'Walk the Line' cashes in big-time with three awards

'Brokeback Mountain' led the way with four awards.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- The Johnny Cash biography "Walk the Line" won the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy film Monday and earned acting honors for stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, boosting their Academy Awards prospects.
Felicity Huffman took the dramatic actress Globe for her gender-bending role as a man preparing for a sex change in "Transamerica," and Philip Seymour Hoffman won the dramatic actor award for playing gay author Truman Capote in "Capote."
The cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain," which won four awards, "Capote" and "Transamerica" scored a breakthrough night for movies dealing with homosexuality or transsexualism.
Director Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," the story of two rugged Western family men (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) concealing their affair, has emerged as a potential front-runner for the Oscars after winning the Golden Globe for best dramatic picture.
Quotable
"I know as actors our job is usually to shed our skins, but I think as people our job is to become who we really are and so I would like to salute the men and women who brave ostracism, alienation and a life lived on the margins to become who they really are," Huffman said.
The wins by those films help position them for major honors at the Oscars, which occasionally have handed out top acting prizes for performers in homosexual or gender-bending roles but have never given the best-picture Oscar to a gay-themed film.
Oscar nominations come out Jan. 31, with the awards presented March 5.
Cashing in
Phoenix and Witherspoon won for best actor and actress in a movie musical or comedy for the biopic that follows country legend Cash's career and his long courtship with the love of his life, June Carter.
The Globe audience clapped along to Cash's song "I Walk the Line" as Phoenix took the stage.
"Who would ever have thought that I would win in the comedy or musical category?" said Phoenix, poking fun at his image for dark, brooding roles. "Not expected."
Phoenix, who did his own singing in the film, thanked "John and June for sharing their life with all of us."
"This film is really important to me," said Witherspoon, who offers a spirited performance and fine singing as Carter. "It's about where I grew up, it's about the music I grew up listening to, so it's very meaningful."
'Amazing year'
Lee took the directing prize for "Brokeback Mountain," which led the Globes with seven nominations, including best drama. "Brokeback Mountain" also won for best screenplay and song, "A Love That Will Never Grow Old."
"I think this has been an amazing year for American cinema," Lee said. "So I just want to give my first thanks to my fellow filmmakers for strengthening my faith in movies."
George Clooney, who was among the directing nominees for "Good Night, and Good Luck," won the supporting-actor Globe for the oil-industry thriller "Syriana" and Rachel Weisz earned the supporting-actress prize for the murder thriller "The Constant Gardener."
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