2008 sag awards (24 posts)

Stephen Vaughan and DC Comics; Ash Knotek/Snappers/ZUMA Press

The Heath Ledger Oscar moment seems ever closer.

The late Dark Knight star earned the near-mandatory Screen Actors Guild nomination as the field for the 15th Annual SAG Awards was revealed this morning.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were among the other top film nominees.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Milk and Slumdog Millionaire will vie for SAG's equivalent of Oscar's Best Picture honor: Best Ensemble, Film. Doubt leads all nominees, with five nods.

The Dark Knight's cast, Leonardo DiCaprio and Clint Eastwood were among the snubbed.

Ledger was nominated in the supporting actor category; Pitt and Jolie as best leads, for Benjamin Button and Changeling, respectively.

On the television side, 30 Rock, John Adams, Mad Men and The Closer scored a leading three nominations apiece.

Individually, actress Taraji P. Henson led the formidable pack with three nominations, two for her work in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and one as a member of the Boston Legal ensemble.

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Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

Despite the rain, despite the strike and despite nearly getting trampled by the Brangelina brigade and serving as a landing cushion for a falling Sandra Oh, it was good to be at the Shrine Auditorium tonight for the soggy SAGs. After all, we could use a little sense of glamour and Hollywood normalcy right about now, could we not?

The 2008 SAG Awards Red Carpet included a few choice behind-the-scenes moments, including:

• Brad and Angelina causing instant chaos upon their arrival, parting the red carpet sea with a massive security detail and sucking Sophia Bush away from me, midinterview.
  
  
• A truly sweet and gracious Oh missing the platform on her way up to Giuliana’s interview spot and adorably laughing it off and moving on.
  
  
• Zach Gilford from Friday Night Lights ricocheting through the carpet like a bottle-rocket of sunshine, meeting and chumming it up with every fellow actor in sight. (I overheard him inviting Woody Harrelson to come hang at Zuma Beach in Malibu this week and telling America Ferrera how much he wanted to approach her in a restaurant this morning but was too shy—turns out, um, it wasn’t America.)
  
  
• Jane Krakowski proving she’s nothing like her 30 Rock alter ego and patiently waiting a good 10 minutes (eternity in carpet time) for an interview before kindly asking,”Do you want me to come back later? I really don’t mind.”

Maury Phillips/WireImage.com

Earlier on the carpet, Rainn Wilson, Jenna Fischer and their Office cubemates told me that while they’d love to win, they were also rooting for their good friends on 30 Rock...and the 30 clan said the exact same thing about the Dunder gang. So, you know there is some fierce Office-Rock party going on somewhere right about now.

And of course, on the drama side, The Sopranos had quite the swan-song sweep with wins for James Gandolfini and Edie Falco (who haven’t won since 2003) and Ensemble (last win was in 2000). So, it seems not everyone is still cursing that black hole of cut-to-black despair.

What did you all think of the TV wins? Were the SAG voters right on the money, or were there more deserving contenders? Michael C. Hall certainly comes to mind, but don’t get this die-hard Dexter fan started...Instead, go ahead and share your thoughts in the Comments section.

—Filed by Kristin Dos Santos

Steve Granitz/WireImage.com

From the divine to the duds (sorry, Jane Krakowski!), we've got plenty to say about what the stars are wearing in our special SAG Awards Fashion Police gallery. Do you agree with our sartorial reviews or think we blew our style cred? Vote now!

Lionsgate

7:41 p.m.:  Julie Christie, apparently, didn't get the memo. She won, she accepted her award and she's doing press back here.

7:42 p.m.:  Christie knows how to treat an Actor. "I don't need to carry," she says. "I can put it on the ground."

7:43 p.m.:  Now that her Actor's on the ground, Christie can cross her arms, and say whatever's on her mind. Which I suspect she will.

7:44 p.m.:  "She's quite mad," Christie says devotedly of her Away from Her writer-director Sarah Polley, and I'd say I was right.

7:45 p.m.:  An enterprising reporter asks Christie how she felt about winning. Those of you who guessed that she was sad are quite wrong. In a twist, Christie reports, "I'm very happy to get it."

7:46 p.m.:  Another enterprising reporter asks Christie, "Whose pants are you wearing tonight?" Christie doesn't miss a beat—or an opportunity: "They're my own pants," she replies.

7:49 p.m.:  The tell-it-like-it-is Christie doesn't sound too optimistic about the Oscars going on as we have known them: "We don't even know if it's going to happen," she says.

7:49 p.m.:  One last enterprising reporter asks Christie what she's doing next. Christie says nothing. The reporter says, "So, you're looking for a job?" Christie says, "No, I'm quite happy without one, actually."

7:50 p.m.:  I like Julie Christie.

7:51 p.m.:  Sayeth the SAG Awards flack: "That'll conclude our interviews...And it's raining outside."

7:51 p.m.:  Any more good news?

7:52 p.m.:  Here's a thought: I may have just witnessed the most star-studded awards show of the awards-show season. Sigh.

7:53 p.m.:  Any more good news?

Kevork Djansezian/AP photo

6:49 p.m.:  Well, let's see. Alec Baldwin won, but didn't show. Queen Latifah won, but didn't show. Kevin Kline won, but didn't show.

6:50 p.m.:  Just to refresh my memory: The actors were allowed to come to the SAGs, right?

6:57 p.m.:  The actual SAG Award, I am presently reminded, is called the Actor, meaning if Jenna Fischer's estimate was correct, it tips the scales about as heavily as a lowercase actress.

7:10 p.m.:  The pressroom has been bereft of any Actors or actors for about an hour now.

7:11 p.m.:  So, as I was telling the ghost of Lillian Gish...

7:16 p.m.:  Leave it to Daniel Day-Lewis to interrupt my story.

7:17 p.m.:  Day-Lewis, who devoted a good deal of his acceptance speech to Heath Ledger, tells us he never met the actor. "[But] I thought he was beautiful," he says. "I had a very strong feeling I would have liked him as a man."

7:18 p.m.:  It sounds like the decision to talk about Ledger on stage wasn't a decision at all for Day-Lewis. "It's all I was thinking about for the past few days," he says.

7:19 p.m.:  For a private-favoring public figure, Day-Lewis is gamely fielding questions, including ones about why he doesn't like to field questions about his work. ("It seems kind of self-defeating to just keep talking about it," he says.)

7:28 p.m.:  Sayeth the SAG Awards flack: "We're told the cast of No Country for Old Men will not be doing interviews."

Best Tribute:  Maybe we just expected Daniel Day-Lewis to be some kind of crazy actor type offstage, but his warm tribute to the work of Heath Ledger was a genuinely moving look at Ledger's movies from an actor's perspective, and maybe the best part of the show.

Glenn Weiner/ZUMApress.com

Worst Tribute:  Josh Brolin's rambling acceptance speech for the No Country for Old Men ensemble award, in which he thanked the film's directors (after being reminded by Woody Harrelson) like this: "The Coen brothers are freaky little people, you know, and we did a freaky little movie—whether you like the ending or not." Bet you we won't be seeing that quote on the poster, huh?

Worst Ending:  No, not No Country for Old Men (though that was in the running). We're talking about the abrupt conclusion to the show, in which Tom Cruise strode across the stage in the wake of Brolin's speech to thank everyone for coming—and that was it. We, um, thought there was another hour to go. (On second thought, maybe we should be happy about this.)

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

I'm backstage in the press room, and I gotta tell ya, there's some stinky biz going on.

First off, the Sopranos cast was not happy when I spoiled their party and asked Best Actor nabber James Gandolfini, as an actor who's played gay, how he felt about the protests, both here just outside the Shrine Auditorium and in pockets around the country, against Heath Ledger for his role in Brokeback Mountain. Too ridiculous, he bitched, before the rest of his colleagues pounced. Jeez, haven't they won enough of those friggin' awards to give the fab Heath a decent word?

Then along comes Tina Fey, and if that gal wasn't coverin' up for costar Alec Baldwin's awkward absence, I'm not naturally highlighted. Wasn't quite sure where he was...Doesn't she know since his "dirty little pig" episode with his daughter, he'll be eaten alive by a bunch of reporters? Yes.

More in the Awful Truth later, babes.

AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian

Worst Acting Choice:  Where were the missing winners? Among the absent trophy nabbers were Alec Baldwin, Kevin Kline and Queen Latifah (or Ms. Latifah, as Mickey Rooney called her, instead of the proper Her Highness). We're sure they had good reasons, but still—didn't they know people were actually going to watch the show this year?

Worst Catchphrase:  Is it just us, or is the saying "And the Actor goes to..." kind of confusing? It sounds like the winner had stepped out to the toilet or something.

The Durning Point:  The long tribute to character actor Charles Durning was moving, though we gotta say using the movie trailer voice-over guy—you know, the fellow who does all the scary-voiced trailers—made it seem like Charles Durning was a new film coming out this spring. (Sounds like a great flick, though.)

Durning, the Sequel:  Durning's response to all this adulation was perfect: "That's it?"

Most Worrisome (to TBS):  You had to wonder how the network suits were feeling about the looong stretch of the show that featured hot youngsters such as Burt Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Ruby Dee and the In Memoriam tribute. (This probably explains the random cutaways to Brangelina and Amanda Bynes.)

Craig Blankenhorn/HBO

5:36 p.m.:  The power's still out in the pressroom but not in the lobby. So, I'm watching Tina Fey's win on a wall-mounted Olevia flat screen that, I'm guessing, is not indigenous to the Shrine.

5:38 p.m.:  The power's also not out in the photography room, where the cast of The Sopranos is being blinded by the lights. (Well, I don't know if they are, but I'm standing off to the side, and I'm being blinded by the lights.)

5:43 p.m.:  A SAGs flack has just announced Fey's win to the still-without-power pressroom.

5:44 p.m.:  Oh, I get it, the power outage isn't a snafu, it's an attempt to faithfully recreate the 1947 Oscars.

5:45 p.m.:  Jack Benny would have killed on a night like this.

5:46 p.m.:  In a nod to the 21st century, the power strips and the TVs are back on.

5:50 p.m.:  And the cast of The Sopranos is back here, even if James Gandolfini, standing as far away from the mike as he can without actually standing in the lobby, doesn't necessarily looks like he wants to be.

5:51 p.m.:  A special moment. For the last time, the women of The Sopranos are asked that burning question: "What are you wearing and why?"

5:52 p.m.:  Dominic "Uncle Junior" Chianese, who being a man, was not asked, answers anyway: "We're wearing our hearts on our sleeves."

5:53 p.m.:  Is that like a new Calvin Klein line, or something?

5:55 p.m.:  This being the last hurrah for the show, the cast is asked if Los Angeles will still be standing once they finish partying tonight. Lorraine Bracco, for one, has a bold prediction: "The city, not the hotel."