'Atonement' honored at Golden Globes

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-14 17:22

Jorge Camara, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, announces "Atonement" as winner of the Golden Globe Award for best drama motion picture at the 65th annual Golden Globe Awards news conference at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, California January 13, 2008. [Agencies]

Unlike a crippling writers strike that has dragged on for months, Hollywood's first big awards show was over in a flash, with no key winners, no stars in sight and no real fun for fans of show business glitz.

The Golden Globes on Sunday honored such films as the tragic romance "Atonement," the crime saga "No Country for Old Men," and the bloody musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

Yet no one film gained critical momentum that might set it ahead of the pack for the Academy Awards on Feb. 24, and a compressed Globes show highlighted what a joyless awards season this is for Hollywood.

The two-month-old strike by the Writers Guild of America scuttled the big celebrity bash at the 65th annual Globes, which were replaced by a bizarre and speedy news conference to announce recipients, without any winners around to gush their thanks.

"I wish circumstance would allow me to be there," Cate Blanchett, who won the supporting-actress prize for the Bob Dylan tale "I'm Not There," said in a statement.

With the Globes left in shambles, everyone in Hollywood was left wondering if the same fate might befall the town's big prizes come Oscar night on Feb. 24.

"I just hope this whole thing gets cleared up before the Academy Awards, because it would really be a tragedy if a similar fate transpired for them," said Richard Zanuck, producer of "Sweeney Todd," which won the Globe for best musical or comedy.

"Sweeney Todd" also earned Johnny Depp the Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy for his title role as the bloody barber who slits the throats of customers in his quest for vengeance.

Normally one of Hollywood's brightest nights, with stars carousing into the wee hours, the Globes this year became a mild curiosity as TV entertainment show hosts announced the winners in half an hour.

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