Globes awards recipients share reactions

Most of the evening's Golden Globe winners were at hotels when their names were announced -- just not at the Beverly Hilton.

"Atonement" producer Paul Webster watched the announcement with director Joe Wright, thesps James McAvoy and Saoirse Ronan and other crew members in a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont in Beverly Hills, glasses of champagne at the ready.

"We were lucky enough to be able to pop the cork," said Webster, who added that he didn't feel cheated because "everyone's been treated the same. Somehow you find a way to celebrate when the good news comes out."

So, should this truncated ceremony be adopted by the Globes in the future?

"Absolutely not," he admitted. "I think it's a one-off, and it should be treated as such."

"Mad Men" thesp Jon Hamm was also at the Chateau Marmont with cast and crew when he won the drama actor trophy and the AMC skein was named best drama series.

"We all sort of collectively freaked out at both of those announcements. It was mind-blowing," he said. "We're all here on the balcony, watching the sun set over Sunset Boulevard -- there's nothing better than that. It was, and is, a beautiful night."

His feelings were shared by musical/comedy actress winner Marion Cotillard, who watched the press conference with "La Vie en rose" helmer Olivier Dahan at the Four Seasons Hotel in BevHills.

"I'm enjoying so much what's going on here, I can't be disappointed in any way," Cotillard said.

For "Sweeney Todd" producer Richard Zanuck, watching at his son's home in Beverly Hills was "a whole different experience" from the usual kudofest fanfare.

"I'm absolutely thrilled. I'm here with my grandchildren -- they're very small, they had no idea what was going on," he said. "I must say, it's a wonderful thing to be seated at a table and all the suspense of that. All that was nonexistent (tonight), but it doesn't take away from the honor."

Plus, "it's nice not to be in a tuxedo," Zanuck said.

"Ratatouille" director Brad Bird had just returned to his Bay Area home from Los Angeles and was busy fumbling with the TV when the awards were announced.

"Producer Brad Lewis couldn't find the show, either," Bird said. "And then I told him they were announcing us as winners. … We kind of said congratulations to each other, and see you tomorrow."

No one was close enough at hand to congratulate "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" helmer Julian Schnabel, who, on top of winning Globes for director and foreign-language film, took the honors for most unusual place to receive an award -- the baggage claim at John F. Kennedy Intl. Airport.

"It was a very unique experience," Schnabel said. "I gotta tell you, I don't feel lonely right now. I'm gonna go home and have a nice, quiet meal, and it's not a bad thing."

Along the same lines, "It's wonderful to be able to accept an award while taking a bath," said David Duchovny, who won comedy actor for Showtime's "Californication." "I hope it's not the last time I get to do that."

Duchovny said he didn't miss the awards-show hoopla.

"That doesn't matter to me at all," he said. "For me, the sadness of this is not the cancellation of an awards showbut it's endemic of the strike in general. There is a work stoppage going on. People are getting laid off, people are losing houses -- this is all what it's all about. It's not about somebody like me who's really lucky, getting up there saying how lucky they are."

Glenn Close, who won the actress Globe for her turn in FX's rookie skein "Damages," said that while it was great to watch the announcement with cast and crew at the Brass Monkey Bar in New York's Meatpacking District, she did miss the publicity.

"We're a new show, and it would've been great to have that exposure," she said.

"Longford" director Tom Hooper was in his Santa Monica hotel room, watching the supporting actress nominees being read off when scribe Peter Morgan text-messaged him from London that Samantha Morton had won.

"How on earth do you know before me?" Hooper recalls wondering, before it dawned on him that more than one news outlet was covering the event. "Maybe next year, they could open envelopes in the room, but text people that they've won beforehand. It takes the stress out."