by ANTHONY BREZNICAN, AP Entertainment Writer
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Chicago, a musical about lady killers in prison, received a leading eight Golden Globe nominations Thursday, including best musical or comedy and best actress for stars Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The Hours, a three-tiered story about women coping with sadness whose lives are linked to a novel by Virginia Woolf, had seven nominations including best film drama, best actress for Nicole Kidman and supporting actor for Ed Harris.
The comedy of in-jokes, Adaptation, about its own writers' attempts to fashion its screenplay, had six mentions including best musical or comedy, screenplay by Charlie Kaufman and best comedy actor for Nicolas Cage.
Nominees in 13 movies and 11 television categories for the 60th annual Golden Globes were announced by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The awards are regarded by some as indicators of front- runners for the Academy Award nominations in February.
The Globes will be awarded on Jan. 19 during a live telecast on NBC.
In addition to The Hours, other best film drama contenders include the bittersweet Jack Nicholson road-trip saga About Schmidt, director Martin Scorsese's Civil War crime Gangs of New York, the fantasy sequel The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and director Roman Polanski's Nazi escape story The Pianist.
Along with Adaptation and Chicago, the Charles Dickens classic Nicholas Nickleby, the Hugh Grant redemption comedy About a Boy and the crowd-pleasing blockbuster My Big Fat Greek Wedding will compete for best musical or comedy.
Meryl Streep received two nominations, competing with The Hours co-star Kidman for best dramatic actress and in the supporting actress category for Adaptation.
Other dramatic actress honorees were Salma Hayek for Frida, Diane Lane for Unfaithful and Julianne Moore for Far From Heaven.
Nicholson's turn as a bedraggled widower in About Schmidt earned him a dramatic actor mention along with Leonardo diCaprio's runaway con artist in Catch Me If You Can, Daniel Day-Lewis' brutal crime lord in Gangs of New York, Michael Caine's role in i<>The Quiet American and Adrien Brody as the piano player evading Nazis in The Pianist.
Cage's role as screenwriter Kaufman and his fictional twin brother in Adaptation placed him against Grant in About a Boy, Kieran Culkin in Igby Goes Down, Richard Gere in Chicago and Adam Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love in the comedic or musical actor category.
Besides Zellweger and Zeta-Jones in Chicago, Nia Vardalos' role as a Greek woman who marries outside her ethnicity in My Big Fat Greek Wedding received a musical or comedy actress mention, along with Goldie Hawn in the The Banger Sisters and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary.
Directing nominees included Scorsese for Gangs of New York, Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Stephen Daldry for The Hours, Spike Jonze for Adaptation, Rob Marshall for Chicago and Alexander Payne for About Schmidt.
In a blur between reality and fiction, Kaufman was credited along with his reportedly fictional twin brother "Donald" in the screenplay category for Adaptation. Also nominated were Bill Condon for adapting the stage musical Chicago, David Hare for his version of the novel The Hours, Todd Haynes for Far From Heaven and Payne and Jim Taylor for About Schmidt.
© 2002 Associated Press