LOS ANGELES, California?Will Heath Ledger be honored posthumously with a Best Supporting Actor honor in the Golden Globe Awards to be presented in Beverly Hills this Sunday (Monday morning in Manila)? Will either Meryl Streep (?Doubt? and ?Mamma Mia!?) or Kate Winslet score double victories?
Will either Meryl Streep (?Doubt? and ?Mamma Mia!?) or Kate Winslet score double victories?
Or will Brad Pitt (?The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?) and Angelina Jolie (?Changeling?) make it a night of the Pitt-Jolies at the Globes with acting wins in the Drama category?
Or will these honors be swept by reunited ?Titanic? stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate for their lead performances in ?Revolutionary Road?? Kate might go onstage twice, since she?s also in the running for Best Supporting Actress for her work in ?The Reader.?
And will ?Slumdog Millionaire,? a film set in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) with no Hollywood stars and one that almost did not get a theatrical release, score a slam dunk as the Best Picture-Drama winner?
Who will prevail in the Best Original Song contest?Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce Knowles, Miley Cyrus, Peter Gabriel or Clint Eastwood (yes, the Clint Eastwood)?
These questions and more will be answered when the envelopes are opened before a star-studded audience at the International Ballroom of The Beverly Hilton.
Intriguing
Other intriguing questions:
If Heath wins for his highly original take on The Joker in ?The Dark Knight,? who will accept the new, improved Golden Globe statuette on his behalf?
The other Best Supporting Actor contenders are Philip Seymour Hoffman (?Doubt?), Ralph Fiennes (?The Duchess?), Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr. (?Tropic Thunder?).
Will Frank Langella win the Best Actor-Drama for his portrayal of President Richard Nixon in ?Frost/Nixon,? 38 years after his first Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer-Male for ?Diary of a Mad Housewife? in 1970? Frank lost to James Earl Jones for his turn in ?The Great White Hope? in the category that has since been scrapped.
Standing in Frank?s way, aside from are Leonardo and Brad, are Sean Penn (?Milk?) and Mickey Rourke (?The Wrestler?).
As we?ve written earlier, the awards season is a real cliffhanger this year, for a change. Virtually every critic loves ?Slumdog,? whose universal story of a boy from the slums who wins an Indian version of ?Who Wants to be a Millionaire?? can take place in the Philippines or anywhere in the world. (?Slumdog? is, in fact, the US critic?s choice for Best Picture. But its rivals for the Best Picture-Drama are just as likely to win: ?Benjamin Button,? ?Frost,? ?Reader? and ?Revolutionary.?
In the Best Actress-Drama race, will Anne Hathaway (?Rachel Getting Married?) or Kristin Scott Thomas (?I?ve Loved You So Long?) pull an upset victory over Kate, Meryl and Angelina?
If Meryl prevails, will she get to sing ?The Winner Takes It All? when she also takes the Best Actress-Comedy/Musical prize for ?Mamma Mia!?? Critics? favorite Sally Hawkins (?Happy-Go-Lucky?), Emma Thompson (?Last Chance Harvey?), Frances McDormand (?Burn After Reading?) or Rebecca Hall (?Vicky Cristina Barcelona?) might block Meryl from merrily belting that ABBA song.
Male race
Vying for the honors in the male category of this race are Javier Bardem (?Vicky?), Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson (?In Bruges?), Dustin Hoffman (?Last Chance?) and James Franco (?Pineapple Express?).
The critically acclaimed ?Happy? is up against ?Burn,? ?In Bruges,? ?Mamma? and ?Vicky? for Best Picture-Comedy/Musical.
In the Best Supporting Actress derby, the following offer stiff competition to Kate: Viola Davis (?Doubt?), Marissa Tomei (?The Wrestler?), Penelope Cruz (?Vicky?) and Amy Adams (?Doubt?).
Offstage, in what is called the pit, the floor closest to the stage, the A-listers are packed like sardines but what a crowd it is. Brad and Angelina are, of course, occupying one of the tables around the front and center area of the pit.
The nominees in the film and TV categories will all be there, from former lovers but still-friends Tom and Penelope (her current beau, Javier, is also a nominee) to Jon Hamm of ?Mad Men.? The range of presenters is quite eclectic, from Tom Brokaw to the Jonas Brothers. Other presenters include Blake Lively, Drew Barrymore, Gerard Butler, Renee Zellweger, Glenn Close, Cameron Diaz, Jessica Lange, Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek, Eva Mendes, Patrick Swayze, Laurence Fishburne, Megan Fox, Ricky Gervais, Terrence Howard, Sandra Bullock and the great Martin Scorsese.
Family affair
Among the interesting couples attending as presenters, nominees or simply as dates are Zac Efron and Filipino-American actress Vanessa Hudgens, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Sasha Baron Cohen (will he come as flamboyant fashion journalist Bruno, his character in an upcoming movie?) and Isla Fisher, Robert and Susan Downey, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Kate and husband, Best Director nominee Sam Mendes, Pierce and Keely Brosnan, James Franco and Ahna O?Reilly, Dustin and Lisa Hoffman, Emma Thompson and Greg Wise, Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller, Sean and Robin Wright Penn, Laura Dern and musician Ben Harper, Steve Carell and Nancy Walls.
One person who won?t go through the anxiety as the envelope is opened is director Steven Spielberg. He was set to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award last year but the show was canceled due to the Hollywood writers? strike. Now, Steven finally get his award with his family in attendance?wife Kate Capshaw, sons and daughters.
Also affected by last year?s show cancellation was the participation of Rumer Willis, daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, as Miss Golden Globe. This year, Rumer gets her spotlight, with mom and dad cheering on, along with her boyfriend, actor Micah Alberti, and Demi?s boyfriend, Ashton Kutcher.
Among the others bringing their moms or dads to the champagne-fueled gathering are Leonardo, Penelope, Blake Lively, Anne Hathaway, Miley (both Billy Ray and Leticia Cyrus) and Jeremy Piven.
Keeping it all in the family too are the Gummers?Meryl Streep, husband Don and daughter Grace; Colin and sister Claudine Farrell; Alec Baldwin and daughter Ireland; Sally Field and son Sam Greisman; and Susan Sarandon and son Jack Robbins.
Also gracing Hollywood?s party of the year are Prince, ?Mamma Mia!?s? Amanda Seyfried, Sting, Sean Combs and ?Slumdog ... ? sensation Dev Patel.
To cap this column on a humorous note, we share a portion of Anne Hathaway?s holiday letter: ?My mom will be my date ... she was wondering if you could please sit us near George Clooney ... seriously, you?d make her 2009. Acceptable substitutes ... are Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Clint Eastwood and/or Steve Carell. Thank you!?
The columnist is a voting member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), which presents the Golden Globe Awards.
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, ?The Nepales Report,? on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.
