Claire Danes, "Homeland"

Julianna Margulies, "The Good Wife"

 

Elizabeth McGovern, "Downton Abbey"

Michelle Dockery, "Downton Abbey"

Hayden Panettiere, "Nashville"

Jessica Pare, "Mad Men"

Glenn Close, "Damages"

Elisabeth Moss, "Mad Men"

Connie Britton, "Nashville"

Katey Sagal, "Sons of Anarchy"

 

Emily Mortimer, "The Newsroom"

Callie Thorne, "Necessary Roughness"

Madeleine Stowe, "Revenge"

Mareille Enos, "The Killing"

Kyra Sedgwick, "The Closer"

Piper Perabo, "Covert Affairs"

 

Lowdown: This category is begging for weirdness. After the two locks, it's really an "Anything can happen" field. I think the two "Downton Abbey" leading ladies are very likely to be nominated, but from there? I think Hayden Panettiere and Jessica Pare seem like the sort of actresses Globe voters like and they'll look pretty on the red carpet, even if both actresses have co-stars who have earned more acclaim. And as a foreign actress in a popular HBO series, Emily Mortimer may be ready for her Globes close-up as well. This is a category that has seen nominations for people like Piper Perabo and Callie Thorne in recent years, so there's almost no point in guessing. They could literally nominate ANYBODY.