Stars preparing for Golden Globes

A host of stars will attend the Golden Globes in Los Angeles later, for what is expected to be the glitziest event so far in this year's awards season.

• The event returns to a traditional format, having been called off and replaced by a news conference in 2008 owing to the Hollywood writers’ strike.
• Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas are among the British actors in line for honours.

• The film and TV awards come from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
• The Globes are often regarded as an indicator of the movies and actors who will go on to win honours at the Academy Awards on 22 February.
• Unlike the Oscars or the Baftas, however, the ceremony has different categories for dramas and comedies.
• Brad Pitt’s fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is nominated in five film categories, as are the stage-play adaptations Doubt and Frost/Nixon.
• The Reader and Revolutionary Road – both starring Winslet – have four nominations each, as do Danny Boyle’s drama Slumdog Millionaire and Woody Allen’s comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
• Boyle is one of three British film-makers to be nominated for best director, alongside The Reader’s Stephen Daldry and Sam Mendes for Revolutionary Road.
• British writers, meanwhile, make up three of the five best screenplay nominees, with Simon Beaufoy, Sir David Hare and Peter Morgan recognised for Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader and Frost/Nixon respectively.
• House star Hugh Laurie, twice winner of the prize for best actor in a TV drama, is again shortlisted for the accolade.
• Elsewhere, Dames Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins both receive nominations for their performances in BBC TV serial Cranford.
• Pierce Brosnan, Sandra Bullock and High School Musical star Zac Efron are among the actors lined up to present awards at Sunday’s ceremony.
• And Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg will receive the Cecil B DeMille Award for his “outstanding contribution to the entertainment field”.
• On Friday, Golden Globe organisers apologised for a mistake on the awards website which suggested that Anne Hathaway had won the gong for best actress in a drama.
• An asterisk appeared on the site next to Hathaway’s name in a list of nominees.
• A statement on the Golden Globes website said the actress had been “randomly marked as a winner” by mistake and it did not mean that she had won the award for her role in Rachel Getting Married.