BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP):
THE COWBOY romance Brokeback Mountain led the Golden Globe with four prizes, including best dramatic film and the directing honour for Ang Lee.
Homosexual and transsexual themes dominated Monday's Golden Globe with the key wins by Brokeback Mountain, plus acting honours for the film biography Capote and the gender-bending Transamerica.
But politics and music ran close behind at the Globe, second only to the Oscars in the hierarchy of Hollywood film honours.
Top prizes went to the corporate and government corruption thrillers Syriana and The Constant Gardener, the terrorism drama Paradise Now and the White House series Commander in Chief, while the Johnny Cash film biography Walk The Line won three honours.
The four Globes for Brokeback Mountain, the story of old ranch-hand buddies who conceal an ongoing homosexual affair from their families, included the directing award for Ang Lee.
The Globe position Brokeback Mountain as a solid front-runner for the Academy Awards, whose nominations come out January 31, with the Oscars handed out March 5. The film also won Globe for best screenplay and song.
Likewise, acting winners Felicity Huffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, George Clooney and Rachel Weisz solidified their Oscar prospects.
TRANSAMERICAN TALES
Huffman won the best dramatic actress award for her remarkable transformation in the road-trip tale Transamerica, in which she plays a man preparing for sex-change surgery.
Hoffman was honoured as best dramatic actor for his role as gay author Truman Capote in Capote. Phoenix as country legend Cash and Witherspoon as the singer's soul mate, June Carter, earned the lead-acting prizes in a musical or comedy for Walk The Line.
Political thrillers picked up both supporting-acting Globes, Clooney winning for the oil-industry saga Syriana and Weisz for The Constant Gardener, a tale of government and corporate corruption centred in Africa.
Both of Clooney's films, Syriana and Good Night, and Good Luck, have been viewed as critiques on the current state of U.S. policy domestically and overseas. Backstage, Clooney said the films were just dealing with issues he felt important.
'SYRIANA' AND THE US GOVERNMENT
Syriana was not an attack on the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, Clooney said. "This was an attack on 60 years of failed policies in the Middle East."
Among television winners, Mary-Louise Parker of Weeds beat out the four lead actresses of Desperate Housewives, Emmy winner Huffman included, for best actress in a comedy series. But Desperate Housewives did win for best musical or comedy series.
Lost won for best TV drama series, while the White House saga Commander in Chief, won the dramatic actress TV honour for Geena Davis, who plays the first female president.
See the entire list of Golden Globe winners in The Star today. http://jamaica-star.com/thestar/20060118/
