Golden Globe Awards

He almost didn’t take the role in The Judge as he thought the character had too many negatives, but once he committed, he did so fully, and the result is a fully dimensional portrait of an irascible unlikeable old man bitterly estranged from his son (played by Robert Downey, Jr. who also produced) who for the first time in his life has to ask for help and show his vulnerability.

Meryl Streep may have given one of the best performances ever put on film as Sophie in Sophie’s Choice, one that cemented her place in cinema history, yet it was only the second leading role of her illustrious career. The peerless Meryl who has been nominated 29 times for a Golden Globe and keeps beating her own record for these nominations (she has won eight times, another record), is the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s choice for the Cecil B.

Some great actors are as comfortable in front of a press line as they are in front of the camera; others, not so much. No one for instance has ever accused Joaquin Phoenix of answering journalists’ questions as effortlessly as he disappears into the characters he portrays onscreen.

The year 2011 changed Jessica Chastain’s career. Seven of her movies premiered around the world before mid-October, some of them in respectful film festivals like Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and Venice.

Amy Adams, 39, lights up the room. The soft-spoken American actress thanks her parents, Richard Kent and Kathryn Adams, for her good manners.

Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Theo Kingma and his team have assembled a star-studded line-up of former Golden Globe winners and nominees to present the awards at this year's ceremony on Sunday. So far they include Amy Adams (Golden Globe Award winner; Five-time Golden Globe Award nominee, including this year for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy), Adrien Brody (Golden Globe Award nominee), Robert Downey, Jr.

“Everybody gets boxed in, in some ways,” admits David Fincher. “And I like being the go-to guy for the movies that are hard to make.

There is nobody quite like this dame. Dame Helen Mirren, that is.