HELEN MIRREN, The Queen
Given her nominations for playing Queen Elizabeth I (in an HBO miniseries) and the present-day Queen Elizabeth II (in The Queen), does Helen Mirren, 61, think going royal is the secret to awards glory? "You may have a point," says Mirren (who's also up for a Globe for PBS's Prime Suspect: The Final Act). Meanwhile, Mirren would like to offer an apology to Her Majesty: "I feel I have let the Queen down in the leg department," she says. "Hers are much prettier. I call mine my 'Rooneys' [for British soccer star Wayne Rooney]. They're stockier!"
MIRREN as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen
BEST ACTOR—DRAMA
LEO VS. LEO
Thanks to his passionate portrayals of an undercover cop in The Departed and a smuggler in Blood Diamond, DiCaprio, 32, not only collected a rare two nominations in the same category, he also helped shed his boyish image. But the latter was not intentional: "I can't say I ever thought about that—like choosing a different role to make me seem more like a man." So what does he mull over at work? During the Diamond shoot "Djimon [Hounsou] and I would be in the mud and talk about the hot chocolate and croissants you can get in Paris," he says. "We were like two weird women talking pastries."
THE NOMINEES ARE...
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
BEST ACTRESS—MUSICAL OR COMEDY
GOLDEN COUPLE
For Hollywood power spouses Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, it will be a banner—if perhaps nerve-racking—night. While the Running with Scissors nominee sweats over whether she'll nab a Globe, her husband of almost 15 years is guaranteed to take one home: this year's Cecil B. DeMille Award. But will they be able to hold each other's hands through it all? Because the DeMille honoree and movie studios have separate seating arrangements, "they may be sitting at different tables," says Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Philip Berk. But rules are made to be bent: "If Warren wants to sit next to Annette, it's up to him."
BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Annette Bening, Running with Scissors
Toni Collette, Little Miss Sunshine
Beyoncé Knowles, Dreamgirls
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Renée Zellweger, Miss Potter
BEST ACTOR—MUSICAL OR COMEDY
BORAT ARRIVES!
Who will win in this category is beside the point. The big question is, who will walk the red carpet: the man Sacha Baron Cohen or the madcap myth known as Borat? "I think he'll come as Sacha Baron Cohen with his fiancée [Wedding Crashers' Isla Fisher]," says Berk. With awards season in full swing, "he's probably more interested in promoting himself as an actor." If he goes as Borat, here's hoping Kazakhstan sells tuxes alongside those thong swimsuits. "We have no rules except one: Everybody has to be dressed in black tie," says Berk. Beyond that, "if he wins and goes to the podium, anything can happen."
THE NOMINEES ARE...
Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Aaron Eckhart, Thank You for Smoking
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kinky Boots
Will Ferrell, Stranger Than Fiction
MISS GOLDEN GLOBE
SHE KNOWS JACK
Whether or not he scores a Globe, don't be surprised if Jack Nicholson flashes his winning smile all night: The proud papa will be watching his 16-year-old daughter Lorraine hand out awards as this year's Miss Golden Globe. (Mom is Jack's ex Rebecca Broussard.) Berk says the budding actress, who appeared in last summer's comedy Click, "has terrific potential to bring some sparkle to the show." Gee, wonder where she got that from.
WHAT WILL THEY WEAR?
DEVILISH DECISION
So, can we expect to see The Devil Wears Prada's Emily Blunt on the red carpet in...Prada? "I don't know!" says the 23-year-old British actress, who is nominated for her catty breakout turn in Prada as well as for the BBC TV movie Gideon's Daughter. "I haven't tried anything on yet. Hopefully I am not going to be dressed in a sack and disappoint everyone." Now back to her naturally brunette hair—she dyed it red for Prada—she'll also dial down the eye shadow. "I am partial to a smoky eye, but maybe not quite the inferno that I had in Prada!"
While her fashion-obsessed Prada character (right, with Anne Hathaway) lived to crash diet, Blunt has a healthier attitude about her red-carpet regimen. "I'm quite lucky—I'm from a family of slim kids," she says. "But I have a trainer who kicks my butt in L.A., so she will hopefully get me in shape before I hit that carpet." Mostly, though, she's taking a relaxed approach: "I think the dinner itself is usually quite a drunken affair. My boyfriend is coming, so it will be fun." Certainly the boyfriend is stylish: He's singer Michael Bublé.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
