'Chicago,' 'Gangs of New York' lead nominees for 75th Oscars

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- "Chicago," the musical adapted from the stage hit about two murderous women competing for tabloid celebrity, led Academy Award contenders Tuesday with 13 nominations, including best picture.\nOther best-picture nominees for the 75th annual Oscars were "Gangs of New York," "The Hours," "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and "The Pianist."\nBesides best picture, "Chicago" scored nominations for lead actress Renee Zellweger, supporting actresses Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones and supporting actor John C. Reilly.\nZellweger plays a stage wannabe jailed for killing her lover. Zeta-Jones co-stars as her conniving jailhouse rival. Queen Latifah plays an opportunistic warden, and Reilly is Zellweger's cuckolded husband. Richard Gere, who had done well in earlier film honors, was snubbed in the lead actor category for "Chicago."\n"Chicago" director Rob Marshall also earned a nomination.\nJulianne Moore earned two acting nominations: best actress for "Far From Heaven," as a woman whose marriage disintegrates after her husband begins an affair with another man, and supporting actress as a despondent housewife in "The Hours."\nMoore said she was "absolutely stunned" to receive two nominations. She plays a 1950s housewife in both films.\n"They're wildly diverse characters. The fact that both happened to be placed in the 1950s, I didn't even think about that when we filmed them. Except that I didn't want my hairdos to be the same," said Moore, who covered her trademark red hair with a blonde wig in "Far From Heaven."\nAlong with Moore and Zellweger, best actress nominees were Salma Hayek as Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo in "Frida"; Nicole Kidman as author Virginia Woolf in "The Hours"; and Diane Lane as an adulterous wife in "Unfaithful."\nMeryl Streep was shut out for a best-actress nomination in "The Hours" but did earn a supporting-actress nomination for the twisted Hollywood tale "Adaptation."\nStreep's nomination puts her in the record books as most-nominated actor ever. She had been tied with Katharine Hepburn at 12 nominations each; Streep now has 13.\nBest-actor nominees were Adrien Brody as a Jewish musician hiding out in Nazi-occupied Poland in "The Pianist"; Nicolas Cage in dual roles as a neurotic screenwriter and his oafish twin brother in "Adaptation"; Michael Caine as a British journalist in the 1950s Vietnam tale "The Quiet American"; Daniel Day-Lewis as a ruthlessly charming crime boss in the 1860s vengeance epic "Gangs of New York"; and Jack Nicholson as a widower examining his dreary life in "About Schmidt."\nCaine started a personal crusade to ensure "The Quiet American" was released in theaters amid fears it would go straight to video because it critiques American intervention overseas.\n"It's been a long, long journey," Caine said. "I just wanted to see whether I could get a nomination. And I've got one, I'm happy now and my work is done."\nAs for winning, two-time Oscar winner Caine said he would "hold out hope" despite daunting competition. All of his fellow contenders, except Brody, are also previous winners.\n"I get the difficult year, don't I?" he said.\nIt was the 12th nomination for three-time Oscar winner Nicholson, padding his record as most-nominated male actor ever. A fourth win for Nicholson would tie Hepburn's record of four acting Oscars.\n"Gangs of New York" trailed "Chicago" with 10 nominations, including for director Martin Scorsese. "The Hours" was next with nine nominations, among them a supporting actor honor for Ed Harris as a writer dying of AIDS and best director for Stephen Daldry.\nKidman, also nominated last year for "Moulin Rouge," previously had not been a Woolf fan but became absorbed with the British author's works while researching "The Hours." The part required Kidman to wear a prosthetic nose to approximate Woolf's rather plain features.\n"In some ways, I feel just privileged to actually have had the chance to play her and had the opportunity to step into her skin," Kidman said by telephone from England, where "The Hours" had its London premiere Monday night. "For it to be rewarded this way, it's kind of what you dream of."\n"The Lord of the Rings" franchise, whose first installment, "The Fellowship of the Ring," grabbed a leading 13 nominations last year, this time received just six. Other than best picture, the nominations for "Two Towers" all were in technical categories such as film editing and visual effects while director Peter Jackson, a nominee last year, was shut out this time.\nA surprise directing nominee was Pedro Almodovar for the Spanish-language movie "Talk to Her." Almodovar also earned an original screenplay nomination. His film was ineligible for the foreign language category since host country Spain submitted another movie for academy consideration.\nThe other best director nominee was Roman Polanski for "The Pianist." Polanski is a fugitive from the United States for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.\n"Chicago" followed "Moulin Rouge" as the second-straight live-action musical to score a best-picture nomination after a 22-year drought for the genre. The animated musical "Beauty and the Beast" was nominated for best picture in 1991. Considered one of the front-runners, "Chicago" could become the first musical to win the top Oscar since 1968's "Oliver!"\n"Spider-Man," 2002's top-grossing movie, earned just two nominations, for sound and visual effects.\nAlong with Harris and Reilly, supporting actor nominees were Chris Cooper as a guerrilla horticulturist in "Adaptation"; Paul Newman as a Depression-era crime boss in "Road to Perdition"; and Christopher Walken as a con man's father in "Catch Me If You Can."\nThe other supporting actress nominee was Kathy Bates as Nicholson's bawdy new in-law Roberta in "About Schmidt."\n"Roberta is such an out-there character, she's so full of life and I think that's probably what people respond to," Bates said. "When he comes into that house and realizes that these are to be his new in-laws, it's a pretty daunting moment for his character."\nCharlie Kaufman, a previous screenwriting nominee for "Being John Malkovich," scored a first of sorts. He was nominated for adapted screenplay for "Adaptation," along with fictional twin brother Donald, who shares the writing credit.\nIt was the first nomination ever for a fictional entity. In the past, filmmakers have received nominations under assumed names, such as Joel and Ethan Coen as "Roderick Jaynes," their film-editing pseudonym, or Robert Towne, who shared a screenwriting nomination for 1984's "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes" under the name of his sheepdog, P.H. Vazak.\nAcademy officials say if "Adaptation" wins, only one Oscar will be awarded, for Charlie Kaufman.\nHired to adapt Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief," Kaufman struggled with the script, then whimsically wrote an incarnation of himself and a nonexistent twin into the story. Cage plays both characters.\nAmong nominees for original screenplay was last year's surprise blockbuster, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," written by its star, Nia Vardalos.\nNominees in most categories are chosen by specific branches of the 5,800-member Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, such as actors, directors and writers.\nAll academy members are allowed to vote for best-picture nominees. The full academy also is eligible to vote in all categories for the awards themselves.\nABC will broadcast the Oscar ceremony March 23 live from Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.