BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The movie musical Chicago received a leading eight Golden Globe nominations yesterday, while the film version of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Hours got seven, and the comedy Adaptation had six.

Along with Chicago and Adaptation, a comedy of in-jokes about its writers' attempts to fashion its screenplay from the nonfiction book The Orchid Thief, movies competing for best musical or comedy were the Dickens classic Nicholas Nickleby, Hugh Grant's About a Boy and the surprise hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Besides The Hours - a story about three women whose lives are linked to Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway - the contenders for best film drama were the Jack Nicholson road-trip saga About Schmidt, director Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, the fantasy sequel The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Roman Polanski's The Pianist.

Nicolas Cage had a comedy actor bid for Adaptation, in which he plays screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother, Donald. A supporting actress mention went to Meryl Streep for the same film.

Streep received a second nomination, for The Hours, competing with co-star Nicole Kidman for best dramatic actress. Other nominees in that category: Salma Hayek for Frida, Diane Lane for Unfaithful and Julianne Moore for Far From Heaven.

Along with Nicholson, dramatic actor nominees were Daniel Day-Lewis in Gangs of New York, Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can, Michael Caine in The Quiet American and Adrien Brody in The Pianist.

Cage will face Grant from About a Boy, Kieran Culkin in Igby Goes Down, Richard Gere in Chicago and Adam Sandler in Punch-Drunk Love in the comedic or musical actor category.

Nominees for actress in a musical or comedy: Goldie Hawn in The Banger Sisters, Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary, Nia Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones in Chicago.

"The music and the show stands if it's on a black stage with no sets or design or costumes, but with all that addition it just makes for a beautiful visual," said Zeta-Jones, who plays the murderous Velma Kelly in the elaborate film rendition of Chicago.

Directing nominees were Scorsese for Gangs of New York, Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Stephen Daldry for The Hours, Spike Jonze for Adaptation, Rob Marshall for Chicago and Alexander Payne for About Schmidt.

Kathy Bates in About Schmidt, Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York, Queen Latifah in Chicago and Susan Sarandon in Igby Goes Down joined Streep in the supporting actress category.

Supporting actor nominees were Chris Cooper for Adaptation, Ed Harris for The Hours, Paul Newman for Road to Perdition, Dennis Quaid for Far From Heaven and John C. Reilly for Chicago.

In television, perennial award nominees The Sopranos and The West Wing competed again for best drama along with Six Feet Under, The Shield and 24. TV comedy nominees were The Simpsons, Will & Grace, Sex and the City, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Friends.

The awards, selected by the roughly 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, will be presented Jan. 19 during a live telecast on NBC.