As new episodes fade, TV facing a long winter
A writers' strike that has slowed the flow of new TV shows is threatening to linger well into next year and force more lasting changes in Hollywood that determine what we watch and when, at home and in theaters.
The 5-week-old walkout by 10,500 members of the Writers Guild of America took a turn for the worse last week, when talks between writers and industry executives collapsed amid harsh words. Now both sides are bracing for a long standoff.
If the strike isn't settled by early in the new year, the absence of new scripts will narrow the pipeline of movies headed to theaters starting in late 2008. For the top broadcast networks, the impact would be more immediate: The rest of this TV season could be a virtual washout, cluttered with reality shows and repeats as the networks run out of fresh episodes of sitcoms and dramas.
The development of new shows for next season already has come to a standstill, jeopardizing the calendars for networks' lucrative ad-selling ritual in the spring and their traditional rollout of new shows in September. Meanwhile, a wide swath of the entertainment business in Hollywood and beyond is or soon will be unemployed, with tens of thousands of makeup artists, truck drivers and others caught in the strike's crossfire.
"It'll hurt us all," Oscar-winning writer/director Paul Haggis (Crash), who was on the picket line Monday at Sony Studios, says of the strike's impact. He says studios are repeating their playbook from the last writers' strike, which lasted 22 weeks in 1988 until they "broke us and we took a huge rollback" in pay for syndicated series.
With so much at stake, can cooler heads prevail soon? "I'm not real hopeful," says Denis Leary, who writes and stars in the FX firefighter drama Rescue Me. The show, with no completed scripts, has delayed plans to begin filming its fifth season next month.
With talks at an impasse, networks this week resorted to long-range plans for alternative and cheap-to-produce programming. There has been talk of running repeats of cable series, shows produced overseas and even mixed martial-arts competitions to fill what could be a lengthy void. NBC has picked up Quarterlife, a drama series about twentysomethings that has appeared on the Internet. The show initially was a failed pilot at ABC.
"This is the time to look past March," NBC scheduling chief Vince Manze says. "You have to come up with plans now, because the news coming out of negotiations was not good."
The dispute causing all the turmoil focuses largely on a demand by writers: They want a guaranteed cut of the revenue resulting from Internet streaming and downloads, a tiny but rapidly growing segment of show business.
Top writers on TV shows and movies can make $1 million a year or more. But for most TV and movie writers, job security is traditionally low; half of those on strike typically are unemployed at any given time. The guild says that overall, its members make an average of $62,000 a year.
As the strike wears on, here's what to look for:
1. A cold winter
The strike's effect on prime-time TV has been minimal so far, but viewers of most shows will see a falloff in new episodes after New Year's.
Top series such as ABC's Grey's Anatomy and CBS' CSI have one or two new episodes left to air, while most comedies including NBC's The Office and CBS's Two and a Half Men have run out.
Networks are hastily assembling replacement schedules heavy on reality programming, but they have a few scripted series that were held for midseason, including ABC's Lost, NBC's Law & Order and Medium, and CBS' The New Adventures of Old Christine. However, such shows will have fewer episodes than initially planned.
Network programmers are preparing for the worst. Apart from the occasional megahit such as Fox's American Idol, reality shows and TV newsmagazines have proved less attractive to viewers recently than the more expensive sitcoms and dramas they'll replace.
A taste of what's to come: An ABC game show called Here Come the Newlyweds; a new NBC show, The Baby Borrowers, in which teen couples "adopt" tykes as a test of parenting skills; and NBC's revival of American Gladiators, the 1990s sports competition show that included spandex-clad contestants in jousting matches
So far, advertisers haven't bailed out of buying ad time from networks; they have few other options to reach large numbers of TV viewers. But declining ratings likely will force networks to cut ad rates and offer bonus spots or refunds when audiences dip below previously guaranteed levels. That scenario could cost the networks tens of millions of dollars.
Magna Global USA predicts total TV audience levels will decline by 5% in January compared with last year and by 13% in May, assuming the walkout eliminates the rest of the traditional TV season.
The decline will be more severe among some top broadcast networks, as the supply of original scripted series dwindles. But that could be good news for American Idol, which remains TV's top series going into its seventh year but saw its ratings dip last season.
The impact on cable will be milder: Most channels rely heavily on unscripted programming, repeats of network series or movies. Those that air original series will see seasons delayed or shortened.
Some observers wonder whether viewers, already distracted by the Internet, video games and other media and entertainment outlets, will be lost for good.
"There's been a lot of talk about how this is the worst time for a strike, the YouTubes and MySpaces of the world will get a major boost, that viewers will develop other habits and many will not return," says Magna analyst Steve Sternberg. He calls the fears "nonsense" and says that "the impact on TV viewing, even during a lengthy strike, will be negligible."
John Rash, head ad buyer at Campbell-Mithun in Minneapolis, says TV "is a long-ingrained habit for many," so viewers simply will choose other programming to embrace. But they could further erode the dominance of the major networks.
2. The return of the late shows
The strike's first fallout was felt on late-night talk shows, which are produced daily and shut down when the strike began Nov. 5. The shows, or their hosts, have been paying most of the shows' non-writing staffs since then.
But that won't continue indefinitely, and hosts including Jay Leno, David Letterman and Conan O'Brien will have to decide whether to side with writers by staying on the sidelines or return to work to keep their non-writing staffers employed.
Late-night producers say they initially made no plans to return to the air while striking writers were negotiating, but now that talks are at a standstill, all bets are off. They soon will decide on a return date, and some top shows are eyeing Jan. 7 on their calendars.
Some will have an easier time than others: Comedy Central's The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, favorites among coveted young viewers, rely heavily on scripted material and would be difficult to restart without their staff writers. On the other hand, O'Brien and Letterman lean more on improvisation and could simply dispense with monologues and expand celebrity interviews.
NBC's little-watched Last Call With Carson Daly resumed with new episodes last week, without the show's four writers. Daly's return was met with picketers.
3. A calendar in turmoil
Just as viewers start sampling new series each fall, the networks busily begin the process of developing newer shows that eventually will replace them. The pilot season kicks into high gear in winter, as sample episodes are written, ordered, cast, shot and delivered to the networks. The networks choose which shows to air and assemble a fall schedule to be touted to advertisers at lavish presentations each May.
Now that already chaotic process is threatened. Networks say a strike lasting past mid-February would upend their calendar and delay plans to pick a new schedule in May and then sell the bulk of ad time "upfront" in June.
It could create a year-round development cycle, which networks have talked about for years. If so, they'd ditch or scale back the lavish spring presentations for advertisers in New York.
"With each passing week, it looks more likely that the conventional way we've done business becomes more and more in jeopardy," says Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly.
"One of the few potentially positive outcomes of this is that the business can benefit from shaking up a process that could use shaking up."
"Advertisers in general would appreciate" such a move, says Tim Spengler, a top ad buyer at Initiative Media. "Moving the process to a calendar year would give marketers more time to get their budgets set."
4. Season starts whenever
Strike or no, summer probably would look much like this winter, with a load of reality TV. But such shows could suffer after so much exposure in winter and spring. Starting in February, for example, CBS plans to air Big Brother until now a summer-only staple three nights a week.
Cable networks, which use summer to launch original series such as TNT's The Closer, USA's Monk and FX's Rescue Me, won't have them by then, either.
But unlike past years, a long strike means viewers won't see the usual mid-September flood of network newcomers.
Under one scenario, several holdover series with less-than-hit ratings such as NBC's Chuck and Life or ABC's Pushing Daisies and Dirty Sexy Money would get the go-ahead for more episodes after a strike settlement, for airing in late spring or early fall.
Then the "new" season would be pushed back several months as fewer episodes of new series are cycled in.
Fox has a version of this plan in place. For the past few years, its performance has been weak each fall, then rebounded with the arrival of Idol (and shows that ride its coattails) in January.
5. Movies to feel it in late '08
The long lead times required to produce, edit and market films means there'll be little disruption on that front until late next year.
Major studios are expected to snap up independent films from the festival circuit to plug holes in release schedules as development of new projects is delayed further.
Even so, as the strike drags on, "It's going to start affecting people very seriously after the beginning of the year," says Frank Marshall, producer of the Indiana Jones and Bourne franchises.
He predicts a feeding frenzy once the strike ends, as filmmakers compete for in-demand actors to refuel their pipeline.
"There will be a lot of movies starting up that have great parts," Marshall says, "and it will be an interesting race to see who will get who."
They might get none: Screen Actors Guild members' contracts expire in June, and they're fighting industry executives over the same issues.
Conchords comedy duo to release debut album
NEW YORK (Billboard) - They play marginally talented singer/songwriters on their HBO comedy series, but Flight of the Conchords members Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie put in extensive studio time to perfect their debut album.
All the tracks on their self-titled Sub Pop debut, due April 22, have appeared on the show, but a label official says they have been "massively reworked and totally re-arranged."
The synth-pop parody "Inner City Pressure" is likely to be the first single, and the label is now selecting 10 or 12 songs from a possible 15 to form the track list, says Tony Kiewel, the head of A&R at Sup Pop.
Last week, the New Zealand duo's debut EP, "The Distant Future," received a Grammy nomination for best comedy album.
Madonna, Mellencamp newest to Rock Hall
CLEVELAND - The Material Girl is about to become a Hall of Famer.
The ever-evolving Madonna was announced as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee on Thursday along with John Mellencamp, The Ventures, Leonard Cohen and The Dave Clark Five.
A panel of 600 industry figures selected the five acts to be inducted at the annual ceremony, to be held March 10 in New York.
"The 2008 inductees are trailblazers all unique and influential in their genres," Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation President and CEO Joel Peresman said in a statement. "From poetry to pop, these five acts demonstrate the rich diversity of rock and roll itself."
To be eligible, artists must have issued a first single or album at least 25 years before nomination.
Madonna Louise Ciccone signed with Sire Records in 1982 and became one of MTV's first stars two years later with "Like A Virgin." She has constantly altered her image and appearance ever since, showing staying power that few '80s stars could muster.
From rosaries and bare midriffs to cone-shaped bras, Madonna's reinvention of herself has been as prolific as her chart dominance, which included seven No. 1 hits and three No. 1 albums in the '80s alone.
Mellencamp, the Indiana native with the ever-changing name, hit the scene as John Cougar in the early '80s with "Jack and Diane" and "Hurts So Good." He later became John Cougar Mellencamp and the voice of America's heartland with hits like "Pink Houses" and "Small Town" before finally settling into his given name, John Mellencamp.
"I'm very honored and pleased to be recognized this way, especially among people whom I greatly admire," he said in a statement.
Cohen went from acclaimed poet in Canada to a folk rock icon with "Suzanne" and "Dress Rehearsal Rag" in the late 1960s, making him a big part of the singer-songwriter movement.
The Ventures defined instrumental guitar rock in the '60s with surfer anthems like "Walk Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O," and The Dave Clark Five were one of the most successful British invasion bands with the iconic "Glad All Over."
The Rock Hall will also honor Little Walter in its sideman category for helping establish the modern blues harmonica on recordings with legends like Muddy Waters and Bo Diddley.
Producers Gamble & Huff will be honored in the non-performer category. Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International label, which had artists that included the O'Jays, McFadden & Whitehead, and Lou Rawls, featured powerful rhythm sections with a disco beat.
They won a Grammy for best R&B song on Simply Red's cover of the Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me By Now."
Tejada named in Mitchell Report While Roberts, Knoblauch, Clemens, Justice Also Implicated
NEW YORK (AP) -- Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada and Andy Pettitte were named in the long-awaited Mitchell Report on Thursday, an All-Star roster linked to steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs that put a question mark -- if not an asterisk -- next to some of baseball's biggest moments.
Barry Bonds, already under indictment on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about steroids, also showed up in baseball's most infamous lineup since the Black Sox scandal.
The report culminated a 20-month investigation by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, hired by commissioner Bud Selig to examine the Steroids Era.
It was uncertain whether the report would result in any penalties or suspensions.
Several stars named in the report could pay the price in Cooperstown, much the way Mark McGwire was kept out of the Hall of Fame this year merely because of steroids suspicion.
Besides Clemens and Pettitte, other ex-Yankees named include Mike Stanton, Chuck Knoblauch and Jason Grimsley. Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts also is in the report, as is Yankees and Braves postseason hero David Justice.
Other players include: Mo Vaughn, Paul Lo Duca, Eric Gagne, Glenallen Hill, Gregg Zaun, Rondell White, Hal Morris, Todd Hundley, Larry Bigbie, Lenny Dykstra, David Segui, Matt Herges, Kevin Brown, Mike Lansing, Wally Joyner, Nook Logan and Randy Velarde.
Tejada spent the past four seasons with the Orioles and was acquired in trade by the Astros this week for five players.
In 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that Grimsley had accused six players, including Clemens and Pettitte, in a federal agent's affidavit as players who had used performance-enhancing drugs. Both Clemens and Pettitte denied the rumors at the time.
Pettitte, who in September reached the 200-win mark, recently agreed to return to the Yankees for one year and $16 million after mulling retirement for at least the second time in recent years. He has long credited Clemens, his longtime friend and teammate, with boosting his workout regimen and enabling him to stay in better shape. The two men have both worked with trainer Brian McNamee, who has also reportedly been linked to figures in the Mitchell Report.
Clemens, who has not made a decision yet whether to play in 2008, has maintained his famously rigorous workout routine and credits his long hours in the gym with helping him continue to perform at a high level. He initially retired after the 2003 season, but, thanks in large measure to Pettitte's persuasion, joined the Astros instead and won the 2004 NL Cy Young at age 42. He joined the Yankees in June of this season and finished 6-6 with a 4.18 ERA, then had to leave his start during Game 3 of the AL Division Series with a hamstring injury in the third inning.
Rafael Palmeiro, who was suspended by MLB for failing a drug test just weeks after reaching the 3,000-hit mark, had angrily denied using steroids during an appearance before Congress in March of 2005. After his suspension later that summer, he speculated he might have tested positive after receiving a B-12 shot from Tejada, who was his teammate with the Orioles in 2004 and 2005. B-12 isn't a steroid or illegal, and subsequent searches of Tejada's other vials of B-12 found no traces of steroids.
Stanton has pitched for eight different teams over a 19-year-career and was once one of the game's premiere left-handed set-up men. Roberts is a switch-hitting speedster and two-time All-Star who had hit just 12 home runs in 1,502 at-bats through 2004 -- with a career high of five -- before breaking out for 18 in 2005, including seven in April alone.
Tejada won the 2002 AL MVP award with Oakland and drove in no fewer than 98 runs between 2000 and 2006. After playing 1,152 straight games, Tejada landed on the disabled list with a broken wrist this season after being hit by a pitch. He finished the 2007 season batting .296 with 18 HRs and 81 RBI in 133 games.
List of Golden Globe Awards nominations
Here are the nominees for the 65th annual Golden Globe Awards announced Thursday in Beverly Hills, Calif.:
MOTION PICTURES:
Picture, Drama: "American Gangster," "Atonement," "Eastern Promises," "The Great Debaters," "Michael Clayton," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."
Actress, Drama: Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"; Julie Christie, "Away From Her"; Jodie Foster, "The Brave One"; Angelina Jolie, "A Mighty Heart"; Kiera Knightley, "Atonement."
Actor, Drama: George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"; Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"; James McAvoy, "Atonement"; Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises"; Denzel Washington, "American Gangster."
Picture, Musical or Comedy: "Across the Universe," "Charlie Wilson's War," "Hairspray," "Juno," "Sweeney Todd."
Actress, Musical or Comedy: Amy Adams, "Enchanted"; Nikki Blonsky, "Hairspray"; Helena Bonham Carter, "Sweeney Todd"; Marion Cotillard, "La Vie En Rose"; Ellen Page, "Juno."
Actor, Musical or Comedy: Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd"; Ryan Gosling, "Lars and the Real Girl"; Tom Hanks, "Charlie Wilson's War"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Savages"; John C. Reilly, "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story."
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There"; Julia Roberts, "Charlie Wilson's War"; Saoirse Ronan, "Atonement"; Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"; Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton."
Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"; John Travolta, "Hairspray"; Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton."
Director: Tim Burton, "Sweeney Todd"; Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Ridley Scott, "American Gangster"; Joe Wright, "Atonement."
Screenplay: Diablo Cody, "Juno"; Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Christopher Hampton, "Atonement"; Ronald Harwood, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Aaron Sorkin, "Charlie Wilson's War."
Foreign Language: "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," Romania; "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," France and U.S.; "The Kite Runner," U.S.; "Lust, Caution," Taiwan; "Persepolis," France.
Animated Film: "Bee Movie," "Ratatouille," "The Simpsons Movie."
Original Score: Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Edder, "Into the Wild"; Clint Eastwood, "Grace Is Gone"; Alberto Iglesias, "The Kite Runner"; Dario Marianelli, "Atonement"; Howard Shore, "Eastern Promises."
Original Song: "Despedida" from "Love in the Time of Cholera"; "Grace Is Gone" from "Grace Is Gone"; "Guaranteed" from "Into the Wild"; "That's How You Know" from "Enchanted"; "Walk Hard" from "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story."
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TELEVISION:
Series, Drama: "Big Love," HBO; "Damages," FX Networks; "Grey's Anatomy," ABC; "House," Fox; "Mad Men," AMC; "The Tudors," Showtime.
Actress, Drama: Patricia Arquette, "Medium"; Glenn Close, "Damages"; Minnie Driver, "The Riches"; Edie Falco, "The Sopranos"; Sally Field, "Brothers & Sisters"; Holly Hunter, "Saving Grace"; Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer."
Actor, Drama: Michael C. Hall, "Dexter"; Jon Hamm, "Mad Men"; Hugh Laurie, "House"; Jonathan Rhys Meyers, "The Tudors"; Bill Paxton, "Big Love."
Series, Musical or Comedy: "30 Rock," NBC; "Californication," Showtime; "Entourage," HBO; "Extras," HBO; "Pushing Daisies," ABC.
Actress, Musical or Comedy: Christina Applegate, "Samantha Who?"; America Ferrera, "Ugly Betty"; Tina Fey, "30 Rock"; Anna Friel, "Pushing Daisies"; Mary-Louise Parker, "Weeds."
Actor, Musical or Comedy: Alec Baldwin, "30 Rock"; Steve Carell, "The Office"; David Duchovny, "Californication"; Ricky Gervais, "Extras"; Lee Pace, "Pushing Daisies."
Miniseries or Movie: "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," HBO; "The Company," TNT; "Five Days," HBO; "Longford," HBO; "The State Within," BBC America.
Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Bryce Dallas Howard, "As You Like It"; Debra Messing, "The Starter Wife"; Queen Latifah, "Life Support"; Sissy Spacek, "Pictures of Hollis Woods"; Ruth Wilson, "Jane Eyre (Masterpiece Theatre)."
Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Adam Beach, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"; Ernest Borgnine, "A Grandpa for Christmas"; Jim Broadbent, "Longford"; Jason Isaacs, "The State Within"; James Nesbitt, "Jekyll."
Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Rose Byrne, "Damages"; Rachel Griffiths, "Brothers & Sisters"; Katherine Heigl, "Grey's Anatomy"; Samantha Morton, "Longford"; Anna Paquin, "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"; Jaime Pressly, "My Name Is Earl."
Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Ted Danson, "Damages"; Kevin Dillon, "Entourage"; Jeremy Piven, "Entourage"; Andy Serkis, "Longford"; William Shatner, "Boston Legal"; Donald Sutherland, "Dirty Sexy Money."
'Atonement' leads with 7 Globe nods
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The British historical romance "Atonement" led the competition for the Golden Globes with seven nominations Thursday, including best drama and acting honors for Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.
Other best drama nominees for the 65th Golden Globes were the crime sagas "American Gangster," "Eastern Promises" and "No Country for Old Men," the inspirational college drama "The Great Debaters," the legal drama "Michael Clayton" and the California oil-boom epic "There Will Be Blood." Globe voters picked seven dramatic nominees, rather than the usual five.
Nominated for best comedy or musical were the Beatles musical "Across the Universe," the foreign-policy romp "Charlie Wilson's War," the Broadway adaptation "Hairspray," the teen-pregnancy comedy "Juno" and the bloody musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."
Adapted from the novel by Ian McEwan, "Atonement" earned dramatic actress and actor nominations for Knightley and McAvoy, who play lovers whose newfound romance is shattered after Knightley's jealous younger sister (Saoirse Ronan) falsely accuses McAvoy of a crime.
"Atonement" also had nominations for Ronan as supporting actress, director for Joe Wright, screenplay for Christopher Hampton and musical score for Dario Marianelli.
"We're all jumping around at the moment. It's just fantastic. I'm working today, so I don't know whether I'll be able to celebrate, but we'll probably have a nice dinner when we get home from work," the 13-year-old Ronan said after learning she was a nominee.
"It's a brilliant way to start the holiday season," she said.
No clear front-runners have yet emerged in the long buildup to the Academy Awards race, so the big nominations haul could make an early favorite out of "Atonement," which just opened theatrically last week. Oscar nominations come out nine days after the Golden Globes ceremony Jan. 13.
Joining Knightley in the dramatic actress category was Cate Blanchett for her title role as the British monarch in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age." Blanchett also had a supporting-actress nomination for her gender-bending role as an incarnation of Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There."
Also earning two nominations was Philip Seymour Hoffman, for lead actor in a comedy or musical in the sibling tale "The Savages" and supporting actor for "Charlie Wilson's War."
A comic look at a congressman (Tom Hanks), a Texas socialite (Julia Roberts) and a slovenly CIA man (Hoffman) who engineered the covert U.S. response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, "Charlie Wilson's War" ran second to "Atonement" with five nominations.
Hanks was cited for best actor in a comedy or musical, while Roberts was nominated as supporting actress.
Surprising omissions in the musical or comedy category were Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up" and "Superbad," both huge critical and box-office hits, as well as his upcoming parody "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story." "Walk Hard" star John C. Reilly was nominated in the best musical or comedy actor category, however.
Also overlooked: Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin, who had acclaimed performances in "No Country for Old Men." Their co-star Javier Bardem, who has a chilling role as a relentless killer trailing a man who made off with a fortune in drug money, was nominated for supporting actor.
A critics favorite, "No Country for Old Men" also had nominations for Joel and Ethan Coen for both directing and their screenplay, adapted from Cormac McCarthy's novel.
Eddie Vedder also received two nominations, for best score for the road drama "Into the Wild" and for an original song he wrote for the film, "Guaranteed." Besides his best-actor nomination, Reilly also is up for original song for the theme from "Walk Hard," which he co-wrote with Marshall Crenshaw, Apatow and director Jake Kasdan.
Perpetual awards favorite Clint Eastwood did not even have a movie of his own out this year but scored two Globe nominations, for his score and the title song for the Iraq War drama "Grace Is Gone." Sean Penn, the Oscar-winning star of Eastwood's "Mystic River," was shut out in the directing category for "Into the Wild," while Penn's lead actor Emile Hirsch also missed out on a nomination.
Denzel Washington, director of "The Great Debaters," had a best dramatic actor nomination for "American Gangster," in which he plays a 1970s Harlem heroin baron. Russell Crowe, who plays the cop who brings him down, was snubbed by Globe voters, though.
Along with Washington and McAvoy, dramatic-actor nominees were George Clooney as a conscious-torn lawyer in "Michael Clayton," Daniel Day-Lewis as an oil tycoon in early 20th century California in "There Will Be Blood" and Viggo Mortensen as a Russian mobster in "Eastern Promises."
Joining Knightley and Blanchett in the dramatic-actress category were Julie Christie as a woman succumbing to Alzheimer's in "Away From Her," Jodie Foster as a Manhattan vigilante in "The Brave One" and Angelina Jolie as journalist Mariane Pearl in "A Mighty Heart."
Actresses who became instant box-office stars in 2007 earned nominations for best actress in a musical or comedy: Nikki Blonsky as a vivacious Baltimore teen in "Hairspray," Amy Adams as an exiled fairy-tale princess in "Enchanted" and Ellen Page as a sardonic pregnant teen in "Juno."