Beverly Hills, Calif. – “Babel” won best drama and “Dreamgirls” was named best musical or comedy at Monday’s Golden Globes, establishing them as potential front-runners for a showdown at the Academy Awards.
“I swear I have my papers in order, governor, I swear,” “Babel” director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of Mexico joked after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzen egger presented the best drama prize for the ensemble drama that takes place on three continents.
The Globes for best dramatic performances were awarded for renditions of two wildly different heads of state: Helen Mirren won best actress as Britain’s priggish monarch Elizabeth II in “The Queen,” while Forest Whitaker took best actor as magnetic but savage Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland.”
Mirren noted that at age 25 in 1952, Elizabeth “walked into literally the role of a lifetime, and I honestly think this award belongs to her, because I think you fell in love with her, not with me.”
Both Mirren and Whitaker have been regarded as Oscar front-runners since their films debuted last fall.
Mirren also won the Globe for best actress in a TV movie or miniseries as the current monarch’s namesake of centuries ago in “Elizabeth I.”
The crowd-pleasing musical “Dreamgirls” also won acting honors for Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson, its three prizes possibly positioning it as the nominal favorite heading toward the Oscars.
Murphy, previously a three- time loser in the best-actor category at the Globes, finally won a major Hollywood honor after a 25-year career in which his fast- talking comic persona made him a superstar while critical acceptance eluded him.
Murphy plays a slick soul singer struggling to change with the times and find new relevance as the Motown music scene evolves through the 1960s and ’70s.
Hudson rose to fame barely two years ago on “American Idol” on the strength of her powerhouse voice, which she uses to great effect in “Dreamgirls.”
“I had always dreamed, but I never ever dreamed this big,” she said. “This goes far beyond anything I could have ever imagined.”.
Sacha Baron Cohen received the Globe for best actor in a movie musical or comedy for his raucous satire “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” In colorful anatomical language, Cohen thanked co- star Kenneth Davitian for their naked-wrestling scene.
Meryl Streep won her sixth Golden Globe, this one as best actress in a musical or comedy for “The Devil Wears Prada,” in which she plays the boss from hell at a top fashion magazine.
“I think I’ve worked with everybody in the room,” she joked.
American director Clint Eastwood’s Japanese-language World War II saga “Letters From Iwo Jima” won the honor for foreign-language film, a prize usually reserved for movies from outside the United States.
The talking-auto comedy “Cars” took the first-ever Golden Globe for animated film, a category added because of the rush of cartoon flicks Hollywood now churns out.
“Animation is awesome everybody. It’s my life. I’ve lived in it,” said “Cars” director John Lasseter. “It’s so exciting to have our own category.”
Warren Beatty received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.
Complete list of winners at Monday’s 64th annual Golden Globes presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in Beverly Hills, Calif.:
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-Picture, Drama: “Babel”
-Actress, Drama: Helen Mirren, “The Queen”
-Actor, Drama: Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”
-Picture, Musical or Comedy: “Dreamgirls”
-Actress, Musical or Comedy: Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada”
-Actor, Musical or Comedy: Sacha Baron Cohen, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”
-Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”
-Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls” -Director: Martin Scorsese, “The Departed” -Movie Screenplay: Peter Morgan, “The Queen”
-Foreign Language: “Letters From Iwo Jima,” USA/Japan
-Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, “The Painted Veil”
-Original Song: “The Song of the Heart” from “Happy Feet”
-Animated Film: “Cars”
TELEVISION
-Series, Drama: “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC
-Actress, Drama: Kyra Sedgwick, “The Closer”
-Actor, Drama: Hugh Laurie, “House”
-Series, Musical or Comedy: “Ugly Betty,” ABC
-Actress, Musical or Comedy: America Ferrera, “Ugly Betty”
-Actor, Musical or Comedy: Alec Baldwin, “30 Rock”
-Miniseries or movie: “Elizabeth I,” HBO
-Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Helen Mirren, “Elizabeth I”
-Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Bill Nighy, “Gideon’s Daughter”
-Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Emily Blunt, “Gideon’s Daughter”
-Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Jeremy Irons, “Elizabeth I”
-Cecil B. DeMille Award: Warren Beatty
