| After
a below average 2006 |
| Active
2007 Atlantic hurricane season is forecast |
agencies
"Babel," a
searing film drama about cultural gaps among
people around the world, earned seven Golden
Globe nominations on Thursday to lead a surprising
range of contenders for the widely watched movie
honors.
"
Babel" drew nods for best drama, best director
for Mexico's Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, supporting
actor for Brad Pitt and best supporting actress
for both Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi, among
its nominees.
Director Martin Scorsese's crime thriller "The
Departed" earned six nominations and was
the second most nominated movie. Those two films
were joined on the best drama list by British
royals movie "The Queen," adultery
film "Little Children" and surprise
choice "Bobby," which looks at the
day former U.S. presidential candidate Robert
Kennedy was assassinated.
Highly touted musical "Dreamgirls" scored
five nominations. It drew a nod for best movie
musical or comedy alongside road movie "Little
Miss Sunshine," box office hits "The
Devil Wears Prada" and "Borat: Cultural
Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious
Nation of Kazakhstan," and another surprise,
anti-tobacco satire "Thank You for Smoking."
"
Babel" producer Steve Golin called his movie "a
good fit" for the roughly 90 members of
the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which
gives out the Golden Globes.
"
The film has a lot of different themes, certainly
about communication and families and the world
we live in. It's an emotional film," Golin
said.
KEY OSCAR INDICATOR
The annual Golden Globe awards often indicate
which movies will compete for the Academy
Awards, the film industry's top honors.
Tom O'Neil, columnist for Oscar Web site
TheEnvelope.com, called the best drama
nomination of "Bobby" a "jawdropper," and
said the film "is back in the Oscar race."
That movie, which is backed by brothers
Harvey and Bob Weinstein's The Weinstein
Co., had
received only mixed reviews and was considered
out of
the Oscar race by many pundits.
Likewise, "Thank You For Smoking" also
lacked recognition in many recent critics' awards,
and although "Borat" has been a box
office hit, its nomination was also a surprise.
The faux documentary also earned a best
comic actor nomination for its star, British
comedian
Sacha Baron Cohen, who portrays the politically
incorrect Kazakhstan TV reporter, Borat,
in the movie.
"
It was the furthest thing from my mind," "Borat" director
Larry Charles said of the nomination. Charles
added that he believed Cohen was "a comic
visionary."
ACTORS, ACTRESSES
Along with Cohen, Johnny Depp was nominated
for best actor in a musical or comedy
for smash hit, "Pirates
of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," the
No. 1 film at the box office this year. Joining
those two actors were Aaron Eckhart in "Thank
You For Smoking," Chiwetel Ejiofor in "Kinky
Boots" and Will Ferrell for "Stranger
Than Fiction."
Nominees for best actor in a film drama
were topped by Leonardo DiCaprio for
two movies, "Blood
Diamond" and "The Departed." He
is joined by Peter O'Toole for "Venus," Will
Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness" and
Forest Whitaker for "The Last King of Scotland."
The nominees for best actress in a drama
were Penelope Cruz for Spanish film "Volver," Maggie
Gyllenhaal for "Sherrybaby," and Britain's
Kate Winslet in "Little Children," Helen
Mirren for "The Queen" and Judi Dench
in "Notes on a Scandal."
Lead actress nominees in a musical or
comedy included singer Beyonce Knowles
in "Dreamgirls," Toni
Collette in "Little Miss Sunshine," Renee
Zellweger in "Miss Potter" and veterans
Meryl Streep for "The Devil Wears Prada" and
Annette Bening for "Running with Scissors."
Two U.S. films were nominated in the
best foreign language film category led
by controversial
director Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto," which is
told in an ancient Mayan language, and Clint
Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima," which
is presented in Japanese.
The other three films in the foreign
language group are Mexican fantasy "Pan's Labyrinth," director
Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" and Germany's "The
Lives of Others."
Golden Globe winners will be named in
a ceremony in Beverly Hills on January
15.
The Oscars
are given out by the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts
and Sciences, and those winners will
be named on February 25..
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| Pledging
to be a "bridge-builder" |
| Ban Ki-moon
sworn in as U.N. secretary-general |
agencies
South
Korea's Ban Ki-moon was sworn in as the eighth
U.N. secretary-general on Thursday, pledging
to be a "bridge-builder" and lead a
dynamic and courageous United Nations when he
takes over on January 1.
Ban, 62, took the oath of office in a ceremony
in the 192-nation U.N. General Assembly that
also honored the outgoing secretary-general,
Kofi Annan of Ghana, 68, whose second five-year
term ends on December 31.
"
By strengthening the three pillars of our United
Nations -- security, development and human rights
-- we can build a more peaceful, more prosperous
and more just world for succeeding generations," Ban
told ambassadors from U.N. member-states and
other dignitaries.
"
As we pursue our collective endeavor to reach
that goal, my first priority will be to restore
trust. I will seek to act as a harmonizer and
bridge-builder," Ban said, adding that world
governments required a "dynamic and courageous" United
Nations and not one that was "passive and
fearful."
Key tasks will include injecting new life
into a "sometimes weary" secretariat staff
and setting "the highest ethical standard." Annan's
tenure was stained by findings of corruption
and mismanagement in the $64 billion oil-for-food
program for Iraq and in U.N. procurement.
Ban's wife, Yoo Soon-taek, sat next to Annan's
wife, Nane, in the audience as Assembly President
Sheika Haya Rashed Al Khalifa administered
the oath of office.
In delivering the oath, Ban swore "not to
seek or accept instructions in regard to the
performance of my duties from any government
or other authority external to the organization."
Special guests included Han Seung-soo, under
whom Ban served as chief of staff when Han
served as General Assembly president in 2001-2002.
A former foreign minister, Ban was selected
by the 15-member U.N. Security Council in
October and then approved by the General
Assembly as
the first Asian head of the organization
in 35
years.
LITTLE KNOWN ABOUT POLICIES
But little is known about Ban's policies
or future appointments, particularly compared
to his high-profile
predecessor, who traveled widely and spoke
out on world issues, sometimes to the chagrin
of
the United States.
Quiet and unassuming, Ban has made few missteps
during his long career as a Korean diplomat.
John Bolton, the outgoing U.S. ambassador,
an early Ban supporter, made clear he wanted
more
of a secretary than a general by saying repeatedly
the U.N. Charter described the job only as
the world body's "chief administrative officer."
But in an interview with Reuters after his
election, Ban cautioned those who called
him low-key not
to mistake him for a pushover. "I may look
low-key or (be) soft-spoken but that does not
mean that I lack leadership or commitment," he
said.
Asians consider modesty and humility virtues,
he said, but should not be misunderstood
because "I
take decisive decisions whenever it is necessary."
Ban will start his five-year term in what
Annan has called the world's most impossible
job
with a daunting agenda that stretches from
the threats
of nuclear proliferation and terrorism to
reform of the United Nations management.
But the future secretary-general showed he
could poke fun at himself at a U.N. correspondents
dinner, acknowledging that journalists in
Seoul called him "Slippery Eel" while in
New York they referred to him as a "Teflon
diplomat."
"
These names may reflect different cultures," Ban
said. "But they all point to one and the
same thing: When I want to, I will elude you
as masterfully as any secret agent."
Borrowing from the Christmas carol "Santa
Claus is Coming to Town," he crooned: "I'm
making a list, I'm checking it twice, I'm going
to find out who's naughty or nice. Ban Ki-Moon
is coming to town.".
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