by Bob Tourtellotte
BEVERLY HILLS (Reuters) - Razzle dazzle 'em. The movie musical Chicago, boasting tunes like "All That Jazz" and stars like Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere, strutted its stuff on Hollywood's stage on Thursday, topping the Golden Globe nominations with eight overall including best musical or comedy.
The Golden Globe nominations, which are given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, mark the U.S. film industry's first major showcase leading up to the Oscars.
Chicago, based on the hit Broadway show of the same name, scored nominations for Zellweger, Zeta-Jones and Gere in the best actress and actor categories, respectively, for a musical or comedy. It landed nominations for director Rob Marshall, screenwriter Bill Condon and supporting actress Queen Latifah and supporting actor John C. Reilly.
The drama The Hours was second with seven nominations. The film stars Nicole Kidman, as writer Virginia Woolf, along with Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore, all as women dealing with similar life issues but in three different time periods.
It was nominated for best dramatic film, best actress honors for Kidman and Streep and a director nomination for Stephen Daldry. Ed Harris was nominated as best supporting actor, Philip Glass for best original score and David Hare for best screenplay.
Adaptation scored six nominations to put it third on the list of most nominated films, including one for best comedy or musical and for Nicolas Cage as best actor. It tells of a screenwriter struggling to adapt a novel into a movie and comes from the same filmmakers as 1999's offbeat Being John Malkovich, writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze.
"I think this movie at its core is about the essence life. It says if we do not adapt, if we do not connect, we die on some level," said Sony Pictures chief Amy Pascal.
Joining Chicago and Adaptation on the list of favorite musicals and comedies was the independent movie hit of the year My Big Fat Greek Wedding, coming-of-age comedy About A Boy starring Hugh Grant, and Nicholas Nickleby.
Also nominated with The Hours in the best dramatic film category were About Schmidt, which earned star Jack Nicholson a nomination for best dramatic actor, Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, the Holocaust drama The Pianist from director Roman Polanski and the epic action picture, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
About Schmidt, in which Nicholson portrays a 66-year-old retiree contemplating his life and his future, and Gangs, about gang wars in the slums of 19th century New York, each earned five nominations to round out the list of the five most nominated movies.
The Golden Globe awards will be given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on Jan. 19 in Beverly Hills.
Each year the awards give movie-goers an indication of which films will be nominated for Oscars, the U.S. film industry's top honors named by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in March.
Two big surprises were the lack of nominations for the Denzel Washington-directed drama Antwone Fisher, a critics' favorite, and the fact that New York film critics award winner Far From Heaven failed to be nominated for best dramatic film.
Far from Heaven star Julianne Moore was nominated for best actress in a drama and the movie, overall, earned four nominations including best screenplay for writer/director Todd Haynes.
Rounding out the nominees for best dramatic actress were Diane Lane in Unfaithful, about a woman's extramarital affair, and Salma Hayek in Frida," about Mexican painter Frida Kahlo.
In the category for best dramatic actor, Nicholson will face stiff competition from Daniel Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York, Michael Caine for The Quiet American, Adrien Brody for The Pianist and Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can.
Joining Zellweger and Zeta-Jones in the category for best actress in a musical or comedy were Goldie Hawn in The Banger Sisters, Nia Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and newcomer Maggie Gyllenhaal for Secretary.
Among the other surprises was Kieran Culkin's nomination for best actor in a musical or comedy for Igby Goes Down. Joining him, Cage and Gere in that grouping were Hugh Grant for About a Boy, and Adam Sandler for Punch-Drunk Love.
Adding to the list of best director nominees with Jonze for Adaptation and Daldry for The Hours were Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Rob Marshall for Chicago, Alexander Payne for About Schmidt and Scorsese for Gangs.
© 2002 Reuters