'Lincoln' hospice fundraiser courtesy of Spielberg and Day-Lewis

Fresh from his victory at the Golden Globes last Sunday, Wicklow-based actor Daniel Day-Lewis will fly into Dublin for the European premiere of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln at the Savoy Cinema this Sunday.

Spielberg and Sally Field, Day-Lewis’s co-star, will also be at the event, which benefits the Wicklow Hospice Foundation.

After the screening the actor is to host a “Lincoln Ball” at the Burlington Hotel, during which props and memorabilia from the film will be auctioned to raise funds for a new hospice.

Personal favour

In an unusual move, Spielberg made the items available as a personal favour to Day-Lewis.

Day-Lewis, who plays Abraham Lincoln, is odds-on favourite to win the best-actor Oscar in February and become the first man to win three such awards.

There were, however, surprises elsewhere at the Golden Globes ceremony. Just three days after underperforming at the Oscar nominations, Ben Affleck’s Argo and Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables bounced back to take the prizes for, respectively, best dramatic picture and best comedy or musical. Affleck took home best director for his thriller about the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. Hugh Jackman grabbed best actor (comedy or musical) for his lead performance in Hooper’s adaptation of the hit stage show.

Sewn up

When, last Thursday, neither Affleck nor Hooper received an Oscar nomination for best director, many concluded that their films had no chance of winning the best picture gong.

Voted for by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, a small body of entertainment journalists, the Globes have a patchy record of predicting best film at the Oscars. Over the past eight years, only two films have won at both awards. No movie since Driving Miss Daisy in 1989 has won best picture at the Academy Awards without being nominated for best director. Spielberg and Day-Lewis can, thus, travel to Dublin safe in the knowledge that the Oscars are still theirs to lose.