In a rather remarkable feat, Helen Mirren won best actress awards for playing two Queen Elizabeths: one for the television mini-series Elizabeth I and the second for portraying Elizabeth II in the film The Queen.

Still, the evening's real significance lay in the ritual: Hollywood's first big awards party of the year was underway.

No film truly dominated the affair. Jennifer Hudson, a newcomer, won for best supporting actress in a motion picture for playing a determined but less-than-svelte singer in Dreamgirls, while the long-time Hollywood star Eddie Murphy -- himself a newcomer to awards glory -- won best supporting actor as a singer on the decline.

Bursting into tears, Hudson, who first gained notice on American Idol and had her first screen role in this film, told the audience packed with Hollywood's top movie and television stars: "You don't know how much this does for my confidence...it makes me feel like I'm part of a community, it makes me feel like an actress." Hudson dedicated her award to Florence Ballard, one of the original Supremes, "a lady who never got a fair chance."

Forest Whitaker was named best actor in a dramatic movie for his portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland.

And as she won best actress in a comedy or musical for The Devil Wears Prada," screen diva Meryl Streep rocked the gathering when she donned a pair of reading glasses and declared, "I think I've worked with everybody in the room." She paused. "Yes, I have."

The best foreign language film prize went to Letters From Iwo Jima, an unusual twist, in that the movie, with dialogue in Japanese, was directed by Clint Eastwood. Eastwood, positively ebullient, told the press that he might make a Hungarian or Lithuanian movie next.

The Globes are voted on by the 80 or so members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. By contrast, the Oscars are voted on by the nearly 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Sacha Baron Cohen was named best actor in a musical or comedy for his performance in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

The honorary Cecil B DeMille Award went to the actor and filmmaker Warren Beatty for what the association called his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field." Beatty, 69, has made his mark as a political thinker and industry statesman, while directing five films and appearing in nearly two dozen since his 1961 performance in Splendor in the Grass.

Source: International Herald Tribune