Phantom and Closer Pick Up Golden Globe Noms

Two stage-to-screen adaptations made a big showing when the nominations for the 62nd Annual Golden Globes were announced on December 13. The Phantom of the Opera received three nominations, including one in the category of Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and Closer, which Patrick Marber adapted from his play, picked up five nominations, including Best Motion Picture - Drama.

The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Joel Schumacher, is an adaptation of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical featuring lyrics by Charles Hart and Richard Stilgoe and a book by Stilgoe and Webber. It can be seen in select cities on December 22 and nationwide on January 21. In addition to Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, the film also received nominations for female lead Emmy Rossum, who plays the fragile Christine, and Best Original Song - Motion Picture for Webber and Hart's "Learn To Be Lonely, which plays over the film credits and is sung by star Minnie Driver.

Closer, directed by Mike Nichols, is in theaters all across the country with the all-star cast of Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen, who starred in the stage show in London. In addition to Best Motion Picture - Drama, the film received nominations for supporting actors Portman and Owen, director Nichols and Best Screenplay - Motion Picture for Marber.

Other theater-related films that were honored include De-Lovely, the biography of Cole Porter, which received nominations for stars Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, and Beyond the Sea, about the life of Bobby Darin, for which writer/director/star Kevin Spacey who is the artistic director of London's Old Vic received a Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. The list of stars currently on the boards that received nominations includes 'night, Mother's Edie Falco, nominated for her performance on The Sopranos, and Fat Pig's Jeremy Piven, nominated for his performance in Entourage.