Golden Globe awards: Octavia Spencer wins best supporting actress, Idris Elba wins for 'Luther'

BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) -- Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer and Octavia Spencer won acting honors at a Golden Globes show Sunday that was spreading Hollywood's love around among a broad range of films and TV shows.

British comedian Ricky Gervais, who has ruffled feathers at past shows with sharp wisecracks aimed at Hollywood's elite and the Globes show itself, returned as host for the third-straight year.
Williams won for actress in a musical or comedy as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn," 52 years after Monroe's win for the same prize at the Globes.

The supporting-acting Globes went to Plummer as an elderly widower who comes out as gay in the father-son drama "Beginners" and Spencer as a brassy housekeeper joining other black maids to share stories about life with their white employers in the 1960s Deep South tale "The Help."

"With regard to domestics in this country, now and then, I think Dr. King said it best: 'All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance.' And I thank you for recognizing that with our film," Spencer said.

Williams offered thanks for giving her the same award Monroe once won and joked that her young daughter put up with bedtime stories for six months spoken in Monroe's voice.

"I consider myself a mother first and an actress second, so the person I most want to thank is my daughter, my little girl, whose bravery and exuberance is the example I take with me in my work and my life," Williams said.

The black-and-white silent film "The Artist," which led the Globes with six nominations, won the musical-score prize for composer Ludovic Bource but lost out on best screenplay for director-writer Michel Hazanavicius.
Woody Allen won the screenplay honor for his romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris," the filmmaker's biggest hit in decades. Never a fan of movie awards, Allen was a no-show at the Globes, where he previously won the screenplay honor for 1985's "The Purple Rose of Cairo.

The wins boost Williams, Spencer and Plummer's prospects for slots at next month's Academy Awards, whose nominations come out Jan. 24.
The Oscars are an honor for which Monroe herself never was nominated, though she was a two-time nominee at the Globes and won for best actress in a musical or comedy for 1959's "Some Like It Hot."

In "My Week with Marilyn," Williams plays Monroe as an insecure performer struggling to establish herself as a genuine actress rather than a movie star sexpot just a couple of years before "Some Like It Hot." The film chronicles Monroe's contentious time shooting the 1957 romance "The Prince and the Showgirl" alongside exasperated director and co-star Laurence Olivier.
Like Monroe, Oscar consideration has been elusive for the 82-year-old Plummer, who has been nominated for Hollywood's top honor only once in his 60-year career -- two years ago, for the Leo Tolstoy drama "The Last Station."