USA: Ziyi Zhang joined Golden Globe nominee Terrence Howard and others for the British Film Academy's annual Hollywood tea party

With the 2006 Golden Globe Awards just hours away, nervous energy is in the air in Hollywood. Despite the anxiety, though, some of the nominees made their way onto the red carpet for the annual pre-awards Tea Party. Hosted by BAFTA, the British Film and Television Academy, the event is open to all nominees as well as other celebrity guests. Terrence Howard, nominated for his roles in "Hustle and Flow" and "Crash," can't imagine getting tired of the awards brouhaha. "Can you get tired of getting gifts?" he asked. "On Monday night, they tell me, I will receive gifts worth sixty-something-thousand dollars. That's 'The Price Is Right'! I picked the right number, you know, I picked the right door. I'm thrilled right now, man." Canadian director Paul Haggis, whose movie "Crash" has already won some critics awards for Best Picture, played down the pressure on his film. "I think the great thing about this time of the year is that we get to celebrate good films, and luckily this year there are a lot of good films to celebrate. And you see that in the diversity of the awards. That's the great thing for me. And to be able to be even shortlisted with some of these films is fabulous," he said. Steven Spielberg's film "Munich" is not nominated in the dramatic Best Picture category for this year's Golden Globes, but screenwriter Tony Kushner couldn't be happier with the director's achievements. "The thing that's amazing to me about Steven [Spielberg] is that he's 58 years old or whatever," said Kushner, who co-wrote the screenplay for "Munich." "He's made these enormously successful films and he's still pushing himself as a filmmaker, which is remarkable. I mean, he doesn't repeat himself. He takes bigger and bigger risks and goes into new territory all the time, and I think that's what you want an artist to do." Spielberg will compete against Peter Jackson, Paul Haggis and others in the Directing category at the Globes. Chinese superstar Ziyi Zhang didn't receive a nomination for her starring role in Rob Marshall's "Memoirs of a Geisha," but believes the actors deserve recognition anyway. "I'm quite proud because for us it was even harder because the language is not our mother language and we had to learn this new, the whole thing," she explained. "And we had to act, not just memorize all the lines but really get into the characters. So I'm proud in that way and I think we did a pretty good job." The Golden Globe Awards will be handed out on Monday, January 16, 2006 in Beverly Hills.

ITN Source | January 19, 2006

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