Aussies take on the Globes

The Golden Globes were heading Down Under today after the Australian-made Moulin Rouge and antipodeans Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe snatched the top honours at the Beverly Hills ceremony.

It was also an event that reminded Hollywood how much it owes to British acting talent. Veteran filmmaker Robert Altman won best director for his country house murder satire Gosford Park, whose huge cast is a who's who of homegrown stars, including Dame Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Sir Derek Jacobi and Emily Watson.

Thanking the cast, Altman joked: "Everyone British in this room please stand up." There was a surprise win for Jim Broadbent as best supporting actor for Iris, in which he plays the writer and philosopher John Bayley nursing his wife Iris Murdoch through Alzheimer's. Broadbent, who also appears in Moulin Rouge, was so unprepared for his win that he had failed to write a speech.

The frenetic Moulin Rouge dominated the evening, making it a favourite for the Oscars in two months. The film, directed by Australian Baz Luhrmann, took the prize for best musical or comedy. Nicole Kidman, who stars with Ewan McGregor as a courtesan and poet who become ill-fated lovers, was best actress in a musical or comedy. It was a triumphant end to a roller-coaster year that included a divorce from Tom Cruise. "My hands are shaking. I never thought I would be in a musical, yet alone win an award for one," she said.

Russell Crowe, winner of last year's Oscar for best actor will be favourite again in March after being named best actor in a drama for his portrayal of John Nash, the Nobel prize-winning mathematician whose life was plagued by schizophrenia, in A Beautiful Mind. The film also won for best drama, screenplay and original score. Sissy Spacek was best actress in a drama playing the wife of Full Monty star Tom Wilkinson in In The Bedroom, a bleak drama critically acclaimed in the US.

Sting won the award for best song, for Until, the theme to Kate And Leopold, a romantic comedy starring Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman. The Cecil B deMille award for a lifetime achievement was given to Harrison Ford who gave one of the wittiest acceptance speeches. "I wrote two speeches, a long one and a short one," he said. "Because I thought it might be a long evening, I'll give you the short one: 'Thank you.' But it seems like there might be enough time for the long one as well, which is, 'Thank you very much.'"

The Golden Globes also honour television, with the series Sex And The City winning best comedy and Sarah Jessica Parker collecting the award for best actress in a TV series. The Second World War drama Band Of Brothers produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg was best TV drama series.

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