Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie tipped to take home Golden Globes

NICOLE Kidman and Margot Robbie are hot favourites to take home Golden Globes in Los Angeles, as Hollywood’s sex scandal fallout is expected to dominate the awards.

Nicole Kidman will be front and centre at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles. Picture: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

THE usual Golden Globes glamour and spectacle will be usurped by Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie and Hollywood’s other elite actresses when they mount a campaign against sexual abuse and harassment at the award ceremony.

The actresses are expected to wear black gowns on Sunday (Monday AEDT) in Los Angeles in response to scandals involving super producer Harvey Weinstein and numerous other high profile men.

“I think it is so important right now we are all together and we are helping each other, can make change happen and make this a safe world for all of us,” Kidman said ahead of the Globes ceremony at the Beverly Hilton hotel.

Hugh Jackman, with Nicole Kidman, could also take home a Globe for his performance in The Greatest Showman. Picture: Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

Kidman and Robbie are strong chances to win Globes, providing a huge platform to address harassment in their acceptance speeches.

Kidman is expected to repeat last year’s double Emmy win with two Globes for starring in and producing the TV miniseries, Big Little Lies. The Sydney-raised actress played a physically, sexually and psychologically abused mother in the series.

Robbie’s Oscar hopes for her role as US Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, could rest with a win at the Globes.

The Globes split acting categories in two, with Robbie in the comedy-musical actress category.

Saorise Ronan (Lady Bird) is considered Robbie’s biggest threat. A win for Robbie will boost her chances of snaring an Academy Award nomination later this month, while avoiding Oscar frontrunners in the Globes’ talent packed drama actress category: Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Frances McDormand (Three Billboards), Meryl Streep (The Post), Michelle Williams (All of the Money in the World) and Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game).

Margot Robbie is up for a Golden Globe for I, Tonya. Picture: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for ELLE

Robbie could also score a double win as a producer for I, Tonya, a nominee for best comedy-musical.

The Globes offer a similar Oscar boost opportunity for Hugh Jackman with his Globe nomination in the comedy/musical actor category for playing PT Barnum in The Greatest Showman.

Frances McDormand has been praised for her performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Picture: Supplied

Meryl Streep plays revered Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham in The Post. Picture: Supplied

He does not have to compete in the loaded dramatic actor category led by Oscar frontrunner Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) and including Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread), Tom Hanks (The Post), Timothee Chalamet (Call Me By Your Name) and Denzel Washington (Roman J Israel, Esq).

Nicole Kidman’s performance as an abused wife in Big, Little Lies was stunning. Picture: Supplied

Jackman’s biggest threat is James Franco for The Disaster Artist. Australian Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush is also nominated for a Globe for best actor in a limited TV series for playing Albert Einstein in Genius.

Perth 21-year-old Katherine Langford’s star continues to rise with her nomination for best performance by an actress in a TV series for the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why.

Australian actress Katherine Langford, with 13 Reasons Why costar Dylan Minnette is up for her first Golden Globe award. Picture: AFP/Mark Ralston

But all of the attention will be on Hollywood’s actresses and what they will — or won’t say — on the night.

Even former host Ricky Gervais has acknowledged the awards will have an awkward tone.

“If I were hosting the Golden Globes this weekend, I wouldn’t be brave enough to do the joke I’ve just thought of,” Gervais said.

Hosting duties will fall instead to a Globes rookie: late-night host Seth Meyers. He will have his hands full trying to match last year’s broadcast, hosted by Jimmy Fallon. It was watched by 20 million viewers, an eight per cent increase.

“We don’t want this night to be a session where we’re just scolding everything that happened because it is really important for us to remember that great movies came out of this year,” Meyers told The Associated Press last week. “A lot of people, we’re realising, worked really hard in environments that were not that conducive to working really hard. So the goal is to have people have a wonderful night and an enjoyable party in a year which everyone deserves it.”

Margot Robbie has earned rave reviews for her performance as disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya. Picture: Neon via AP

Last year’s broadcast also roped in one notable viewer: then President-elect Donald Trump. He was critical of Meryl Streep after the actress’s forceful political acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award. This year, the honour will go to Oprah Winfrey.

Originally published as Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie tipped to take home Golden Globes