Rachel Weisz presenting Golden Glboe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture….will it be Murphy? And the Golden Globe goes to Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls. An omen? Does this mean that Dreamgirls win the Best Musical or Comedy Golden Globe award? Even if it does…hah! Stand-out remark: “Thank you, David Geffen, for convincing me to work for free.”

Salma Hayek strides out on stage to present the Golden Globe for Best Series or TV Movie, and the trophy goes to HBO’s Elizabeth I. ( I called it Elizabeth the First earlier….I was wrong.)

Joaquin Pheonix presenting the award to Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy….and the award goes to Meryl Streep. Surprised? Not me. “Oh, my God…thank you everybody. I’m really thrilled. I think I’ve worked with everybody in the room. (Somebody groans or murmurs something.) Oh, shut up….it’s not that long. Congratulations to nominees in all categories for Best Actress….this has been such a fun year to watch movies because of you gals. I just want to thank David Frankel and Aline Brosh McKenna for a really sharp script, and thanks to Elizabeth Gabler [and the other producers] and Tommy Rothman who signs the checks…and oh, gosh, the delicious Emily Blunt, the darling Annie Hathaway, the dreadful Stanley Tucci.” (Goofing, of course.) Said something about how “it’s amazing how much you can make happen if you politely stand your ground and demand it.” More stuff, too convoluted to get right under pressure.
Best Supporting Actor in a motion picture is next…commercial break time.

The Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film (presented by Steve Carell) goes to Cars…Cars!?…Cars!

The Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series or TV Movie: Emily Blunt, Gideon’s Daughter (also played the sick, runny-nosed secretary in The Devil Wears Prada). The Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV Series or Drama: Hugh Laurie, House. Laurie’s first remark: “I am speechless….I am absolutely with a speech.” The rest of the improv is fairly fast, glib, moderately amusing…fun guy. “I would like to thank Robert Sean Leonard — I can’t remember why.”

Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or TV movie…very to that. And the Golden Globe goes to Jeremy Irons for Elizabeth the First, the HBO movie. “This is a nightmare,” Iron begins. “I can’t remember your names. Why is it that the jobs that are the most fun are the ones that get you awards? This film showed in England — they ignored it. It showed here and you people didn’t ignore it. It’s wonderful to have this. Thank you very much!” And Kyra Sedgwick just won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series/Drama, for her acting on the TNT series The Closer.

Justin Timberlake just handed out the Best Song award — to “Song of The Heart” from Happy Feet. Nobody showed up to accept it. Timberlake said, “I guess Prince isn’t here so I’d like to thank the HFPA for this great honor,” or words to that effect. Commercial break as I write this….

Jennifer Hudson just won the Best Supporting Actress award at the Globes. (George Clooney announced it — no surprise in his voice when he said her name.) Her remarks: “Thank you so much, I have always dreamed but never, ever this big…thank you to the Hollywood Foreign Press for such an amazing honor. You do no know how much this does fro my confidence…because of this, it makes me feel like I’m a part of a community…it makes me feel like an actress….my thanks to Bill Condon, and I thank God for such an experience….[thanks to] Larry Mark, David Geffen. Thank you to everybody in this room! This award is for Florence Ballard….you will never be forgotten. Thank you!”

Hollywood Elsewhere is spiffed up, in position and watching a live West Coast feed of the Golden Globe awards in a secure location. I’m going to start blah-blahing and post-posting as soon as it starts. If you’re in the Pacific time zone, the winners will be posted here first, or fairly early….

1.15.07, 4:05 pm; 4:06 pm; 4:07 pm

In his boilerplate Golden Globes lead-up piece, AP reporter David Germain says “there [is] no clear front-runner for the best-drama prize, whose nominees Include The Departed, the Robert Kennedy-in-absentia tale Bobby, the suburban comic drama Little Children and the British-royalty story The Queen.” Saying there’s “no clear front-runner” is a dodge, unless I’m way off the mark. It’s The Departed, son…The Departed.

AP photo by Jeff Christensen

“Moving through a room [like the one at the Chateau Marmont, where the big pre-Globes HBO party happened last Saturday] is either the best thing you’ve ever done or a claustropho- bic’s ultimate nightmare. You exchange brief glances with strangers; their hungry eyes bounce around the room looking for famous places to land. If you’re a nobody, those eyes bounce off of you without even a smile. It’s a social dance that silently decides hierarchy.” — from Sasha Stone‘s Oscarwatch.com piece about Saturday night shenanigans, which only confirms my observation that there are very few people in this town who are less charmed by the Oscar-season party circuit action than she.