Weisz wins Golden Globe

British actress Rachel Weisz was the toast of Hollywood today after winning a best supporting actress award at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles.

The actress, from north London, who is five months pregnant, won the award for her performance as activist Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardener, based on the novel by John Le Carré.

Brokeback Mountain was the standout success, landing four Globes including best dramatic picture. Ang Lee's gay Western, about the relationship between two cowboys played by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, is now the overwhelming favourite for Oscar glory in March.

Weisz, 34, dressed in a strapless gold Donna Karan gown, was surprised to have beaten Scarlett Johansson and Shirley MacLaine to win her award. "Oh, my goodness me", she exclaimed in her acceptance speech, before paying tribute to her co-star Ralph Fiennes and her film director fiancé Darren Aronofsky. The couple live in New York but Weisz still has a house in Primrose Hill, close to where she grew up.

Gwyneth Paltrow also showed off her pregnancy bump in a white Balenciaga tiered gown. Paltrow, who is expecting her second child with her husband, Coldplay's Chris Martin, was nominated for best actress in a drama for Proof but lost to Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman for her role as a transsexual in Transamerica.

There was more British success when Hugh Laurie won a TV award for best actor in a drama for his role as a stressed doctor in the hit show House.

Laurie, 46, drew laughter when he said there were 172 people he needed to thank but would choose to acknowledge only three at random. "Everyone else can just lump it," he joked.

Brokeback Mountain star Ledger was beaten by Philip Seymour Hoffman to the honour of best actor in a drama. Hoffman won for his depiction of gay novelist Truman Capote in Capote.

In the battle for best actress in a musical or comedy, Britons Keira Knightley (Pride And Prejudice) and Dame Judi Dench (Mrs Henderson Presents) both lost to Reese Witherspoon for her performance as June Carter Cash in Walk The Line.

Young Irish star Jonathan Rhys-Meyers was best actor in a mini-series or TV movie for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in Elvis.