“Good morning. I love you all.”
So said Matthew Perry as he took the podium at the 64th Annual Golden Globe Nominations at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and he had a good reason to want to spread the love: He’d just discovered that he’d been nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television for The Ron Clark Story.
“Yeah, it really means a lot to me, especially that it’s in the dramatic category. It was a challenge,” Perry told Hollywood.com after completing his portion of the announcements. “The Ron Clark Story was a really interesting movie and it was an interesting challenge for me to do it and it’s nice to be recognized in a drama so that’s nice.”
Golden Globe Awards Nomination Announcement Photo Gallery
“I think it was really nice actually seeing Matthew’s face when he got his nomination,” said his co-presenter Rosario Dawson. “I thought that was very cool.”
Perry was also eager to celebrate the nomination of his Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip co-star Sarah Paulson, who was nominated for Best Performance by an Actress Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. “I’m thrilled for Sarah,” said Perry. “She’s going to be thrilled. She’s going to be really, really happy. And she deserved it.”
Co-presenter Jessica Biel not only made herself look stunning for the 5 a.m. announcements, she also pulled off the unenviable task of delivering the full title of one tongue-twisty nominated film: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan—and she did it TWICE. How’d she pull off the flawless pronunciation? “I have no idea, honestly,” Biel told Hollywood.com. “It just happened to flow from me this morning.”
Double nominees were the buzzword of the morning, with Leonardo DiCaprio up against himself for both The Departed and Blood Diamond in the Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama category, and Clint Eastwood contending with himself for Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima in the Best Director – Motion Picture category. Even the regal Helen Mirren got two for playing Queen Elizabeth, as Elizabeth II in The Queen and Elizabeth I on HBO.
“There were two big surprises: The idea that Leonardo DiCaprio got nominated twice in the same category, and then Clint Eastwood getting nominated twice in the same category,” said Phillip Berk, the head of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the cadre of international journalists who bestow the awards. “I think that’s a historic event. It’s never happened in the history of Hollywood and I think that’s a big story.”
“That’s fantastic,” said Biel. “What a wonderful thing to have happen for Leonardo and for Helen and Clint as well. They’re so worthy. It’s fantastic.”
Berk said the self-competition could result in some tricky voting calculations. “It’s possible that if he’s on the final ballot, when Leonardo is competing with Leonardo, which Leonardo is going to get the most votes. Maybe it cancels out his chances for winning [but] I think it becomes a clear cut choice as to what the best actor is.”
Biel described her impression of how Hollywood regards the Golden Globes ceremony. “I think it’s a great awards show. It’s prestigious, it’s lovely to be a part of. It feels like a little bit less pressure than the Oscars. In my brain, it feels that way. It seems just more relaxed and more fun, but just as prestigious, so I think it’s a fantastic show.”
And Perry summed up just how much happier he was that he made the early morning rise to make to the hotel: “It is very nice to get a nomination early in the morning, midday, evening.”
–Reporting by Fred Topel
Click HERE for a complete list of nominations
