Golden Globes: Will the Stars Party Tonight?

George Clooney and other nominees say they'll find out about the awards like everyone else tonight – on TV

No dresses, no big parties – so what will this year's Golden Globes stars be doing Sunday night when the winner's are announced in a press conference?

"I'm going to eat a huge bowl of pasta," Allison Janney told PEOPLE at the BAFTA Awards Season Tea Party in Beverly Hills. "I don't have to worry about fitting into a gown tomorrow."

But the Juno actress, whose film is nominated for best motion picture comedy or musical, said she's not ruling out the possibility of spending the evening with her castmates. "We may get together ... and watch the press conference. And if something good happens we can all go out and spontaneously celebrate somewhere. We're going to just make it up as we go."

Equally low-key, George Clooney, a nominee for best actor in a movie drama for Michael Clayton, "will be watching Bonanza on color television," his rep, Stan Rosenfield, said in a statement.

With the writers' strike continuing, this year's Golden Globes will be presented by a panel of TV hosts and journalists, including Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart, The Insider's Lara Spencer, Jim Moret of Inside Edition, Juliana Rancic and CNN's Brooke Anderson. Before the telecast (9 p.m., ET), NBC will air a two-hour Dateline special featuring new interviews with nominated celebrities.

A Dressed Down Night

While the official afterparties have been canceled – and the celebrations curbed – many celebrities say they are reveling in their own ways – just minus all the gowns and glamour.

"I'm so glad I didn't have to worry about a dress," nominee Patricia Arquette told NBC News in a new interview. Instead, the Medium star joked she'd be happy to sit on her couch, in her sweats.

Same goes for The Office's Angela Kinsey, who is pregnant.

"I'm going to be home in my sweatpants," she told PEOPLE at the Boom Boom Room's Wonderland suite in Los Angeles. "Not as exciting as last year, but also good in a different way. I had a dress from A Pea in the Pod [picked out] ... but I'll just save it for the next thing."

Focus On the Strike

The politics of the event were on the forefront of Rumer Willis's mind – this year's Miss Golden Globe.

"You can wear a pretty dress any time," she told PEOPLE at Access Hollywood's "Stuff You Must ..." Gift Lounge in Los Angeles. Explained Willis: "It's more about supporting people, your peers, and the other people that are struggling right now."

Also affected by the writers' strike, the People's Choice Awards aired sans celebrities on Jan. 8, in a pretaped "newsmagazine" format hosted by Queen Latifah, and earned only 6 million viewers. Last year's ceremony drew in 11.3 million viewers – a drastic difference that many say illustrates the deleterious effect the two-month-old strike has had on the entertainment industry.

Among the films in competition for Golden Globes this year, Atonement leads the field with seven nominations. Other key nominees include its stars Keira Knightley and James McAvoy and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street's Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.