'Slumdog Millionaire,' Kate Winslet Dominate The Golden Globes

A year after the Golden Globes were reduced to a glorified press conference by the writers' strike, the always unpredictable
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awards show returned in all its goofy glory Sunday night (January 11). The broadcast went from paying solemn tribute to Heath Ledger, to Tina Fey informing "BabsonLacrosse" to "suck it," a four-peat by "Slumdog Millionaire" and a resurgent Mickey Rourke giving a shout-out to his omnipresent Chihuahuas.

It was that kind of night.

Draped behind a mop of greasy hair and dark shades, and dressed in a black-on-black tuxedo accented by a spangly scarf, Rourke nearly wiped out on his way up to accept the award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama for his career-reviving role in the hard-luck drama "The Wrestler." Thanking his dogs, Bruce Springsteen, Axl Rose and "tough son-of-a-bi---" director Darren Aronofsky, the wonderfully profane actor admitted, "It's been a very long road back for me."

But the biggest winner of the night was equally scrappy Indian drama "Slumdog Millionaire," which took home the Best Motion Picture - Drama award, as well as nods for Best Director for Danny Boyle, Best Original Score and Best Screenplay.

Another multiple winner was actress Kate Winslet, who scored the night's first nod for Best Supporting Actress in the WWII drama "The Reader" and was so flustered she had to stop herself from setting down her Globe on the stage while accepting. Later in the night, the actress was even more overcome, forgetting the names of one of the other actresses in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama, (Anne, Meryl, Kristin and, oh, Angelina, by the way). Barely able to breathe, Winslet had to remind herself to "gather" while accepting for her role as a 1950s housewife in a crumbling marriage in "Revolutionary Road."

In what many think could be a foreshadowing of the Oscars, one of the first major movie acting prizes of Sunday night's Golden Globes went posthumously to Heath Ledger for his harrowing work as the Joker in "The Dark Knight."

Ledger, who died last January of an accidental overdose of prescription medication, triumphed over a field of Hollywood legends in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture category, besting such top billers as Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr., Ralph Fiennes and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Taking the stage as the star-studded audience rose to their feet, somber "Dark Knight" director Chris Nolan accepted on Ledger's behalf. "All of us who worked with Heath on 'The Dark Knight' accept this with an awful mixture of sadness but incredible pride," Nolan said with a drawn look on his face.

"After Heath passed on, you saw a hole ripped in the future of cinema -- but with the extraordinary response to his work that we've seen all over the world, I, for one, start to be able to look a bit less at that gap in the future and a little bit more at the incredible place in the history of cinema that he built for himself with his talent and with his dedication to his artistry."

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