Globes Shine on ‘King’s Speech

By BROOKS BARNES and MICHAEL CIEPLY

LOS ANGELES— Voters for the 68th annual Golden Globes have circled around “The King’s Speech,” the period drama about George VI, the British king, and the overcoming of his stuttering problem, handing it seven nominations including best drama. 

Colin Firth (best actor in a drama), Geoffrey Rush (best supporting actor), Helena Bonham Carter (best supporting actress) and Tom Hooper (best director) were among the cited. Other front-runners announced Tuesday morning included “The Fighter” and “The Social Network,” both of which got six nominations, including best drama, best director and best actor. “Inception,” “The Black Swan” and “The Kids are All Right” each received four nominations.

As always, Hollywood will pay as much attention to which films and contributions got brushed aside. This year surprises included “True Grit,” which got shut out completely, despite the pedigree of its directors — Ethan and Joel Coen – and strong Oscar buzz. Ben Affleck, considered a best-director candidate for “The Town,” was also left out, although the picture picked up a nomination for Jeremy Renner as a supporting actor.

The Golden Globes, given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a group of about 90 writers and freelancers, are not taken seriously as artistic milestones. Studios have long noted that the organization nominates based on star wattage instead of performance — an effort to curate a red-carpet spectacle. In that department this year: Angelina Jolie, who received an out-of-the-blue nomination for her role as a mysterious foreign woman in “The Tourist.”

Voters also leaned hard into young stars. Emma Stone was nominated for best actress in a comedy or musical for the high school romp “Easy A”; Anne Hathaway also received a nod in that category, for the romantic comedy “Love and Other Drugs.”

But the Globes do serve as a good guide to the eventual Oscar winners. Over the past 23 years, the best-picture Oscar has mirrored the association’s choice for best drama or best comedy-musical 15 times.

About 17 million people watched the telecast last year, a 14 percent improvement from the year before, a reflection in part of extensive digital marketing efforts. The British comedian Ricky Gervais will repeat as host of the telecast, which is scheduled for Jan. 16 on NBC.

The Globes have been fraught with more than the usual awards season tension, as the ceremony’s backers remain squared off in a high-stakes lawsuit. In mid-November, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association sued Dick Clark Productions, which has produced the televised gala since 1983.

In its suit, the press association accused the Dick Clark company of trying to misappropriate rights to the Globes by “surreptitiously” entering a new eight-year broadcast agreement with NBC, after having been warned against dealing unilaterally with the network. Dick Clark Productions, which has been controlled since 2007 by Red Zone Capital Partners, has denounced the suit as baseless.

The fight does not affect the Jan. 16 show, but it calls into question the rights to future broadcasts and has already pulled back the veil on the financial underpinnings of a show. NBC currently pays a license fee of about $13 million, up from about $4.7 million for the 2005 ceremony.

While the motion picture awards gobble up attention, the television awards in recent years have brought much of the star power that make the Golden Globes telecast a real event. This year, stars who are nominated for their television work include Jon Hamm (“Mad Men”), Alec Baldwin (“30 Rock”), Steve Carell (“The Office”), Toni Collette (“United States of Tara”), Edie Falco (“Nurse Jackie”), Tina Fey (“30 Rock”), Laura Linney (“The Big C”), Judi Dench (for “Return to Cranford”), Al Pacino (for “You Don’t Know Jack”), and Dennis Quaid (for “The Special Relationship”).

“Glee,” from Fox, was the morning’s leader among television series, with five nominations. HBO, almost always a powerhouse at the Globes, led among television networks, with 12 nominations, including nods for “Temple Grandin,” “The Pacific” and “You Don’t Know Jack.”

Nominees were their usual groggy yet gracious selves. Tom Hooper, reached at 1:30 a.m. in Melbourne, Australia, was very pleased with all the nominations for “The King’s Speech,” including his own. “This story in some ways is such a subversive story — I mean to tell the story of an English king through his relationship with a maverick Australian speech therapist,” he said. “I think it’s very exciting and unexpected.” How did Mr. Hooper get word of his nomination? A text message.