‘Bugsy’ Hits the Jackpot : Film Leads Golden Globe Field With 8 Nominations

“Bugsy,” director Barry Levinson’s film biography of mobster Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel, collected eight Golden Globe Awards nominations on Friday--more than any other film--and became the front-runner in the Oscar race.

But the nominations were generously split among other films--”The Fisher King,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “JFK” and “Thelma and Louise”--which each received at least four nominations.

On the television side, NBC’s “Cheers” and “L.A. Law” continued to dominate the competition as they have in previous years, with four nominations each. But they were joined by such programs as “Evening Shade,” “Murphy Brown” and “Northern Exposure,” with three nominations apiece.

The Golden Globes are given out annually by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., a group of 86 Los Angeles-based journalists who write for foreign publications. As the first of the major Hollywood awards each year, the Globes often foreshadow the eventual winner of the best picture competition for the Oscars given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The top Golden Globe winner for 1990, “Dances With Wolves,” eventually went on to win the Oscar for best picture.

The 49th annual nominations were announced in ceremonies on Friday in Beverly Hills, and the winners will be revealed at a banquet on Jan. 18 to be televised by the Turner Broadcasting System.

Unlike the motion picture academy, which hands out only one Oscar for best picture, the Golden Globe Awards split the best picture category in two: dramatic movies, and musical or comedy movies.

“Bugsy” stars Warren Beatty as the flamboyant mobster who dazzled Hollywood in the 1940s and was instrumental in creating Las Vegas’ Strip. Besides a nomination for best dramatic picture, it also collected nominations for Beatty as best actor, Levinson as best director, Annette Bening for best actress, Harvey Keitel and Ben Kingsley for supporting actor, James Toback for screenplay, and Ennio Morricone for best original score.

The nominations sweep by “Bugsy” was the second major boost for the film this month. In addition to largely laudatory reviews, the movie from TriStar Pictures won the Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. prize as best film on Dec. 14. But closely behind, and helping to keep the Oscar race for best picture interesting, was Orion Pictures’ “Silence of the Lambs,” the winner of the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review.

“Bugsy” shared the Golden Globe nomination for best dramatic motion picture with “The Silence of the Lambs,” which received five nominations in all, “JFK” and “Thelma and Louise” with four nominations apiece and “The Prince of Tides” with three.

TriStar Pictures was the leader among studios in the number of nominations--14 in all--collected. Besides the eight for “Bugsy” there were five for its release of director Terry Gilliam’s “The Fisher King,” but only one for “Hook,” perhaps the most highly visible production of the year. That nomination went to Dustin Hoffman for his title role in the Steven Spielberg movie. TriStar’s sister studio under the Sony Pictures Entertainment banner, Columbia Pictures, collected six nominations in all, three for “Prince of Tides” and three for “City Slickers.”

Overlooked entirely in the nominations was the year’s most successful box-office hit, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Besides leading the U.S. box office, the movie has been a huge success in the international market.

Both Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon received nominations for best actress as the renegade women in “Thelma & Louise.” But some observers were surprised that Barbra Streisand, who was recognized in the category of best director for “Prince of Tides,” was overlooked by the members of the foreign press for her leading role in her own movie.

And, in another closely watched category, British actor Anthony Hopkins was nominated for best actor in the drama “Silence of the Lambs,” putting to rest discussion in some Hollywood circles about which category--best actor or supporting actor--that he would eventually compete in. Orion Pictures, the distributor of “Lambs,” had said there was no question that Hopkins would compete for best actor.

Meanwhile, Mercedes Ruehl, who was the choice of the Los Angeles critics as best actress for her role in “The Fisher King,” was instead nominated for best supporting actress by the Globes committee.

On the musical or comedy side, best picture nominees were: “The Fisher King” with five nominations, “Beauty and the Beast” with four nominations, “City Slickers” and “Fried Green Tomatoes” with three nods and “The Commitments” with one nomination,

The number of nominations for Walt Disney Pictures’ animated musical “Beauty and the Beast” was unusual for an animated movie. Besides the best picture category, the movie received a nomination for best original score and nods in the best song category for two of the movie’s musical numbers, the title song and “Be Our Guest.”

The strong showing by “Beauty and the Beast” is widely considered to be a boost to the movie’s chances to become the first animated movie to ever be nominated for a best picture Oscar. The Oscar nominations will be announced on Feb. 19 and awards will be given on March 30.

Among the television competition, NBC shows received the largest number of nominations with 20. CBS was second with 19, followed by ABC with 10, Fox and Home Box Office with four apiece and Turner Network Television with one nomination.

Among dramatic series, “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “I’ll Fly Away,” “Law & Order” and “Northern Exposure” were first-time nominees, in addition to perennial winner “L.A. Law.”

On the comedy or musical side, “Brooklyn Bridge and “Evening Shade” joined previously nominated “Cheers,” “Golden Girls” and “Murphy Brown.”

Best-Movie Nominations

DRAMA

* “Bugsy”

* “JFK”

* “The Prince of Tides”

* “The Silence of the Lambs”

* “Thelma & Louise”

MUSICAL-COMEDY

* “Beauty and the Beast”

* “City Slickers”

* “The Commitments”

* “The Fisher King”

* “Fried Green Tomatoes”

Golden Globe Nominees in Movie, TV Categories

A list of the Golden Globe nominations announced Friday include:

Movies

* Drama: “Bugsy,” “JFK,” “The Prince of Tides,” “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Thelma & Louise.”

* Musical-comedy: “Beauty and the Beast,” “City Slickers,” “The Commitments,” “The Fisher King,” “Fried Green Tomatoes.”

* Actress, drama: Annette Bening, “Bugsy”; Geena Davis, “Thelma & Louise”; Laura Dern, “Rambling Rose”; Jodie Foster, “The Silence of the Lambs”; Susan Sarandon, “Thelma & Louise.”

* Actor, drama: Warren Beatty, “Bugsy”; Kevin Costner, “JFK”; Robert De Niro, “Cape Fear”; Anthony Hopkins, “The Silence of the Lambs”; Nick Nolte, “The Prince of Tides.”

* Actress, musical-comedy: Ellen Barkin, “Switch”; Kathy Bates, “Fried Green Tomatoes”; Anjelica Huston, “The Addams Family”; Bette Midler, “For the Boys”; Michelle Pfeiffer, “Frankie and Johnny.”

* Actor, musical-comedy: Jeff Bridges, “The Fisher King”; Billy Crystal, “City Slickers”; Dustin Hoffman, “Hook”; Kevin Kline, “Soapdish”; Robin Williams, “The Fisher King.”

* Supporting actress: Nicole Kidman, “Billy Bathgate”; Diane Ladd, “Rambling Rose”; Juliette Lewis, “Cape Fear”; Mercedes Ruehl, “The Fisher King”; Jessica Tandy, “Fried Green Tomatoes.”

* Supporting actor: Ned Beatty, “Hear My Song”; John Goodman, “Barton Fink”; Harvey Keitel, “Bugsy”; Ben Kingsley, “Bugsy”; Jack Palance, “City Slickers.”

* Director: Jonathan Demme, “The Silence of the Lambs”; Terry Gilliam, “The Fisher King”; Barry Levinson, “Bugsy”; Oliver Stone, “JFK”; Barbra Streisand, “The Prince of Tides.”

* Screenplay: Lawrence Kasdan and Meg Kasdan, “Grand Canyon”; Callie Khouri, “Thelma & Louise”; Ted Tally, “The Silence of the Lambs”; James Toback, “Bugsy”; Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar, “JFK.”

* Foreign-language film: “The Double Life of Veronique” (France); “Europa, Europa” (Germany); “La Femme Nikita” (France); “High Heels” (Spain); “Lost in Siberia” (Soviet Union); “Madame Bovary” (France).

* Original score: Zbigniew Preisner, “At Play in the Fields of the Lord”; Alan Menken, “Beauty and the Beast”; Ennio Morricone, “Bugsy”; Patrick Doyle, “Dead Again”; Dave Grusin, “For the Boys”; Michael Kamen, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.”

* Original song: “Be Our Guest” from “Beauty and the Beast,” music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman; “Beauty and the Beast” from “Beauty and the Beast,” music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Howard Ashman; “Dreams to Dream” from “An American Tail: Fievel Goes West,” music and lyrics by James Horner & Will Jennings; “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” from “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” music and lyrics by Michael Kamen, Bryan Adams & Robert John Lange; “Tears in Heaven” from “Rush,” music by Eric Clapton, lyrics by Will Jennings.

Television

* Series, drama: “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “I’ll Fly Away,” “L.A. Law,” “Law & Order,” “Northern Exposure.”

* Actress, drama: Susan Dey, “L.A. Law”; Sharon Gless, “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill”; Angela Lansbury, “Murder, She Wrote”; Marlee Matlin, “Reasonable Doubts”; Janine Turner, “Northern Exposure.”

* Actor, drama: Scott Bakula, “Quantum Leap”; Mark Harmon, “Reasonable Doubts”; James Earl Jones, “Pros & Cons”; Rob Morrow, “Northern Exposure”; Carrol O’Connor, “In the Heat of the Night”; Sam Waterston, “I’ll Fly Away.”

* Series, musical-comedy: “Brooklyn Bridge,” “Cheers,” “Evening Shade,” “The Golden Girls,” “Murphy Brown.”

* Actress, musical-comedy: Kirstie Alley, “Cheers”; Roseanne Arnold, “Roseanne”; Candice Bergen, “Murphy Brown”; Jamie Lee Curtis, “Anything but Love”; Katey Sagal, “Married . . . With Children.”

* Actor, musical-comedy: Ted Danson, “Cheers”; Neil Patrick Harris, “Doogie Howser, M.D.”; Craig T. Nelson, “Coach”; Ed O’Neill “Married . . . With Children”; Burt Reynolds, “Evening Shade.”

* Miniseries or motion picture made for television: “In a Child’s Name,” CBS; “The Josephine Baker Story,” HBO; “One Against the Wind,” CBS; “Sarah, Plain and Tall,” CBS; “Separate but Equal,” ABC.

* Actress, miniseries or motion picture made for television: Glenn Close, “Sarah, Plain and Tall”; Judy Davis, “One Against the Wind”; Sally Kirkland, “The Haunted”; Jessica Tandy, “The Story Lady”; Lynn Whitfield, “The Josephine Baker Story.”

* Actor, miniseries or motion picture made for television: Beau Bridges, “Without Warning: The James Brady Story”; Sam Elliott, “Conagher”; Peter Falk, “Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star”; Sam Neill, “One Against the Wind”; Sidney Poitier, “Separate but Equal.”

* Supporting actress, series, miniseries or motion picture made for television: Amanda Donohoe, “L.A. Law”; Faith Ford, “Murphy Brown”; Estelle Getty, “The Golden Girls”; Park Overall, “Empty Nest”; Rhea Perlman, “Cheers”; Jean Stapleton, “Fire in the Dark”; Sammi Davis Voss, “Homefront.”

* Supporting actor, series, miniseries or motion picture made for television: Larry Drake, “L.A. Law”; Louis Gossett Jr., “The Josephine Baker Story”; Michael Jeter, “Evening Shade”; Richard Kiley, “Separate but Equal”; Dean Stockwell, “Quantum Leap.”