The GoldDigger and NEWSWEEK's Joshua Alston debate the highlights and horrors of the Golden Globe nominations. Read the story here.

Saoirse Ronan, 13, was nominated for her first Golden Globe today as best supporting actress for "Atonement." The actress, who is Irish, was in Pennsylvania, where she's filming "The Lovely Bones," when she heard the good news. "I was actually in bed and the phone rang and then I heard my dad shout, 'Yes!!' and I ran out to him and gave him a big hug. Then he was jumping up and down."

Since we're going to hear plenty from Ronan as the awards season heats up--she's astonishing as young Briony--I asked her what she wants people to know about her. "I think the first thing is, I want them to pronounce my name. There have been loads of people saying, how do you pronounce your name? It's Saoirse, it would be pronounced Sersha [it rhymes with inertia]."

Is there anything else we should know? "I used to play with Polly Pockets when I was younger, and I used to go off on my own and make up little lives for each of them. They used to have little affairs with each other." Wait. Aren't Polly Pockets all girls? "They are all girls. But do you know Woody from Toy Story? I got a little toy from McDonald's when I was younger, and I've got Arthur, who's a cartoon character, and I used them as boyfriends. I don't play with them now. Don't put that in the article please."

"And also, I get my camcorder when I'm at home. I invite my friends over for a play date. They think they're on a play date but they're not. They're coming over to make a low budget movie. We have one that we wrote, my best friend Hannah and I, and we called it 'Ed the Baker.' It's about a baker called Ed and he has a child and a wife and his wife goes off to work one day and he's left with the baby. He comes outside, and the whole bakery is a mess and there are things that have been stolen. He calls the police, and then we realize he just wanted the insurance money. Hopefully now, anyone who reads this they're not going to take the copyright on me or anything."

"It's a really precious work of art. We've sent the script off to DreamWorks and Working Title." Really? "No, no! Don't believe a word I say. I'm Irish."

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominated "Eastern Promises" as best drama, which even caught the film's director David Cronenberg off guard. The GoldDigger asked him where he was when he heard he was nominated. "Sound asleep," he says. "I tend to stay up late and wake up late. You know, I thought Viggo had a real shot at it. But I also knew it was an incredibly crowded year. There are a lot of strong, strong movies out there, so I really wasn't expecting a best picture nomination. So it's very exciting. It's two movies in a row of mine that have been nominated."

What's Cronenberg doing next? "I'm actually writing a novel for the first time," he says. About what? "I can't tell you, it's going to be a couple years before it comes out." But the director has been getting a lot of advice from his writer friends. "I'm taking everyone's advice and going by word count," Cronenberg says. "Don't get up until you've written a number of words. And don't write more than that. It's an interesting mentality. You try to make it everyday business, like digging ditches."

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced its nominees for the Golden Globe Awards this morning. The Golden Globes are probably the best predictors of the Oscars you can find. In the last 23 years, 17--or about three quarters--of all best picture winners took home the Globe first. So let's look at the nominees and see what they mean for the awards season ahead.

The best picture nominees for a drama are "American Gangster," "Atonement," "Eastern Promises," "The Great Debaters," "Michael Clayton," "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will be Blood."  The fact that there are seven nominees shows how competitive a year it is.

In the musical/comedy category, "Sweeney Todd" is the expected winner opposite "Across the Universe," "Charlie Wilson's War," "Hairspray" and "Juno."

The best director nominees are Tim Burton ("Sweeney Todd"), the Coen brothers ("No Country For Old Men"), Julian Schnabel ("The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"), Ridley Scott ("American Gangster") and Joe Wright ("Atonement").

Daniel Day-Lewis will probably win best actor in a drama for his powerhouse performance in "There Will Be Blood." He's up against George Clooney for "Michael Clayton," James McAvoy in "Atonement," Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" and Denzel Washington in "American Gangster."

The nominees for best actress in a drama are Cate Blanchett for "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," Julie Christie, who will win for her performance in "Away From Her," Jodie Foster for "The Brave One," Angelina Jolie for her underappreciated work in "A Mighty Heart," and Keira Knightley for "Atonement."   

Bet on Johnny Depp for "Sweeney Todd" in best actor in a musical/comedy--he and Day-Lewis are going to battle it out for the Oscar. But at the Globes, Depp is up against  Tom Hanks ("Charlie Wilson's War"), John C. Reilly ("Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"), Philip Seymour Hoffman ("The Savages") and Ryan Gosling ("Lars and the Real Girl").

The best actress in a musical/comedy category is the year's most competitive. In any other year, all five of the nominees could probably win. This year, it's a toss up between Amy Adams ("Enchanted"), Nikki Blonsky ("Hairspray"), Helena-Bonham Carter ("Sweeney Todd"), Marion Cotillard ("La Vie En Rose") and Ellen Page ("Juno"). Laura Linney was surprisingly left out for one of the best performances of the year in "The Savages."

Best supporting actor is race between Casey Affleck ("The Assassination of Jesse James"), Javier Bardem ("No Country for Old Men"), Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Charlie Wilson's War"), who received two nominations, John Travolta ("Hairspray") and Tom Wilkinson ("Michael Clayton"). 

Best supporting actress: Cate Blanchett ("I'm Not There"), who was also nominated twice, Julia Roberts ("Charlie Wilson's War"), Saoirse Ronan ("Atonement"), Amy Ryan ("Gone Baby Gone") and Tilda Swinton ("Michael Clayton").

Best screenplay: "Juno," "No Country For Old Men," "Atonement," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "Charlie Wilson's War."  

The nominees for best foreign language are "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" (Romania), "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (France), "The Kite Runner" (Afghanistan), "Lust Caution" (Hong Kong), "Persepolis" (France).

Best score: "Into the Wild," "Grace is Gone," "Kite Runner," "Atonement" and "Eastern Promises."

Best original song: "Love in the Time of Cholera," "Grace is Gone," "Into the Wild," "Enchanted" and "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story." 

In the animated film category: "Bee Movie," "Ratatouille" and "The Simpsons Movie."

The 65th annual Golden Globes will be broadcast on January 12, 2008.