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Cate bags the crown

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth.

Arthur J Pais

Shekhar Kapur, whose Golden Globe nomination in the best director category for the gripping historical drama Elizabeth, pitted him against a formidable opposition. He lost to Steven Spielberg, the maker of the brutally realistic World War II drama, Saving Private Ryan.

But Cate Blanchett, who played Elizabeth, won the best actress trophy, defeating such veterans as Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon.

Blanchett not only thanked Kapur -- who was conspicuous in his Indian suit -- for casting her in the movie but also giving her immense support. The actress, who got about $ 1 million for her work in Elizabeth, is being offered $ 5 million for her first film in Hollywood, sources say. But she has not made a decision about her next starring vehicle.

The Golden Globes given out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and viewed by more than 100 million people across the world are often the indicators for the Oscar nominations. In the last 16 years, 12 films that won best motion picture honours at the Golden Globes went on to take the same prize at the Oscars.

Unlike the Oscars, the Golden Globes are divided into two categories -- drama and musicals/comedies.

Elizabeth was nominated for three Golden Globes. It lost to Saving Private Ryan in the best film category.

But the win for Blanchett -- cast by Kapur and producer Tim Bevan after they saw her work in little-known but distinguished Australian films -- and the advertising blitz that will follow by Friday will give the movie additional boost at the box-office. Over-cautious distributors had even urged them to cast a better-known actress like Nicole Kidman

Elizabeth has grossed about $ 40 million worldwide, and is yet to open in several territories. With a handful of Oscar nominations, the movie which was made for about $ 28 million, could gross about $ 55 million, a break-even figure. With good video sales, it could turn in a tidy profit. The movie did respectable business in the United Kingdom where it grossed about $ 8.5 million, in Germany (about $ 3.5 million) and Italy ($ 3 million). In Australia, home of Blanchett and her co-star Geoffrey Rush, it made about $ 2.5 million.

In the United States, Elizabeth has grossed about $ 18 million, with a potential for another $4 million.

Shakespeare in Love, the utterly imaginative what-if romantic comedy, which is also set in Elizabethan England, and which is expected to be a major Oscar contender, won honours in the musicals/comedy section, for best film, best actress (Gwyneth Paltrow) and for having the best screenplay.

Paltrow, who played the upper-crust independent minded woman who becomes William Shakespeare's lover and muse, could pose tough competition to Blanchett at the Oscars.

Michael Caine, who plays a has-been, sleazy talent agent who tries hard to turn a meek woman with a powerful musical talent in the low-budget British import Little Voice, was honoured as best actor in musical or comedy motion pictures.

Caine attended the event with his wife Shakira. The two were seen together in the John Huston-directed The Man Who Would Be King. Shakira -- who is of Guyanese Indian descent -- did not act after that, opting to have her own jewellery business.

"Oh, what a shock," Caine, the Oscar-winner, said. "My career must be slipping. This is the first time I've been available to pick up an award."