BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. | The Facebook tale “The Social Network” won top honors Sunday at the Golden Globes with four prizes, including best drama and director, solidifying its prospects as an Academy Awards favorite.
Winning the dramatic lead-acting prizes were Colin Firth for the British monarchy saga “The King’s Speech” and Natalie Portman for the psychosexual thriller “Black Swan.”
Lead-acting honors for the Globes’ musical or comedy categories went to Annette Bening for the lesbian-family story “The Kids Are All Right” and Paul Giamatti for the curmudgeon tale “Barney’s Version.”
The boxing drama “The Fighter” earned both supporting actor Globes, for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo.
David Fincher, directing winner for “The Social Network,” said he thought it was strange when “The Social Network” script came to him, since he usually makes dark character studies about misanthropes or films about serial killers. His films include the murder tales “Seven” and “Zodiac.”
“I’m personally loath to acknowledge the kind of wonderful response this film has received for fear of becoming addicted to it, so suffice it to say, it’s been really nice,” said Fincher, whose film also won the Globes for screenplay for Aaron Sorkin and musical score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Sorkin, creator of TV’s “The West Wing,” had kind words for Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network.”
“Mark Zuckerberg, if you’re watching, Rooney Mara makes a prediction at the beginning of the movie. She was wrong. You turned out to be a great entrepreneur, a great visionary and an incredible altruist,” Sorkin said.
The win by Portman for her role as a ballerina coming unhinged amid a production of “Swan Lake” sets her up for a two-woman showdown for best actress at the Feb, 27 Oscars with Bening, who won for her role as a stern lesbian mom in “The Kids Are All Right,” which also won for best musical or comedy film.
It’s familiar territory for Bening. She won the same prize at the Globes 11 years ago for “American Beauty” and went in as the best-actress favorite at the Oscars, where she lost to Globe dramatic actress winner Hilary Swank for “Boys Don’t Cry.”
Portman thanked the film’s choreographer, her fiance Benjamin Millepied, with whom she’s expecting a child. He also appears in the movie, and his character doesn’t want to sleep with hers.
“He’s the best actor! It’s not true, he totally wants to sleep with me,” Portman said, giggling.
“Barney’s Version” follows the many loves in his life: his three wives, played by Rachelle Lefevre, Minnie Driver and Rosamund Pike, whom Giamatti described as “a trifecta of hotties.”
“I got to smoke and drink and get laid in this movie and I got paid for it. An amazing, amazing thing,” Giamatti said.
Bening won the musical or comedy actress prize in a field that included “The Kids Are All Right” co-star Julianne Moore. The film stars Bening and Moore as a couple whose family falls into turmoil after their teen children seek out the sperm donor that fathered them.
“I’m very proud to be a part of this very special film about two women who are deeply in love and try to keep their family together,” Bening said. “My partner, Julianne Moore, I have to thank first. She asked me to do the picture with her. She made it possible for us to shoot it where we shot it, when we did, so Julianne — you are a class act, thank you.”
The buzz around town on Globes weekend was not only about likely winners, but also about a lawsuit filed Thursday by a former longtime publicist for the Globes claiming the organization that runs the show, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, engages in payola schemes for nominations and awards. The allegations have been denied by the HFPA, a group of about 90 reporters covering show business for overseas outlets.
Ricky Gervais returned as Globes host for the second-straight year. Gervais joked that Globe nominees weren’t picked just so that Globe voters could hang out with stars such as Depp.
“They also accepted bribes,” Gervais said, referring to the publicist lawsuit.
Philip Berk, who heads the HFPA, made no reference to the lawsuit during his appearance early in the show, simply offering a perfunctory plug for the quality of Hollywood movies.
Gervais pulled few punches as the night progressed, mocking Hugh Hefner, Charlie Sheen, Cher, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, Scientologists and Robert Downey Jr., among others.
“Aside from the fact that it’s been hugely mean-spirited, with mildly sinister undertones, I’d say the vibe of the show is pretty good so far, wouldn’t you?” Downey, a presenter, shot back, perhaps only half-jokingly.
Bale, who won for his role as a former boxer whose career unraveled amid drugs and crime, thanked his collaborators on “The Fighter,” among them director David O. Russell and star and producer Mark Wahlberg, who plays boxer Micky Ward to Bale’s Dicky Eklund, Ward’s older half brother.
“I’ve really got to give a shout out to Mark, because he drove this whole movie, and you can only give a loud performance like the one I gave when you have a quiet anchor and a stoic character,” Bale said. “I’ve played that one many times, and it never gets any notice.”
Bale seems to be on the same awards track as his “Batman” co-star, the late Heath Ledger, was two years ago, when he won supporting actor at the Globes for “The Dark Knight” on the way to earning a posthumous Oscar.
Leo, who plays the domineering mother of Ward and Eklund, had gushing words for all of her co-stars — along with her own mother and other ancestors.
“Here in Southern California, home of my mother, her mother, her mother before her — look Mom, I got a Golden Globe!” Leo said. “Mark Wahlberg, you are a prince, you are amazing. It was so beautiful to play your mother.”
“Toy Story 3,” the top-grossing film released last year and the second sequel to 1995’s digital animation pioneer “Toy Story,” won the Globe for animated films, making Disney’s Pixar Animation unit five-for-five in the category since it was added in 2006. Past Pixar winners are “Up,” ’’WALL-E,” ’’Ratatouille” and “Cars.”
“Wow, were you two even born when the first ’Toy Story’ came out?” ’’Toy Story 3” director Lee Unkrich said to his award’s presenters, 16-year-old pop star Justin Bieber and 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld, co-star of the hit Western “True Grit.”
Robert De Niro received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement.
The usually taciturn De Niro gave an uncharacteristically interesting acceptance speech, making jokes about members of the HFPA being deported (along with most of the waiters working the event) and suggesting that most people in the room hadn’t seen a lot of the films he was proud of, including “Stone,” ’’Marvin’s Room” and “Stanley and Iris.”
“Some of you would be seeing them for the first time. You didn’t even watch the screeners, did you?” De Niro said.
Among TV winners, “Glee” won three prizes, best comedy and supporting-acting prizes for Jane Lynch and Chris Colfer. “Boardwalk Empire” won two prizes, for best drama and dramatic actor for Steve Buscemi.
The Globe ceremony traditionally had a strong track record as a forecast for what film would win best picture at the Oscars. But the two shows have split in recent times, with only one top Globe recipient — 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire” — also winning the main prize at the Oscars over the past six years.
A year ago, the sci-fi sensation “Avatar” won best drama at the Globes, but the Iraq War saga “The Hurt Locker” took best picture at the Oscars.
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Beth Harris and Christy Lemire contributed to this report.
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