With her double Golden Globe nominations for lead actress in drama ("Doubt") and musical/comedy ("Mamma Mia!"), Meryl Streep is now the all-time Golden Globe champ with 23 nominations.

Going into this year's Golden Globe race, Streep was one nom behind Jack Lemmon who amassed 22 lead nods and 4 wins (movie drama — 0/6; movie comedy - 3/10; and TV movie/mini — 1/6) over 40 years beginning in 1960. In her three decades of collecting awards hardware, Streep has won six Globes out of 21 previous bids. That winning record ties her with her pal Jack Nicholson. While all of Nicholson's Globes are for movies (3 drama actor, 2 comedy actor, and 1 supporting actor), one of Streep's wins was for a small screen role — lead actress in a TV movie or mini ("Angels in America," 2004).

From her 19 previous movie nods, Streep has won five Golden Globes –- for her Oscar-winning roles in "Kramer vs. Kramer" (supporting, 1979) and "Sophie's Choice" (lead drama, 1982) as well as "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (lead drama, 1981), "Adaptation" (supporting, 2002), and "The Devil Wears Prada" (lead musical/comedy, 2006).

Streep is also the all-time Oscar nominee champ with 14 bids beginning back in 1978 for "The Deer Hunter." Her Oscar nominations parallel those of her Globe nods with the exception of her lead actress Oscar nod in 1987 for "Ironweed." It is more than a quarter century since Streep won the second of her two Oscars. However, Streep can take heart in the Oscar history of four-time winner Katharine Hepburn.

As three of Streep's Oscar nominations came in the supporting category, she sits one back of Hepburn in the lead actress race. Hepburn won her first Oscar race –- for "Morning Glory" in 1933 –- and then lost her next eight bids. It was not until she was sixty that Hepburn won her second Academy Award ("Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," 1967). She won again the following year ("The Lion in Winter") and capped off her movie career with a win in 1981 for "On Golden Pond." Not surprisingly, the press-averse Hepburn lost all seven of her movie Golden Globe nods as well as her one TV bid.

Photo: NBC

Meryl Streep may have more Academy Award nominations than any other performer — 14 and counting — but it is more than a quarter century since she won the second of her two Oscars for the lead role in 1982's "Sophie's Choice." "Mamma Mia" may earn her a record seventh Golden Globe and her first Grammy Award.

The soundtrack to the frothy ABBA musical just hit No. 1. And Meryl Streep and company could find themselves competing next February at the Grammys thanks to the continued success of "Mamma Mia!" The category is quite a mouthful: best compilation soundtrack album for motion picture, television or other visual media. Last year The Beatles won the award for the use of their music in the Cirque du Soleil production "Love." Two years ago, best actor nominee Joaquin Phoenix was among the winners for his work on the "Walk the Line" soundtrack, and the previous year saw best picture nominee "Ray" take this prize.

If Streep can win the Grammy for "Mamma Mia!" all she will need is a Tony Award to complete the grand slam of show biz awards. That top theater prize was the first major kudo she competed for in 1976. Nominated for only her second Broadway appearance — in a pair of one-acts by theater veterans Tennessee Williams ("27 Wagons Full of Cotton") and Arthur Miller ("A Memory of Two Mondays") — she lost to Shirley Knight for her work in "Kennedy's Children."

Streep appeared on Broadway five times in less than two years from fall 1975 to summer 1977 but has been absent ever since. Her recent celebrated stage appearances in Chekhov's "The Seagull" and Brecht's "Mother Courage" were at an open-air theater in New York's Central Park, close to Broadway but Tony ineligible nonetheless. Were she to return to the rialto in the right vehicle, she would surely be a strong favorite to win.

Mark Malkin of E! Online reports that Lauren Conrad, star of the hit MTV reality series "The Hills," will be a double presence at next month's Emmy Awards — both as a presenter and as designer of the dresses worn by the trophy girls (see The Envelope story here). Malkin says that Oprah Winfrey will open the diamond anniversary edition of the awardsfest before the five reality show host nominees take over emceeing duties.

Meryl Streep is thisclose to signing to play the lead in a new romantic comedy from writer-director Nancy Meyers, says Variety. Streep would be in a romantic triangle with two men, shades of "Something's Gotta Give," the 2003 laffer from Meyers that earned Diane Keaton a Golden Globe nom as well as an Oscar bid. Streep, who is a likely Golden Globe nominee this year for best actress (musical/comedy) for "Mamma Mia!" (and may pick up a nod for her upcoming dramatic turn in "Doubt"), could also figure in that race next year and now, it seems, in 2010. In the spring, Streep stars as the indomitable Julia Child opposite her "Doubt" costar Amy Adams in Nora Ephron's adaptation of the best-selling memoir "Julie and Julia." Streep's association with Ephron dates to 1983 when she starred in "Silkwood," a film that earned them both Oscar nods.

Mark Wahlberg tells the New York Post that he will be appearing on "Entourage" during the upcoming fifth season of the HBO hit comedy series. The Oscar-nominated Wahlberg ("The Departed"), who earned an Emmy nod last year for exec-producing the laffer, says he enjoyed acting opposite two-time Emmy winner and current supporting-actor nominee Jeremy Piven: "I did one other cameo in the pilot but I didn't get to do a scene with Jeremy Piven. This time it's me and Piven going at it, so it was fun."

Scott Bowles of USA Today offers a sneak peek at "The Road," the upcoming screen version of Cormac McCarthy's 2007 Pulitzer Prize winning novel about a father (Viggo Mortenson) struggling to save his son (Kodi Smit-McPhee) after an unnamed catastrophe. Australian director John Hillcoat ("The Proposition") talks of his decision to rely on real world settings rather than computer-generated ones. "We didn't want to go the CGI world. We wanted the heightened reality in the book." Hopes are high for this November release, especially given the success of "No Country for Old Men," the 2007 Oscar-winning adaptation of McCarthy's 2005 best-seller.

Variety reports: "South Korea has selected helmer Kim Tae-gyun's 'Crossing' ('Keurosing'), a drama about a North Korean defector, as its candidate for foreign language Oscar. But the choice has already caused controversy." READ MORE

Though "Mamma Mia!" may not have impressed all of the critics, audiences worldwide are flocking to this celebration of the music of ABBA starring Meryl Streep. Last weekend, amid all the hubbub about "The Dark Knight," this frothy film set a record of its own. Its domestic gross of $27.7 million edged out "Hairspray" by $200,000 to become the movie musical with the highest-grossing opening weekend ever. And in its first two weeks of international release, "Mamma Mia!" has made an additional eye-popping $72.6 million.

Proving she can indeed do it all, star Meryl Streep is the clear favorite to win a record seventh Golden Globe, says Paul Sheehan, my colleague here at The Envelope. A certifiable Broadway and kudos nut, Paul reminds us all that Streep is even more beloved at the Globes than she is at the Oscars. In her three decades of collecting awards hardware, she has won six Globes out of 21 nods for film and TV work versus only two Oscars from her record 14 Academy Award nominations. That impressive track record with the Globes puts her only one nom behind Jack Lemmon and tied for wins with her pal Jack Nicholson. Granted, one of her wins was for a TV appearance ("Angels in America"), but she also has Globes for her Oscar-winning roles in "Kramer vs. Kramer" (supporting) and "Sophie's Choice" (lead drama) as well as "The French Lieutenant's Woman" (lead drama), "Adaptation" (supporting), and "The Devil Wears Prada" (lead musical/comedy).

By rewarding lead performances in both drama and musical/comedy, the Globes need double Oscar's number of nominees. While Meryl Streep got an Oscar nod in addition to that Golden Globe win for her marvelously over-the-top 2006 role in "The Devil Wears Prada," as well as duplicate noms for singing the blues in "Postcards From the Edge" back in 1990, the Globes have also singularly recognized her flair for comedy with nods for "She-Devil" (1989) and "Death Becomes Her" (1992). In "Mamma Mia!" Streep shows she is a triple threat, playing a beleaguered mother, unsure of her daughter's paternity, confronted with the three possible fathers on the eve of the young girl's wedding. She gets to take a pratfall or two, kick up her heels and break our hearts when she sings of her turmoil.

And though she is sure to be a musical/comedy nominee this year, Streep could well be in contention on the drama side too as she stars in the upcoming "Doubt," the film version of the 2005 Tony Award-winning best play. In the role that won Cherry Jones her second Tony Award, Streep is unrecognizable as a nun who accuses a priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of molesting a boy.

He's no lock like "Mamma Mia!" costar Meryl Streep, but leading man Pierce Brosnan might get a nomination for best actor in a musical or comedy too. Though his warbling may not always be in tune, Brosnan hit the right notes with Globe voters in 2005 when he got a musical/comedy nod for the little-seen film "The Matador." And Globe voters may well want to reward him again for once more playing with his usual suave image in "Mamma Mia!" The big issue Brosnan faces is category placement. If he goes supporting he has less chance of being nominated because competition is fierce: The supporting acting categories combine dramas and musicals/comedies. Dramas usually dominate. He's probably better off shooting for lead, because the Globes sometimes have trouble filling out those five slots for musical/comedy chaps.

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Before weighing the award prospects of the film adaptation of "Mamma Mia" starring Meryl Streep, let's look back at how "Mamma Mia!" fared as a stage production competing at the Tonys.

"Mamma Mia!" premiered at the Winter Garden Theatre in October 2001 and has remained open since then, often playing to SRO. At the 2002 Tony Awards it reaped five nominations: best musical, lead actress (Louise Pitre), featured actress (Judy Kaye), orchestrations and book of a musical.

It never had a prayer to win best musical. On one hand it wasn't considered seriously as art, since it was flimsily constructed using pre-existing ABBA songs. Secondly, it wasn't nominated for best director, which is usually a requirement of a best-musical winner even if its helmer loses.

"Mamma Mia's" nominations were clearly just Tonys' acknowledgment of a huge Broadway hit that was destined to become a successful touring show too. Thus "Mamma Mia" lost all five of its bids to a show that was considered to have more substance, although, frankly, not that much more. Pitre bowed to Sutton Foster and Kaye to Harriet Harris, both stars of "Thoroughly Modern Millie," which claimed the prize for best musical.

But, alas, even if Tony didn't adore "Mamma Mia!" average Joes and Janes still do. After nearly 2,800 performances, it's still running all these years later, unlike any of its three rivals for best musical: "Sweet Smell of Success," "Urinetown" and, of course, "Millie." Even with a half dozen Tonys, "Millie" managed to run only two years and spawned only one national tour while the stage version of "Mamma Mia!" has played the world, grossing over $2 billion to date.

(Photos: Winter Garden, Marquis Theater)