'Atonement' leads list of Golden Globe nominations

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The British historical romance "Atonement" led the competition for the Golden Globes with seven nominations yesterday, including best drama and acting honors for Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.

"Charlie Wilson's War" ran second to "Atonement" with five nominations. Among double nominees were Cate Blanchett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Clint Eastwood and Eddie Vedder - the latter two receiving bids for song and score.

Besides "Atonement," the best-drama nominees for the 65th Golden Globes were the crime sagas "American Gangster," "Eastern Promises" and "No Country for Old Men," the inspirational college drama "The Great Debaters," the legal drama "Michael Clayton" and the California oil-boom epic "There Will Be Blood."

Because of a tie in voting, seven dramas were picked, rather than the usual five.

Nominated for best comedy or musical along with "Charlie Wilson's War" were the Beatles musical "Across the Universe," "Hairspray," "Juno" and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."

Joining Knightley in the dramatic-actress category was Blanchett for her title role as the British monarch in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."

Blanchett also had a supporting-actress nomination for her gender-bending role as an incarnation of Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There." (A cross-dressing role earned John Travolta a supporting-actor nomination for "Hairspray," in which he plays an overweight, homebody housewife.) Also earning two nominations was Hoffman, for lead actor in a comedy or musical in "The Savages" and supporting actor for "Charlie Wilson's War."

"Charlie Wilson's War" is a comic look at a congressman (Tom Hanks), a Texas socialite (Julia Roberts) and a slovenly CIA man (Hoffman) who engineered the covert U.S. response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Hanks was cited for best actor in a comedy or musical; Roberts was nominated as supporting actress.

Vedder also received two nominations, for best score for the road drama "Into the Wild" and for an original song he wrote for the film, "Guaranteed."

Besides being nominated for best actor for "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," John C. Reilly also is up for original song for the "Walk Hard" theme, which he co-wrote with Marshall Crenshaw, Judd Apatow and director Jake Kasdan.

Denzel Washington, director of "The Great Debaters," won a best dramatic actor nomination for "American Gangster," in which he plays a 1970s Harlem heroin baron. Russell Crowe, who plays the cop who brings him down, was snubbed by Globe voters, though.

Along with Washington and McAvoy, dramatic-actor nominees were George Clooney as "Michael Clayton," Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" and Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises."

Joining Knightley and Blanchett in the dramatic-actress category were Julie Christie in "Away From Her," Jodie Foster in "The Brave One" and Angelina Jolie as Mariane Pearl in "A Mighty Heart."

Actresses who became instant box-office stars in 2007 earned nominations for best actress in a musical or comedy: Nikki Blonsky in "Hairspray," Amy Adams in "Enchanted" and Ellen Page in "Juno."

Complicating this latest season of Hollywood backslapping is a strike by the Writers Guild of America, whose members walked off the job in November over their share of potential profits from programming distributed over the Internet.

Many awards shows are written under guild contract, so it remains unclear how the strike might affect the ceremonies. *