SAGs Snub Sweeney, Go Wild

If Sweeney Todd's going to win any Oscars, it's going to have do so without any Screen Actors Guild Awards.

The murderous musical, which killed with four Golden Globe nods last week, was completely shut out Thursday as nominations were announced Thursday for the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. (Get the complete list of nominations and view photo gallery of top nominees.)

Charlie Wilson's War and Atonement, even bigger Globes favorites, but longer shots to dominate the Oscars than the lavish Sweeney Todd, likewise received zero SAG nominations. The omission of Charlie Wilson's War's was surprising in that the black comedy harnessed the combined star power of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

Sean Penn's Into the Wild, which was almost, but not quite, as ignored by the Globes as Sweeney Todd was by the SAGs, found itself a home at the actor awards, earning a field-best four nominations, including one for Outstanding Performance by a Motion Picture Cast, the show's version of Best Picture. Though Penn himself wasn't a nominee—he stayed behind the camera as director—he and his work clearly remained SAG favorites.

Other top film nominees were the George Clooney-led Michael Clayton and the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, with three each.

In the television categories, reigning Emmy comedy champ 30 Rock, fashionable awards-show favorite Ugly Betty, and, in its last dance at the SAGs, The Sopranos led the way, with three nominations each.

A great way to tell which way the Oscar wind is blowing—actors make up the largest voting bloc in the Academy—the SAG Awards could be more than an accurate weather vane this award season. In strike-stricken Hollywood, it could be the only show to send A-listers down the red carpet.

In the top film category, the casts of Into the Wild and No Country for Old Men will compete against the casts of American Gangster, 3:10 to Yuma and Hairspray.

The musical Hairspray and the western 3:10 to Yuma were otherwise passed over—no individual love for the likes of John Travolta, Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, who also went uncited for his work in American Gangster.

The SAGs' Lead Actor film category held surprises: Ryan Gosling, who cozied up to a doll in the low-profile indie comedy Lars and the Real Girl, made the cut, while Hanks, Charlie Wilson's Charlie Wilson, Johnny Depp, Sweeney's demon barber, and Denzel Washington, American Gangster's overlord, didn't.

The rest of the field was not unexpected: Clooney, who stood for something in Michael Clayton; Daniel Day-Lewis, who returned triumphant in There Will Be Blood; Viggo Mortensen, who failed to emerge as a singular award-show star in the Lord of the Rings movies, but who stood out and then some as the tattooed gangster in Eastern Promises, and Emile Hirsch, who took Penn's direction as the outward-bound young man in Into the Wild.

Juno's baby-bump-sporting Ellen Page, meanwhile, will contend for the corresponding lead actress award against Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Golden Age), Julie Christie (Away from Her), Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose) and Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart). All are Globe nominees.

Blanchett was the only actor to earn two individual nominations. She's also up in the supporting actress category for offering her version of Bob Dylan in the trippy tribute to the troubadour, I'm Not There. Also nominated there: critics' favorite Amy Ryan, representing for Ben Affleck's Gone Baby Gone; Catherine Keener (Into the Wild); Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) and Ruby Dee, a presumptive Oscar favorite at age 83 for American Gangster.

Casey Affleck, who came into his own as star of brother Ben's thriller, scored a nomination, but for The Assassination of Jesse James, not Gone Baby Gone. He'll vie in the supporting actor race against Javier Bardem, this season's sure thing for No Country for Old Men; Tommy Lee Jones, also up for No Country for Old Men; Hal Holbrook, for Into the Wild; and Tom Wilkinson, for Michael Clayton.

In the TV field, The Sopranos, which was hit and miss at the Globe nominations, reasserted itself with nods for both James Gandolfini and Edie Falco.

In the drama series lead actor category, Gandolfini will face Dexter's Michael C. Hall, Mad Men's Jon Hamm, House's Hugh Laurie and Boston Legal's James Spader, who, to the surprise of oddsmakers, beat Tony Soprano at this game at the Emmys.

Falco is up for drama series lead actress against Damage's Glenn Close, Saving Grace's Holly Hunter, The Closer's Kyra Sedgwick and Brothers & Sisters' Sally Field, who took the most recent Emmy. Field is the only nominee whose show airs on a broadcast network, as opposed to cable.

In the comedy series categories, Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) is up against the now-usual suspects: Steve Carell (The Office), Ricky Gervais (Extras), Jeremy Piven (Entourage) and Tony Shalhoub (Monk). Gervais and Piven were both in the winner's circle at the Emmys. (Piven prevailed as a supporting actor, a TV category that doesn't exist at the SAGs.)

Former Saturday Night Live head writer Tina Fey authored her first two SAG nominations, as part of the 30 Rock ensemble and as Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Her competition in the individual category: Emmy favorite America Ferrera and scene-stealer Vanessa Williams, both of Ugly Betty; Mary-Louise Parker, of Weeds; and Christina Applegate, of Samantha Who?, which after a fast start in the ratings is in need of a boost.

30 Rock, which took the Best Comedy Series Emmy in September, will contend for the Comedy Series Ensemble SAG Award against Entourage, The Office, Ugly Betty and a back-on-its-game Desperate Housewives.

Fellow Emmy honoree The Sopranos will seek closure in the Drama Series Ensemble race. Its competition: The Closer, Grey's Anatomy, Mad Men and the reclassified Boston Legal, which once competed at the SAGs as a comedy.

Nominated as a member of Hairspray's singing, dancing freedom fighters, Queen Latifah also scored an individual nod as a TV-movie/miniseries actress for HBO's Life Support. The ESPN baseball opus, The Bronx is Burning, figured into the TV-movie/miniseries category, too, with actor nominations for Oliver Platt, who steamed as New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, and John Turturro, who anguished and railed as Steinbrenner foil Billy Martin.

Last winter, three of Oscars' five Best Picture contenders picked up SAG ensemble nominations on their way to the Kodak Theatre. That means Sweeney Todd will have to make an end round, as The Queen and Letters from Iwo Jima did, to land a berth in the Academy's top race.

Of course, the way this week has gone the bigger question for the makers of Sweeney Todd and other films is not how do we get to the Oscars, but will there be an Oscars?

On Wednesday, the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike essentially forced the People's Choice Awards to exchange its envelope-opening live show for a pretaped special—the better to help stars avoid crossing a picket line.

While the Globes and the Oscars haven't thrown in the red carpet, both shows were dealt blows when the Writers Guild of America denied a request for union writers (made by the Globes) and film-clip approvals (made by the Oscars). The moves mean if the shows go on, they may go on with striking writers circling outside.

All of this is bad news for the award business, but a potential big opportunity for the SAG Awards.

Unlike the other shows, the SAGs are virtually guaranteed to be a picket-free zone, with the WGA having given its blessing to presenter banter as scripted by union writers.

The SAG Awards are scheduled to be presented Jan. 27 in Los Angeles.

Get the complete list of nominations; view photo gallery of top nominees.

(Originally published Dec. 20, 2007 at 6:38 a.m. PT.)