Hello everybody, and welcome to my first blog of 2008. And we start with, of course, Hollywood's party of the year...or what's left of it.

The 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards were held tonight at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, but in a completely different manner from what we usually expect. Because of the continuing writers' strike, the whole show was stripped down into a 32-minute long news conference with reporters from almost all the major entertainment news shows announcing the winners. That's pretty unusual, because last year at this time, they were covering the awards from top to bottom; this year, they're on stage at the International Ballroom presenting the awards.

"Atonement" was the big winner in Motion Picture-Drama, while "Sweeney Todd" received the Comedy/Musical honor as well as Johnny Depp for Best Actor. "Ratatouille" received Animated Feature Film, while "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" picked up Director and Foreign Language Film. Supporting Acting went to Javier Bardem ("No Country for Old Men") and Cate Blanchett ("I'm Not There"), while the Drama awards went to Daniel Day-Lewis ("There Will Be Blood") and Julie Christie ("Away From Her").

On the television side, "Mad Men" and "Extras" claimed the Drama and Comedy/Musical prizes respectively, while "Longford" got Mini-Series/Movie. In acting, Tina Fey ("30 Rock") and David Duchovny ("Californication") won for comedy, while Jon Hamm ("Mad Men") and Glenn Close ("Damages") did the same for drama, as did Jim Broadbent ("Longford") and Queen Latifah ("Life Support") on the Mini-Series/Movie front.

Steven Spielberg was supposed to be presented with the Cecil B. DeMille Award, but they're saving that for next year.

Now like I said, we were not used to this before: a major awards show being nothing but a news conference. But as the strike continues, it might pose a threat to the 80th Annual Academy Awards coming up on February 24 as it might be dwindled down to what we've seen at this year's Globes. And what about the 50th Grammy Awards also next month? That's unlikely to be in question as the booking for presenters and performers don't get underway till a couple weeks before.

And a very slimmed-down Golden Globes also meant no stars working it on the red carpet. But don't worry; the Screen Actors Guild Awards two weeks from tonight may prove to be the ultimate make-up for what we've missed out.

With your usual recap on a very subdued Golden Globe Awards...so long and stay strong.