Hooray for Bollywood!
Underdog hit “Slumdog Millionaire” was top dog at Hollywood’s Golden Globes last night, nabbing four top awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
With an unknown cast in a story set on the streets of Mumbai, India, the little-movie-that-could beat four star-heavy films that boasted Brad Pitt, Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.
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“Thanks ever so much,” Danny Boyle said as he collected his directing prize. “Your mad, pulsating affection for our film is much appreciated; really, deeply appreciated.”
Perhaps sensing the night would belong to their film, its handsome young stars even did a little Bollywood dance down the red carpet before the ceremony, just as they do over the film’s irresistible closing credits.
The film also took best original score in a movie.
Earlier, in a possible Oscar preview, the late Heath Ledger was awarded a posthumous Golden Globe for his blockbuster performance as the Joker in the Batman movie “The Dark Knight.”
Bringing a glittering crowd of box-office and small screen stars to its feet, the Supporting Actor award for the Australian star was accepted by the film’s director, Christopher Nolan.
“After Heath passed, you saw a hole ripped in the future of cinema,” Nolan said. “All of us who worked with Heath accept this with an awful mixture of sadness but incredible pride. He will be eternally missed, but he will never be forgotten.”
Only one actor has ever won a posthumous Oscar, Best Actor recipient Peter Finch for 1976’s “Network.”
A looser, more relaxed affair than the Oscars, the Globes are a televised dinner party where Hollywood’s elite share a meal and drinks, sometimes cutting loose with unexpected antics. This is the place where Jack Nicholson once mooned the crowd for a laugh.
But for viewers, the event is all about the red carpet, a glimpse of old-fashioned Tinseltown glitz – missing last year, when the writers’ strike kept stars away – and a much-needed break from the dour economy.
“Things are so bad that Charlie Sheen has been forced to have sex without paying for it,” cracked “Borat” star Sasha Baron Cohen. “Even Madonna’s been forced to let go of one of her assistants,” he added – referring to the Material Girl’s ex-husband Guy Ritchie.
A cool and beautiful Jennifer Lopez showed up with hubby Marc Anthony, just behind recent Broadway dropout Jeremy Piven – clearly over his mercury poisoning – looking fresh and tanned.
“I followed the doctor’s orders – forced rest,” he said.
Megan Fox, boasting a 22-inch waist, conceded that her nerves were getting to her.
“I feel like I want to vomit right now,” she admitted.
Anne Hathaway, stunning in a navy beaded dress, said that during her difficult last year with her ex-beau, Vatican fraudster Raffaello Follieri, she learned to “accept love and allow myself to be vulnerable.”
Angelina Jolie and Pitt, clearly too famous to be bothered, escaped the red-carpet interviews.
A bubble-gum popping Alec Baldwin of TV hit “30 Rock” – both he and the show were awarded statues – grabbed the microphone from E! network’s Ryan Seacrest and blurted out in a reference to a tabloid photo: “You were groping some woman!”
But there were somber moments as well.
Admitted sex addict and post-rehabbed David Duchovny said, “It’s hard to feel changed. You’ve got to do change. I hope people close to me and my loved ones feel the change.”
There were plenty of accolades to go around, and a few surprises.
Comeback bad boy Mickey Rourke won Best Actor for “The Wrestler,” and Winslet, who early in the gala won Best Supporting Actress, for “The Reader,” later scored Best Actress, for “Revolutionary Road.”
“It’s been a long road back for me,” Rourke said.
Brit comedian and actor Ricky Gervais, swilling beer from a glass, wickedly joked that he’d advised Winslet that if she took on a Holocaust movie, “the awards will come in.”
Sure enough, she “The Reader” has a Holocaust theme.
Three pictures expected to be nominated for this year’s Best Picture Oscar – “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Milk” and “Frost/Nixon” – failed to win a single Golden Globe last night, while another probable nominee, “The Dark Knight,” was nominated only for Ledger’s winning performance.
Most experts say that following the traditional pattern, most of this year’s Oscar-nomination ballots were sent in well in advance of the Golden Globes so as not to be influenced by them. With Post Wire Services
lou.lumenick@nypost.com