
Alongside Kidman, Thurman, Johansson and Wood on the best actress, drama, list were Cate Blanchett for the little-seen Irish journalist drama Veronica Guerin and Charlize Theron for her intense and physically transforming turn in Monster. Most conspicuously absent from the list were Jennifer Connelly, currently earning rave reviews for House of Sand and Fog, Naomi Watts‘ blistering performance in 21 Grams and Julia Roberts for her Dead Poets Society-ish role in Mona Lisa Smile.
Along with Black and Murray, the best actor nominees in the musical or comedy category included Johnny Depp for his wonderfully dissipated performance in the popular Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; Jack Nicholson as the aging lothario of Something’s Gotta Give; and Billy Bob Thornton as the caustic Kris Kringle of Bad Santa. Coming up empty were comic contenders like Jim Carrey (Bruce Almighty), Hugh Grant (Love Actually) and Will Farrell (Elf).
The best actress, musical or comedy, contenders offered a wide array of actresses, pitting the teen Johansson against 30-ish Diane Lane of Under the Tuscan Sun, fortysomething Jamie Lee Curtis of Freaky Friday and over-50 actresses Diane Keaton of Something’s Gotta Give and Helen Mirren of Calendar Girls. Among the non-represented age group here are the twentysomethings–which Katie Holmes (Pieces of April) or Parminder Nagra (Bend It Like Beckham) might have filled–and the under-12s, a sure fit for Whale Rider‘s Keisha Castle-Hughes.
The supporting actress category, a mix of comedic and dramtic performances, offered a sampler of performances from mostly indie flicks. Along with Bello and Zellweger, nominees included Patricia Clarkson (Pieces of April), Hope Davis (American Splendor) and Holly Hunter (thirteen). Perhaps the most egregiously overlooked performances here were double-ups: Clarkson‘s in The Station Agent and Davis‘ in The Secret Lives of Dentists–although Keira Knightly‘s teen soccer player in Bend It Like Beckham, Marcia Gay Harden‘s troubled wife in Mystic River and Emma Thompson‘s worried wife in Love Actually were all deserving contenders.
Meanwhile, the supporting actor field provided a mix of familiar faces–Macy, Baldwin, Albert Finney for Big Fish and Tim Robbins for Mystic River–and two fresh faces–Peter Sarsgaard (Shattered Glass) and Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai). Master and Commander‘s Paul Bettany, 21 Grams‘ Benicio del Toro, LOTR‘s amazing supporting actor ensemble and Seabiscuit‘s Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper got short shrift. Love Actually‘s randy over-the-hill-rocker Bill Nighy could probably file a successful protest.
Finally, the candidates for best director are an ironclad collection sure to be repeated on several other lists this season: Joining Coppola and Minghella were Clint Eastwood (Mystic River), Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) and Peter Weir (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World). On the outs: Tarantino, Seabiscuit‘s Gary Ross, Monster‘s Patty Jenkins and House of Sand and Fog‘s Vadim Perelmen, among several others.
And thankfully, none the most over-buzzed-about movie names of the year made the list: no Bennifer and no Ah-nold. Let’s hope they stay home on awards night.
Television: Tube Turns-Ons and Tune-Outs
For the first time in quite a few years, some new faces broke into the Golden Globes’ television smackdown, including a series that specializes in new faces, FX’s Nip/Tuck, which nabbed a nom for best drama series and a best actress, drama, nom for Joely Richardson. The nomination bodes well for the series, as the Golden Globes have a long tradition of awarding underdogs in an attempt to goose viewership for freshman shows.
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Speaking of makeovers, Bravo’s 2003 sensation Queer Eye for the Straight Guy didn’t exactly accessorize with any of the Golden Globe categories, but other welcome newcomers to the race included Miss Match’s Alicia Silverstone; Anthony LaPaglia of Without a Trace and William Peterson of the smash hit CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, both nominated for best actor; drama; Amber Tamblyn of Joan of Arcadia, for best actress, drama; Bitty Schram of Monk and Reba McEntire of Reba, both for best actress, musical or comedy series; and Ricky Gervais of BBC America’s The Office, for best actor, musical or comedy series.
The Office itself is vying for best musical or comedy series, along with another newbie, the Fox sitcom Arrested Development. And the Globes team finally realized that Kristin Davis is her Sex and the City co-stars’ equal, rewarding her with her first ever-nomination in the best supporting actress, series, miniseries or movie made for television category, alongside gal pals Kim Cattrall and Cynthia Nixon.
The HBO comedy tied with Will & Grace as the most-nominated series with five noms, including a best actress, music or comedy nod for show star Sarah Jessica Parker. Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes each got nods for Will & Grace, though through the vagaries of the Golden Globes categories Hayes finds himself pitted exclusively against supporting actors from miniseries and TV movies.
Other surprises include an unfriendly near shutout for the Friends gang in their final season: neither the show nor five-sixths of its cast received nominations, the one-sixth exception being Matt LeBlanc in the best actor, musical or comedy series category.
Also conspicuously and entirely ignored were the Emmy champs from Everybody Loves Raymond, the also-departing perennials of the Frasier team and the cult fave Curb Your Enthusiasm. A lack of fresh episodes took The Sopranos out of the running, while HBO’s other hit drama Six Feet Under only snared two noms, a best drama series bid and a best actress, drama, prop for Frances Conroy.
Along with Six Feet Under, and Nip/Tuck, the drama series field includes 24, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and old war horse The West Wing, which also earned nominations for Martin Sheen (best actor, drama) and Allison Janney (best actress, drama). The comedy series crew included Arrested Development, Monk, The Office, Sex and the City and Will & Grace.
HBO continued to dominate in the miniseries and made-for-TV-movie field, earning multiple Globe nominations for its all-star projects My House In Umbria, Normal,
The HFPA also embraced the controversial Showtime miniseries The Reagans (first planned for CBS until protests scuttled the broadcast) by nominating the performances of stars James Brolin and Judy Davis.
Fun Fact: The former president himself won a Golden Globe in 1957, earning the Hollywood Citizenship Award.
All that remained was for the contenders to find the perfect dress to drape themselves in for the big night on Jan. 25. And the red carpet may be as non-traditional as this year’s selections. “I’d like to wear my Emmy dress again,” admitted Silverstone. “I really liked that dress.”
