Ledger, Paquin, Wall-E Win Golden Globes

In a night dominated by Slumdog Millionaire and 30 Rock, three of the major sci-fi/fantasy nominees came out winners at the 66th annual Golden Globe awards.

Heath Ledger, who was found dead almost a year ago, won a best supporting actor Golden Globe for his arresting performance in the Batman sequel film The Dark Knight, against some very big names--Tom Cruise, Robert Downey Jr., Ralph Fiennes, and Philip Seymour Hoffmann.

The audience erupted in a standing ovation in tribute to the actor, whose award was accepted by Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan. Last week, Nolan similarly accepted the best supporting actor Critics' Choice Award on Ledger's behalf. Ledger's performance as the Joker was also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award (winners will be announced Jan. 25), and is expected to be nominated for an Academy Award (nominees will be announced Jan. 22; the awards ceremony will be held Feb. 22). Ledger was previously nominated for an Oscar (and a Golden Globe) for Brokeback Mountain.

"All of us who worked with Heath on The Dark Knight accept this with an awful mixture of sadness and incredible pride," said Nolan, whose speech followed an homage clip from Dark Knight. "For any of us lucky enough to have worked with him, and those of us lucky enough to have enjoyed his performances, he will be eternally missed--but he will never be forgotten."

Meanwhile, the best thing about the HBO vampire series True Blood is definitely its star, Anna Paquin, so it's great to hear that she won the Golden Globe for best actress in a television drama. She, too, was up against stiff competition, including Sally Field, Mariska Hargitay, and Kyra Sedgwick.

Paquin won a supporting-actress Oscar at age 11 for The Piano (1993), but this is her first Golden Globe win after two nominations. How are things different now from her Oscar win? "I'm old enough to drink and stay up past 10," Paquin said. We'll be seeing more of Paquin's performance as Sookie Stackhouse: True Blood was renewed for a second season in November.

The third big genre winner was the charming and innovative Pixar film Wall-E, which won the Golden Globe for animated feature.