Ledger to be honoured at SAGs
Star power makes a welcome return on Sunday as the Screen Actors
Guild hands out its annual awards in the glitziest ceremony of a
season clouded by a bitter industry strike.
Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe are
among the celebrities expected on the red carpet at the Shrine
auditorium in Los Angeles in the only awards show so far this year
that resembles traditional Hollywood glamour.
Forecasts of heavy rain, the sudden death of promising actor
Heath Ledger last week and the strike cloud hanging over next
month’s Oscars may dampen some of the enthusiasm at Sunday’s party.
Organizers have erected a vast tent over the arrivals area because
of the rain.
But the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards gives actors, producers
and studios an opportunity to celebrate after three months of a
strike by screenwriters that has crippled movie and TV production
and led to a star boycott of the Golden Globe and People’s Choice
Awards earlier this month.
The striking Writers Guild Of America allowed its members to
write for the SAG awards show and said it would not mount protests
outside the event because actors have been strong allies of the
writers in their dispute with studios over better payments for work
distributed over the Internet.
No such deal has been reached for the Oscars on February 24
although talks resumed last week between the WGA and major studios
after a six-week break marked by growing hostility.
Winners at SAG are normally seen as key contenders for an Oscar
since actors make up the biggest group of the 6,000 Academy Award
voters.
But this year, SAG appears out of sync with the Oscars in the
best picture race. British war romance “Atonement” and the greed
and power drama “There Will Be Blood,” which won eight Oscar
nominations, are missing from SAG’s nominees for its top prize of
best cast ensemble.
Instead the true-life wilderness story Into the Wild,
which was written and directed by actor Sean Penn, leads the SAG
field with four nominations. It received a disappointing two Oscar
nods.
Joining the list of nominees for best ensemble cast is musical
Hairspray, western 3:10 to Yuma, crime thriller
American Gangster and the latest Coen brothers movie,
No Country for Old Men.
Britons Daniel Day Lewis, who plays a malicious oil entrepreneur
in There Will Be Blood, Julie Christie, who plays a woman
with Alzheimer’s Disease in Away From Her, and France’s
Marion Cotillard, who played singer Edith Piaf in La Vie En
Rose, are front-runners for SAG’s best actor and actress
awards after winning Golden Globes and Oscar nominations.
Spain’s Javier Bardem is the man to beat in his supporting role
as a cool-headed killer in No Country For Old Men. But
less predictable is the supporting actress category, which includes
Cate Blanchett playing Bob Dylan in I’m Not There, Tilda
Swinton for the legal thriller Michael Clayton and Amy
Ryan for Gone Baby Gone.
The Screen Actors Guild also hands out television awards.
The Sopranos, Boston Legal, Grey’s Anatomy, The Closer and
Mad Men are competing for best TV drama ensemble cast.
Entourage, Desperate Housewives, 30 Rock, The Office
and Ugly Betty are nominated for best comedy cast.
Reuters
