Golden Globes nominations: Emma Thompson, Julie Delpy in on the act

1/13

By Patrick Kevin Day, Los Angeles Times

Initial reports stated that a sewage pipe had burst near the Beverly Hilton, flooding the red carpet. But the actual problem was a sprinkler malfunction, depositing a much cleaner form of water under the feet of Hollywood’s most hoity-toity. Still, in the ulta-controlled, ultra-pampered world of awards shows, even a minor malfunction such as this merited extensive discussion in the media. At least the weather remained pleasant. (Jason H. Neubert / Los Angeles Times)

2/13

Matthew McConaughey apparently did not walk the red carpet for 25 minutes after arriving at the Globes. Instead, he signed autographs and posed for “selfies.” And for that, the E! anchors Ross Mathews and Kelly Osbourne spoke of the “Dallas Buyers Club” actor as though he’d arrived with a limo full of orphans and the cure for cancer in his back pocket. Standing on the red carpet, apparently, does not help give anyone a healthy sense of perspective. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

3/13

“Mad Men” star Elisabeth Moss was asked to do E!’s famous (infamous?) mani-cam, and she finally became the first star to fulfill America’s collective dream of giving the E! audience the finger in extreme close-up. Lucky for the cable channel, a quick-thinking director cut away at the last moment. Still, we all know what she did. And for that, a nation is grateful. (Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP)

4/13

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler reunited to cohost the Golden Globes again this year, and they didn’t disappoint. Perhaps no other joke went over in the room as huge as Fey’s dig at George Clooney’s dating habits when discussing “Gravity:” “George Clooney would rather float into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age.” Runner-up was their comment about Woody Allen getting the Cecil B. DeMille Award so soon after Martin Scorsese had won it, causing them to speculate if it was supposed to always go to the tiniest man with the biggest glasses. (Paul Drinkwater / Associated Press)

5/13

Jennifer Lawrence has proven herself to be a lovable goofball in the endless promotional tour for “American Hustle” and “Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” And yes, her trip on the stairs at the Oscars further endeared her to viewers. But let’s be honest, after you’ve won an Oscar, getting a Golden Globe is no reason to get nervous. So there’s really no reason Lawrence should have been giving a speech from the Taylor Swift-Sarah Jessica Parker playbook when she accepted for supporting actress. Come the next awards show, Lawrence better be a little more jaded or that massive reservoir of goodwill toward her may start to dry up. (Paul Drinkwater / Associated Press)

6/13

It only took two awards, but Jacqueline Bisset clearly gave the speech of the night with her long, rambling, occasionally PG-13 acceptance of the award for supporting actress in a role for television for the Starz series “Dancing on the Edge.” First there was the seemingly endless walk from Bisset’s seat somewhere in the darkest recesses of the International Ballroom, then there was the dramatic pause as she apparently gathered herself. And let’s not forget the occasional swearing, the battle against the music that attempted to usher her off the stage and finally her mother’s advice to her: “Go to hell and don’t come back.” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

7/13

Some nominees must climb the stairs from the audience to accept their Golden Globes. U2 descends from the heavens. The Irish rockers came down to our mortal plane to accept the award for original song, “Ordinary Love” from the Nelson Mandela biopic “Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom,” and connect themselves to the recently departed South African leader’s struggles in whatever way they could. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

8/13

Actor Shia LaBeouf’s recent scandals were spared any jokes from Fey and Poehler in the show opening, but presenter Jim Carrey wouldn’t let LaBeouf off the hook that easily. While introducing the nominated film “American Hustle,” Carrey said, “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard. I think it was Shia LaBeouf who said that. So young, so wise.” (Kevin Winter / Getty Images)

9/13

While many, many people live-tweeted the Golden Globes, perhaps the most biting comment of anyone came from Mia Farrow, ex-partner of Cecil B. DeMille Award recipient Woody Allen, who was giving minute-by-minute commentary right up until the moment Allen’s tribute began. Then she tweeted, “Time to grab some icecream & switch over to #GIRLS. Nite all.” But if you thought her comments were tough, check out Ronan Farrow’s tweet from later in the evening: “Missed the Woody Allen tribute - did they put the part where a woman publicly confirmed he molested her at age 7 before or after Annie Hall?” Allen’s adopted daughter, Dylan, recently discussed the alleged encounter with Vanity Fair. Allen has denied the allegations of sexual abuse. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

10/13

Meanwhile, Allen’s longtime friend Diane Keaton came out to accept the award for the absent Allen and in the process, give the evening’s second-strangest acceptance speech, which included a haunting, child-like performance of the song “Make New Friends.” (Paul Drinkwater / Associated Press)

11/13

Leonardo DiCaprio may have made the best mispronunciation of the night by calling the British film “Philomena” the much more jazzy “Philomania.” While some may not have been interested in seeing a low-key story of a woman seeking her long-lost son, crowds may turn out in droves for the story of a British woman seeking her long-lost son and going nuts at the same time. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

12/13

Stars rarely do impressions of themselves during awards show acceptance speeches, but there was Matthew McConaughey up there winning lead actor in a motion picture telling the crowd, “All right, all right, all right.” (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

13/13

The powerful, hard-hitting “12 Years a Slave” was widely regarded as one of the year’s best movies, but as the evening wore on, the film kept losing awards to others. By the time the night’s final award was about to be handed out, the cast and crew of this slavery drama had all but given up hope. But then the final surprise of the night came when Johnny Depp read their name and the group, led by director Steve McQueen, came to the stage, understandably relieved and energized. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)

By Jeffrey Fleishman

Dec. 12, 2013 10:58 AM PT

An untethered astronaut, a sexy hustler, a rich woman stripped of possessions and the persnickety creator of Mary Poppins are among the roles in which their creators earned nominations in the Golden Globes lead actress categories in drama and musical or comedy.

The drama nominees are Cate Blanchett as a neurotic socialite falling from grace in “Blue Jasmine”; Sandra Bullock as an astronaut floating helplessly in space in “Gravity”; Judi Dench as an Irish mother searching for the child she was forced to give up for adoption in “Philomena”; Emma Thompson as the creator of Mary Poppins who negotiates a movie deal with Walt Disney in “Saving Mr. Banks”; and Kate Winslet as an emotionally delicate single mother who falls in love with an escaped convict in “Labor Day.”

Nominees in a comedy or musical are Meryl Streep, playing a belligerent, pill-popping mother with cancer in ”August: Osage County”; Amy Adams as a sexy grifter in “American Hustle”; Julia Louis-Dreyfus as a single mother navigating mid-life tumult in “Enough Said”; Julie Delpy as a wife talking through the trials and tribulations of marriage in “Before Midnight”; and Greta Gerwig, playing a feckless woman sabotaging her life at every turn in “Frances Ha.”

BALLOT: Cast your Golden Globe Awards vote

Delpy’s nomination recognizes her evolving Celine in “Before Midnight,” the latest of three films -- after “Before Sunrise” (1995) and “Before Sunset” (2004) -- that chart nearly two decades of love, bruises, aspirations, disappointments and simmering bitterness of a young couple who meet on a train and ultimately join their lives. Directed by Richard Linklater and also starring Ethan Hawke as Jesse, the films are driven by idiosyncratic and nuanced dialogue.

“We go into places that are the hardest to write,” Delpy said by phone from her home in Los Angeles. “It’s not falling in love. It’s marriage. It’s that in-between place in a relationship where no one wants to be. People’s relationships are complex, even people who love one another but don’t act as they should. We wanted to be true. We didn’t want to make a fantasy of a relationship -- we wanted to show the bright and the dark stuff.”

Emma Thompson’s portrayal of P.L. Travers, the British creator of Mary Poppins who traveled to Disney Studios in the 1960s to skeptically negotiate a movie deal, is a study in ill-tempered fastidiousness.

“She was a scary character to play because of her complexities,” said Thompson via telephone from New York. “She was terribly unpredictable. I love the fact that she was honest and direct. I value that as I get older. She had no respect for the medium of film. She thought of herself as a poet.”

Thompson added that re-creating the early 1960s era of Disney “was heaven. They’ve kept the lot restored and it’s gorgeous to be on. Disney surrounded himself with great artists.”

LIST: Golden Globe nominations 2014

Receiving her first Golden Globes nomination, Gerwig, who played the hapless Frances, an endearing young woman struggling with adulthood, was surprised by her nomination.

”My publicist called me at 5-something, and I didn’t know it was today so I thought it was the pharmacy calling to tell me that my MedCo insurance didn’t go through,” she said. “Anyway, then I was, like, maybe it’s something worse and I should just check – and I saw all these text messages and started laughing and crying. I called my mom and she was very excited. She was like, “Gordon [her dad] isn’t here! He’s at the gym! There’s no way to even reach him, Greta!’”

jeffrey.fleishman@latimes.com

Times staff writer Amy Kaufman contributed to this story.

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