'Lincoln' leads Golden Globes nominations with 7 bids

AP Photo: DreamWorks. Daniel Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln IMAGE

12/13/12 By MSN and wire services

The Golden Globes nominations were announced Thursday, and many of the stars being honored may look familiar.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The Civil War epic "Lincoln" leads the Golden Globe nominations with seven nods, among them best drama, best director for Spielberg and acting honors for Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones.

Tied for second-place with five nominations, including best drama are the Iran hostage-crisis thriller "Argo" and the slave-turned-bounty-hunter tale "Django Unchained."

Other best-drama nominees are the shipwreck story "Life of Pi" and the Osama bin Laden manhunt thriller "Zero Dark Thirty."

Nominated for best musical or comedy were: the British retiree adventure "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"; the Victor Hugo musical "Les Miserables"; the first-love tale "Moonrise Kingdom"; the fishing romance "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen"; and the lost-soul romance "Silver Linings Playbook.

Other nominations included for best actor in a TV comedy/musical: Alec Baldwin, Don Cheadle, Louis C.K., Matt LeBlanc, and Jim Parsons.

There were no surprises in the best TV drama series nominations which included "Breaking Bad," "Downton Abbey," "Boardwalk Empire," "Homeland" and HBO's "The Newsroom." Best actor in a miniseries/TV movie nominees included: Kevin Costner, Benedict Cumberbatch, Woody Harrelson, Toby Jones, Clive Owen.

The nominations were announced by Megan Fox, Ed O'Neill and Jessica Alba. The ceremony, to be held January 13, will be hosted by Tina Fey, a two-time Globe TV winner for "30 Rock," and Amy Poehler, a past nominee for "Parks and Recreation," and airs live on NBC.

Presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a relatively small group of about 90 reporters covering Hollywood for overseas outlets, the Globes sometimes single out newcomers to Hollywood's awards scene. Hilary Swank's Globe win for 1999's "Boys Don't Cry" helped put her on the map on the way to winning her first Oscar.

Related: Full list of nominees

Globe acting winners often go on to receive the same prizes at the Oscars. All four Oscar winners last season — lead performers Meryl Streep of "The Iron Lady" and Jean Dujardin of "The Artist" and supporting players Octavia Spencer of "The Help" and Christopher Plummer of "Beginners" — won Globes first.

The Globes have a spotty record predicting which films might go on to earn the best-picture prize at the Academy Awards, however.

Last year's Oscar best-picture winner, "The Artist," preceded that honor with a Globe win for best musical or comedy.

But in the seven years before that, only one winner in the Globe best-picture categories — 2008's "Slumdog Millionaire" — followed up with an Oscar best-picture win.

Along with 14 film prizes, the Globes hand out awards in 11 television categories.

Jodie Foster, a two-time Oscar and Globe winner for "The Accused" and "The Silence of the Lambs," will receive the group's Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Jan. 13 ceremony.

Hosts Fey and Poehler follow Ricky Gervais, who was host the last three years and rubbed some Hollywood egos the wrong way with sharp wisecracks about A-list stars and the foreign press association itself.

With stars sharing drinks and dinner, the Globes have a reputation as one of Hollywood's loose and unpredictable awards gatherings. Winners occasionally have been off in the restroom when their names were announced, and there have been moments of onstage spontaneity such as Jack Nicholson mooning the crowd or Ving Rhames handing over his trophy to fellow nominee Jack Lemmon.

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