Stars preparing for Golden Globes

A host of stars will attend the Golden Globes in Los Angeles later, for what is expected to be the glitziest event so far in this year's awards season.

The event returns to a traditional format, having been called off and replaced by a news conference in 2008 owing to the Hollywood writers' strike.

Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas are among the British actors in line for honours.

The film and TV awards come from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

The Globes are often regarded as an indicator of the movies and actors who will go on to win honours at the Academy Awards on 22 February.

Unlike the Oscars or the Baftas, however, the ceremony has different categories for dramas and comedies.

Brad Pitt's fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is nominated in five film categories, as are the stage-play adaptations Doubt and Frost/Nixon.

Accolade

The Reader and Revolutionary Road - both starring Winslet - have four nominations each, as do Danny Boyle's drama Slumdog Millionaire and Woody Allen's comedy Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Boyle is one of three British film-makers to be nominated for best director, alongside The Reader's Stephen Daldry and Sam Mendes for Revolutionary Road.

Steven Spielberg is receiving a special prize for an "outstanding contribution"

British writers, meanwhile, make up three of the five best screenplay nominees, with Simon Beaufoy, Sir David Hare and Peter Morgan recognised for Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader and Frost/Nixon respectively.

House star Hugh Laurie, twice winner of the prize for best actor in a TV drama, is again shortlisted for the accolade.

Elsewhere, Dames Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins both receive nominations for their performances in BBC TV serial Cranford.

Pierce Brosnan, Sandra Bullock and High School Musical star Zac Efron are among the actors lined up to present awards at Sunday's ceremony.

And Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg will receive the Cecil B DeMille Award for his "outstanding contribution to the entertainment field".

On Friday, Golden Globe organisers apologised for a mistake on the awards website which suggested that Anne Hathaway had won the gong for best actress in a drama.

An asterisk appeared on the site next to Hathaway's name in a list of nominees.

A statement on the Golden Globes website said the actress had been "randomly marked as a winner" by mistake and it did not mean that she had won the award for her role in Rachel Getting Married.