"TheKing" has won Three's The Charm as ‘Rings' Shine

Munawar Hosain Piyal

New Line Cinema's epic drama "Lord of the Rings” juggernaut finally grabbed a big ring at this year's Golden Globe awards on Sunday January 25 as the last delivery of the trilogy “Return of the King” won best drama in a four-for-four sweep.

“Lost in Translation”' took the top comedy/musical prize and two others: Bill Murray for actor and writer-director Sofia Coppola for screenplay. “Mystic River” was the only other multiple winners, with awards for actor Sean Penn and supporting actor Tim Robbins.

The field's most nominated picture, “Cold Mountain”, managed just one win out of eight nominations, for Renee Zellweger's supporting role. "Master and Commander: Far side of the World' and “The Last Samurai” were shut out.

Best Director winner Peter Jackson for “The King” flanked by his 'Rings' team offered a short, even anticlimactic speech typical of the by-the-numbers evening. “I want to pay tribute to Professor Tolkien for his incredible work”, he said.

The night marked the first major awards in the compressed awards calendar. Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which is an organisation of 90 foreign journalists from around the world, gives out the prestigious Golden Globe Awards. The show has been a successful 'party of the year' both for the organisation and for the NBC television network, which broadcast the show, live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. It is often said the Golden Globes is the pre-cursor to the Oscars. If we look at the history we see that often the films, director and actors who won the Globes ended up winning the Oscars.

Best Actor(comedy/musical) winner Bill Murray delivered the night's most memorable speech, brimmed with sardonic barbs. “You can all relax, I fired my agents a couple of months ago,” he joked, after numerous winners had thanked their reps to make up for Tim Robbins' failure to do so. “I would like to thank Universal and Focus pictures,” Murray added, “except there are so many people trying to take credit for this, I wouldn't know where to begin.”

Diane Keaton edged out Scarlett Johansson- double nominated for “Girl With a Pearl Earring” and “Lost in Trans- for actress in a musical or comedy for autumn romance 'Something Gotta Give.” The film which paired her with Jack Nicholson has already earned more than $100 million. The two (Keaton and Nicholson), Keaton said have “combined age of 125.” She added: “Playing a woman in love at 57 was like reaching for the stars with a stepladder.”

Charlize Theron continued the momentum from the well-received December release of “Monster” by winning Best Actress drama. “I grew up on a farm in South Africa'- this is insane”! she marveled before rushing through a list of names.

Tim Robbins taking the trophy for best supporting actor for his film “Mystic River”, opened the show. “Clint, you are the man!” Robbins cried, indicating director Clint Eastwood. “A good thing about this coming early is that I get to drink now,” said Robbins. Eastwood later took the stage to accept Sean Penn's Globe, explaining that the star was “terribly embarrassed not to be here. He's got family business up north. He promises to be here next year to present an award.” “Mystic River” has been a rarity for Warner Bros, which is now well nominated for the Oscars.

Highlighting the night's TV portion were two surprise wins by British mockumentary “The Office” and another strong overall showing by HBO. “Angels in America” was the big winner in most of the TV categories. It won best Miniseries/TV movie, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress and Support Actress--all five categories it was nominated in. Based on Kushner's best selling book and play “Angels” was one of the HBO produced TV films.

Michael Douglas received the prestigious lifetime achievement Cecil B.DeMille award. Danny DeVito and Sharon Stone presented it, noting that father Kirk Douglas had been given the DeMille in 1968. After a minute long standing ovation, Douglas praised the Globes' combo of TV and film stars. He noted that he got his start with small screen's “Streets of San Francisco”, hailing co-star Karl Malden as “a surrogate father”.