BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Chicago razzle-dazzled the crowd with double acting wins for co-stars Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere, and a best musical/comedy award at the Golden Globes on Sunday.
• Photo Essay: The Golden Globes
The Hours, which tells the stories of three women, won for best dramatic film. Nicole Kidman, who plays writer Virginia Woolf in the film took home the award for best actress in a drama, beating out her Hours co-star Meryl Streep.
But in an energetic kick-off to the show Streep snagged the award for supporting actress for her role in Adaptation, and her co-star Chris Cooper made it a double-whammy for the quirky comedy by winning the best supporting actor award.
Golden Globe veteran Jack Nicholson took home the best actor in a drama prize for About Schmidt -- this was his fifteenth nomination and sixth Golden Globe.
On the other hand, director Martin Scorsese won his first Globe, to raucous applause, for Gangs of New York.
"Maybe 'dream come true' is a cliche because cliches are true. But it really is," he said about making the gritty New York film. Irish rockers U2 won the best movie song for "The Hands That Built America" for the same movie.
As Gere accepted his award for playing a slick lawyer in Chicago, he said, "I'm literally totally shocked. I don't win anything. And I didn't even want to do this movie."
Zellweger, who beat out Catherine Zeta-Jones as the best actress in a comedy or musical, paid tribute to her co-star in her acceptance speech. "You're a goddess and I'm so glad the world now knows what you can do," Zellweger told her while onstage.
Composer Elliot Goldenthal received the best original score prize for Frida. Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor won for best screenplay for About Schmidt.
Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her, a Spanish drama about two men in love with comatose women in the same hospital, was chosen as best foreign film.
The Golden Globes is renowned as one of Hollywood's biggest parties, where participants are encouraged to be spontaneous and irreverent.
"You have no idea how many men I've had to sleep with to get this award," said Kim Cattrall, who won in the TV supporting actress category for her role as the most promiscuous of the four women on Sex in the City.
The Shield, which airs on FX cable channel, won for best TV drama, upsetting such major shows as The Sopranos and The West Wing, and its star, Michael Chiklis, was named best actor in a drama series. His Golden Globe follows his surprise Emmy victory last year for playing a rogue cop.
"This has been a miraculous magic carpet ride," he said.
HBO's acerbic sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm won best TV comedy series.
"This is a sad day for the Golden Globes. It is however, quite a good day for Larry David," joked David, the show's star and executive producer. "I suspect the wife will be a little forthcoming tonight."
The dramatic TV actress award went to Edie Falco for her performance in HBO's mob hit The Sopranos. The actress kept her acceptance award short -- because she had laryngitis. "I can't talk," she whispered into the microphone.
Jennifer Aniston won best TV comedy actress for NBC's Friends, while Tony Shalhoub beat out her co-star Matt LeBlanc and Will & Grace's Eric McCormack, among others, to receive the TV comedy actor's prize for the USA detective show Monk.
Gene Hackman received the Cecil B. DeMille Award, which honored the star of such films as The Conversation, The French Connection and The Royal Tenenbaums for his career spanning nearly 80 films.
Golden Globe honors are chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's roughly 90 members, who cover Hollywood for overseas publications.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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