The Golden Globes nominations were announced this morning and Colin Firth's period piece about the difficulties of stuttering led the way as "The King's Speech" earned seven nominations, with "The Fighter" and "The Social Network" close behind at six apiece.

Those movies were joined by "Inception" and "Black Swan" in the Best Motion Picture category, with each of the five films also receiving  a Best Director nomination as well as a Best Actor or Best Actress nod -- with the notable exception of Leonardo DiCaprio, who was left out for "Inception."

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day was the total shut-out for "True Grit," the highly anticipated western from the Coen Brothers; despite widely acclaimed turns by award favorites Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon, the film failed to earn even a single nomination just a day after scoring 11 nods from the Critics' Choice Awards.

The movie that benefited the most from "True Grit's" absence was Mark Wahlberg's boxing biopic "The Fighter," which, in addition to the  nominations for Best Motion Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Wahlberg also received nods for Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale) and Best Supporting Actress (both Amy Adams and Melissa Leo).

Other than "True Grit," the rest of the early award season favorites cemented their position. The Golden Globes format, however, which segregates movies into strict categories including Drama, Comedy/Musical and Animation, means that films like "Toy Story 3" were inevitably shut out of the major awards in favor of their specific niche.

That division also led to some other anomalies which will make handicapping the Oscar race more difficult rather than less difficult. Annette Bening, for instance, is expected to vie head-to-head with Natalie Portman for Best Actress at the Academy Awards, but since their movies were assigned different categories -- Bening's "The Kids Are All Right" was deemed a Comedy while Portman's "Black Swan" was ruled a Drama -- they won't be competing with each other at the Golden Globes.

But benefiting the most from the somewhat arbitrary classifications from the Hollywood Foreign Press was "The Tourist." Despite lukewarm reviews and tepid box office performance, the film earned a Best Actress nomination for Angelina Jolie, a Best Actor nomination for Johnny Depp and a Best Motion Picture nomination as well -- all because the movie was deemed a Comedy by the powers that be. An unintentional comedy, to be sure.

Other notable highlights form the Golden Globe nominations:

• Emma Stone earned her first Golden Globe nomination, getting a nod for Best Actress in a Comdey or Musical category for "Easy A."

• Johnny Depp will be competing against himself in the Best Actor in a Comedy category; besides "The Tourist," he was also nominated for "Alice in Wonderland."

• "RED," the comic book ensemble flick about geriatric spies coming out of retirement, scored a nomination in the Best Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical category. We didn't see that one coming!

• Both Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams earned nominations in their respective acting categories for their roles in the controversial relationship drama "Blue Valentine;" they previously each earned a nod from the Critics' Choice Awards as well.

• James Franco landed a Best Actor nomination for sawing his own arm off in "127 Hours."

• And finally, Justin Timberlake, who has been publicly campaigning for a best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in "The Social Network," was shut out again while his co-stars Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield both earned nods. Bringing sexy back just doesn't mean as much as it once did.

The Golden Globes will air live on NBC on Sunday, January 16 at 8PM EST.