Golden Globes 2012: 'The Descendants,' 'The Help,' 'Homeland' & more lead nominees

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced its nominees for the 2012 Golden Globe Awards, and films like "The Artist," "The Descendants" and "The Help" dominated the movie categories, while the TV categories nominated newbies like "Homeland," "New Girl" and "American Horror Story."

George Clooney cleaned up in the film categories, receiving an acting nod for "The Descendants" and both directing and writing nods for "The Ides of March." His "Ides" costar Ryan Gosling got a best actor nomination for that film, as well as a comedy nod for "Crazy Stupid Love." (Basically, with Clooney, Gosling, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt, Best Actor, Drama is the best-looking category of the night.)

On the actress side of things, Melissa McCarthy was snubbed for her scene-stealing performance in "Bridesmaids," although Kristen Wiig and the film both received nominations so we can't complain too much. Other films that cleaned up include "The Help" (Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis and a drama movie nomination) and "The Descendants" (Clooney, Shailene Woodley, drama movie, screenplay and director for Alexander Payne).

For TV, the acting categories weren't as surprising as the main categories for comedy and drama series. Comedy series nominees included stalwarts like "Glee" and "Modern Family," but three surprise new shows including "New Girl," "Episodes" and the critically reviled "Enlightened." Drama series included premium cable hits like "Boardwalk Empire," "Game of Thrones" and "Homeland," but also basic cable series "American Horror Story" and the lower-rated "Boss."

Both Damian Lewis and Claire Danes earned well-deserved nominations for their performances in "Homeland," and were joined by Steve Buscemi ("Boardwalk Empire"), Julianna Margulies ("The Good Wife") and Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad") holding court for the established drama series and Kelsey Grammer ("Boss"), Jeremy Irons ("The Borgias"), Madeline Stowe ("Revenge"), Mireille Enos ("The Killing") and Callie Thorne ("Necessary Rougness") representing the new shows in the category. (Thorne seems to have grabbed this year's Piper Perabo Memorial Slot reserved for USA drama shows.)

Alec Baldwin nabbed his sixth straight nomination for playing Jack Donaghy on "30 Rock." Considering he's won three of the past five years, he'll be stiff competition for fellow nominees David Duchovny ("Californication"), Johnny Galecki ("The Big Bang Theory"), Thomas Jane ("Hung") and Matt LeBlanc ("Episodes").

The HFPA also honored Tina Fey for "30 Rock," along with Amy Poehler for "Parks and Recreation," Laura Linney for "The Big C," and newbies Zooey Deschanel for "New Girl" and Laura Dern for "Enlightened."

The supporting actor and actress TV races were dominated by high-profile miniseries "Too Big to Fail," "Cinema Verite" and "Mildred Pierce" -- all three led the miniseries-only categories too, along with "The Hour" and "Downton Abbey" -- but HBO star Peter Dinklage got a nod for "Game of Thrones" and Eric Stonestreet's "Modern Family" nomination got a smile from presenter Sofia Vergara (who got a nod of her own).

Click here for the full list of movie nominees.

Click here for the full list of TV nominees.