‘The Artist’ speaks loudly

Associated Press

los angeles

The black-and-white silent film “The Artist” came away with the most prizes with three wins at the Golden Globes, but the show spread the love around among a broad range of films and TV shows.

Wins for “The Artist” included best musical or comedy and best actor in a musical or comedy for Jean Dujardin, while the family drama “The Descendants” claimed two awards, as best drama and dramatic actor for George Clooney.

Other acting winners were Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer, and Octavia Spencer, while Martin Scorsese earned the directing honor.

Streep won for dramatic actress as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” her eight win at the Globes.

Williams won for actress in a musical or comedy as Marilyn Monroe in “My Week with Marilyn,” 52 years after Monroe’s win for the same prize at the Globes. Dujardin won for musical or comedy actor for the silent film “The Artist.”

The supporting-acting Globes went to Plummer as an elderly widower who comes out as gay in the father-son drama “Beginners” and Spencer as a brassy housekeeper joining other black maids to share stories about life with their white employers in the 1960s Deep South tale “The Help.”

“With regard to domestics in this country, now and then, I think Dr. King said it best: ‘All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance.’ And I thank you for recognizing that with our film,” Spencer said.

Scorsese won for the Paris adventure “Hugo.” It was the third directing Globe in the last 10 years for Scorsese, who previously won for “Gangs of New York” and “The Departed” and received the show’s Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement two years ago.

He won over a field of contenders that included Michel Hazanavicius, who had been considered by many in Hollywood as a favorite for his black-and-white silent film “The Artist.”

Williams offered thanks for giving her the same award Monroe once won and joked that her young daughter put up with bedtime stories for six months spoken in Monroe’s voice.

“I consider myself a mother first and an actress second, so the person I most want to thank is my daughter, my little girl, whose bravery and exuberance is the example I take with me in my work and my life,” Williams said.

Dujardin became the first star in a silent film to earn a major Hollywood prize since the early days of film. He won as a silent-era star whose career unravels amid the rise of talking pictures in the late 1920s.