by Gregg Kilday
LOS ANGELES (The Hollywood Reporter) --- Chicago, a musical about a Jazz Age murderess, razzle-dazzled the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. as it danced off with eight Golden Globe nominations Thursday, including best picture musical or comedy. On the more somber side of the street, The Hours, a study of three women facing crossroads in their lives, dominated the dramatic competition with seven nominations, including best picture drama.
Miramax Films' Chicago also won noms in the best actress comedy or musical category for its headliners Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, in the best actor comedy or musical category for hoofer Richard Gere, for supporting players Queen Latifah and John C. Reilly and for its director Rob Marshall, who is making his feature directorial debut.
And it fueled a Miramax Films blitzkrieg. Counting Hours -- which Paramount Pictures is releasing domestically, while producing partner Miramax handles foreign territories -- Miramax racked up 26 nominations. Paramount, its closest competitor, claimed eight.
As they cherry-picked nominees from among the year-end awards contenders, the HFPA appeared to tilt in favor of movies that bent genre rules. Chicago presents its musical numbers as the fevered fantasies of gun-toting tootsie Roxie Hart. Hours time travels between three eras. And Columbia Pictures' eccentric Adaptation, which some skeptics had originally written off as too quirky to win a popular following, demonstrated its growing appeal by earning six noms. "It's wonderful," Columbia Pictures chairman Amy Pascal said. "I always felt that the movie was about something incredibly universal -- the need to adapt to other people to survive."
"All these pictures are very original. It speaks well of the industry that they are both original and risky," said Sherry Lansing, chairman of the Paramount Motion Picture Group, as she celebrated the seven noms allotted to Hours -- along with a Paul Simon songwriting nomination for the tune he penned for The Wild Thornberrys Movie. "These are very significant nominations, and we are deeply honored."
Hours clocked nominations for all four of its lead players: Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep were nominated for best dramatic actress, while Julianne Moore and Ed Harris earned supporting noms. Its director, Stephen Daldry, also was nominated.
Leading the contenders among the dramatic nominations, Hours will face off against New Line's About Schmidt and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Miramax's Gangs of New York and Focus Features' The Pianist.
Chicago -- which trumped the six noms for last year's winning musical, Moulin Rouge -- tied the record for Globe musical noms set by 1972's Cabaret. Its competition includes Universal Pictures/Working Title and Tribeca's About a Boy, Columbia/ Intermedia's Adaptation, IFC Films/Goldtone/Playtone Prods.' My Big Fat Greek Wedding and MGM/UA's Nicholas Nickleby.
The surprise appearance of Nickleby, which doesn't open in New York and Los Angeles until Dec. 27, heartened UA topper Bingham Ray, who said, "I'm really grateful because no one has really seen it yet, and this will give us great momentum to build on."
Along with the Hours duo of Kidman and Streep, the best dramatic actress lineup also numbers Salma Hayek, who plays the titular artist Frida Kahlo in Frida; Diane Lane, who suffers as an adulterous wife in Unfaithful; and Julianne Moore, who plays a 1950s housewife facing very modern problems in Far From Heaven.
The leading men who will compete for best dramatic actor are Adrien Brody, who plays a Jewish piano player confronting the Holocaust in Pianist; Michael Caine, a world-weary journalist in The Quiet American; Daniel Day-Lewis, a 19th century mob boss in Gangs; Leonardo DiCaprio, a young con man in Catch Me If You Can; and Jack Nicholson, a bewildered retiree in Schmidt.
The best actress in a musical or comedy also boasts a tag team from the same film -- Zellweger and Zeta-Jones of Chicago. They will square off against Maggie Gyllenhaal, who plays a masochistic office assistant in Secretary; Goldie Hawn as an aging groupie in The Banger Sisters; and Nia Vardalos as an ethnic romantic in Greek Wedding.
The Gyllenhaal nom represented a coup for Secretary distributor Lions Gate, which last year earned Halle Berry an Oscar win for Monster's Ball. "The nomination for Maggie speaks volumes about her performance, about the film and about independent film in general," Lions Gate Releasing president Tom Ortenberg said. "To have a smaller picture like this recognized in the face of all the big commercial blockbusters is really just terrific."
Best performance by an actor in a motion picture musical or comedy will pit Nicolas Cage, who plays a blocked writer in Adaptation, against Kieran Culkin as a confused adolescent in Igby Goes Down; Hugh Grant, a commitment-phobic bachelor in About a Boy; Adam Sandler, a frustrated lover in Punch-Drunk Love; and Gere for Chicago.
The supporting actress lineup is Kathy Bates (Schmidt), Cameron Diaz (Gangs), Queen Latifah (Chicago), Susan Sarandon (Igby Goes Down) and Streep (Adaptation).
The supporting actor crew numbers Chris Cooper (Adaptation), Harris (Hours), Paul Newman (Road to Perdition), Dennis Quaid (Heaven) and Reilly (Chicago).
All but one of the directors of the dramatic feature nominees earned directing nominations: While the HFPA ignored Roman Polanski, who directed Pianist, they showered noms on Daldry (Hours), Peter Jackson (Two Towers), Alexander Payne (Schmidt), and Martin Scorsese (Gangs); they also included two of the directors from the musical/comedy list -- Marshall (Chicago) and Spike Jonze (Adaptation).
The best screenplay nominations went to Bill Condon (Chicago), David Hare (Hours), Todd Haynes (Heaven), Charlie Kaufman and Donald Kaufman (Adaptation) and Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (Schmidt).
Inevitably, some of the year's more highly touted films came up short. Perdition had to settle for just one nom -- Newman's supporting actor citation. And Denzel Washington's directorial debut, Antwone Fisher, was missing in action.
"We would have loved to be recognized, but we are not deterred in passion and enthusiasm for Antwone," Fox Searchlight marketing head Nancy Utley said. "Antwone himself has never gotten anything easy but has never given up; so, much in that spirit, we are not giving up."
The Globe winners will be announced at an awards banquet Jan. 19 at the Beverly Hilton to be televised by NBC.
© 2002 The Hollywood Reporter