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Entertainment Today: Showbiz news

By United Press International
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GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS

"A Beautiful Mind" and "Moulin Rouge" had six nominations each when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced the nominees for the 59th Annual Golden Globe Awards Thursday.

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"A Beautiful Mind" -- based on the life of troubled math genius and Nobel laureate John Forbes Nash Jr. -- received nominations for best drama movie, best actor (Russell Crowe), supporting actress (Jennifer Connelly), director (Ron Howard) and screenplay. The other nominees for best drama movie are "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," "In the Bedroom," "The Man Who Wasn't There" and "Mulholland Drive."

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" and "Mulholland Drive" had four nominations each.

"Moulin Rouge" is up for best musical or comedy movie, best actress (Nicole Kidman), best actor (Ewan McGregor) and best director (Baz Luhrmann). The other nominees for best musical or comedy movie are "Bridget Jones's Diary," "Gosford Park," "Legally Blonde" and "Shrek."

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"Gosford Park" -- an observation of class struggle set in an English country estate -- received five nominations including best musical or comedy movie, supporting actress nominations for Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith, and a directing nomination for Robert Altman.

Kidman and Billy Bob Thornton both received two acting nominations. In addition to a nomination for best actress in a musical or comedy movie, "Moulin Rouge," Kidman was nominated for best actress in a drama movie for the creepy thriller, "The Others." Thornton was nominated for best actor in a drama movie for his role as a blackmailing barber in "The Man Who Wasn't There," and for best actor in a comedy movie for his turn as a bank robber in "Bandits."

In addition to Crowe and Thornton, the nominees for best actor in a drama movie are Will Smith for his performance as the legendary heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali in "Ali"; Kevin Spacey as a man trying to put his life back together after a personal tragedy in "The Shipping News" and Denzel Washington as a rogue cop in "Training Day."

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Besides Kidman, the nominees for best actress in a movie are Halle Berry as a black woman who falls in love with the white Southern warden who executed her husband in "Monster's Ball," Judi Dench for her performance as author Iris Murdock in "Iris," Sissy Spacek as a mother coping with the tragic loss of her son in "In the Bedroom" and Tilda Swinton as a mother who goes to extreme lengths to shield her son from a murder charge in "The Deep End."

The other nominees for best actress in a musical or comedy movie are Thora Birch ("Ghost World"), Cate Blanchett ("Bandits"), Reese Witherspoon ("Legally Blonde") and Renée Zellweger ("Bridget Jones's Diary"). The other nominees for best actor in a musical or comedy movie are Hugh Jackman ("Kate & Leopold"), Gene Hackman ("The Royal Tenenbaums") and John Cameron Mitchell ("Hedwig and the Angry Inch").

The Golden Globe awards are often regarded as a harbinger of Oscar nominations, which will be announced in February.

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In the TV categories, the nominees for best drama series are "24" (Fox), "Alias" (ABC), "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (CBS), "Six Feet Under" (HBO), "The Sopranos" (HBO) and "The West Wing" (NBC). The nominees for best comedy series are "Ally McBeal" (Fox), "Frasier" (NBC), "Friends" (NBC), "Sex and the City" (HBO) and "Will and Grace" (NBC).

The HPFA will present the Golden Globe awards in 13 movie and 11 TV categories on Jan. 20 in Beverly Hills, Calif., in ceremonies to be televised by NBC.


DICK CLARK VS. MICHAEL GREENE

The war of words continued Thursday between producer Dick Clark and Recording Academy President and CEO Michael Greene. Clark is suing Greene, claiming he implemented a blacklist that prevented performers from appearing on both the American Music Awards, which Clark produces, and the Grammy Awards, which are presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences headed by Greene.

In an interview with the syndicated show "Access Hollywood," Greene claimed it's standard practice in the entertainment business to arrange for exclusivity when booking performers.

"We have a pact with the public and that pact, as far as I am concerned, is that we are going to give you the best artists," said Greene in the interview, which aired Thursday. "We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on these artists, and we are going to give you the freshest show that you can see."

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Greene said the Grammys telecast is seen by 2 billion people around the world, and insisted he would not "put a recycled show on the air." He repeated the accusation first leveled in the Recording Academy statement on Wednesday -- that Clark filed the suit to get attention for the 29th Annual American Music Awards.

Clark denies the lawsuit is a stunt.

"I've been doing this for a lot of years," he said. "Do they think I'm that stupid, that if I was going to do this as a publicity stunt that I would do it three weeks ahead of the show instead of three days ahead?"

The AMA telecast airs Jan. 9 on ABC. Nominations for the 44th Annual Grammy Awards will be announced Jan. 4, with the awards handed out Feb. 27 in ceremonies airing live on CBS.

Clark's lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles, seeks more than $10 million in damages.

(The above two items thanks to UPI Hollywood Reporter Pat Nason)


ELIJAH WOOD

In his new movie "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," 20-year-old Elijah Wood gets beaten up by monsters, battles evildoers with a sword, rows a boat and even takes a painful-looking tumble down a hill.

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Asked if he used a stunt double for his strenuous role as Frodo the Hobbitt, the pint-sized actor sighed and told UPI: "It's pretty much all me. It is."

Admitting that director Peter Jackson used computer-generated "digital doubles" for some of the actors' more physically demanding scenes, Wood insisted that conveying the range of emotions he and his co-stars did in the three movies based on J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved trilogy was much harder than any fight scenes.

"These characters go through the sh**s to overcome this evil and as an a actor there is so much there for me to sink my teeth into. For everyone involved (to sink their teeth into,)" Wood said. "Everyone has a massive evolution. From an acting standpoint, this was no small feat and I don't think a lot of people really realize that upon first glance. It was definitely a challenge."

The first installment of the trilogy opened Wednesday to rave reviews and tremendous ticket sales. The other two movies in the series will be released in 2002 and 2003. All three movies were filmed simultaneously in New Zealand over a period of 15 months.

(Thanks to UPI's Karen Butler in New York)

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'FIRST MONDAY'

The first of two Supreme Court-themed television programs debuts in January on CBS.

"First Monday" stars Joe Mantegna -- who can occasionally be heard giving voice to "Fat Tony," head of the Springfield mob on Fox's "The Simpsons" -- as a new, independent-mind associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He is the court's tie-breaking vote, as the fictional court is evenly split four-to-four between liberals and conservatives.

Veteran actor James Garner, an archliberal in real life, plays the crusty conservative Chief Justice on the series.

(From UPI's Capital Comment)

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