For Kate Winslet - New York resident, perennial Oscar nominee and the very model of a modern major movie star - the road to her own Oscar revolution may begin at Sunday's 66th annual Golden Globe Awards.
The show can be seen live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills beginning at 8 p.m. on NBC.
Winslet, who at 33 is the youngest actress to have racked up five Academy Award nominations, is a likely Globe winner for either Best Actress in a Drama for "Revolutionary Road" or Best Supporting Actress for "The Reader." A triumph for her in either category could be repeated when this year's Oscars are handed out Feb. 22.
Oscar nominations will be announced Jan. 22.
Winslet goes into the evening with five unwon Globe nominations as well. Her competitors Sunday - who include Angelina Jolie ("Changeling"), Meryl Streep ("Doubt"), Anne Hathaway ("Rachel Getting Married"), Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") and Marisa Tomei ("The Wrestler") - should be prepared to slip their speeches back into their purses.
But the English actress, married to her "Revolutionary Road" director Sam Mendes and mother of two kids (her and Mendes' son, Joe, is 5; Mia, her daughter with British filmmaker Jim Threapleton, is 8), considers being a New York mom her most important role. She's frequently spotted dropping her kids at school and bopping around her Chelsea neighborhood when not on film sets.
The family also has a residence in the British countryside.
"We divide our time, and it's great," Winslet told the Daily News.
"I think it also helps the kids just be regular kids. The other thing that's important to us is that the kids know that Sam and I do what we do because we love it and it's hard work. It's not just a glamorous thing."
Mendes, an Oscar winner for "American Beauty," is currently directing "The Cherry Orchard" and "The Winter's Tale" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of the Bridge Project, a collaboration with London's Old Vic theater. He and Winslet, together since 2001, bought their loft in the city in 2004.
"It's very possible in New York to be yourself, free of all judgment," Winslet told The News. "That's one of the great things about the city - you are who you are, and people are very accepting."
Winslet's previous Oscar and Globe nominations - Supporting Actress nods for "Sense and Sensibility" (1995) and "Iris" (2001) and Best Actress for "Titanic" (1997), "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004) and "Little Children" (2006) - certainly haven't gone to her head, but she's honest enough to speak from her heart.
"I think having gone through award season so many times and not winning, I'm very good at losing and enjoying it," she joked at the "Revolutionary Road" premiere last month.
But of her Oscar chances this year, Winslet did tell a British magazine, "I want to win. ... I'm not denying that. I don't want to be sitting there with a fixed grin on my face while someone else wins."
