Kamis, 20 Desember 2007

SAGs Snub Sweeney Todd, Revive Into the Wild (E! Online)

Los Angeles (E! Online) - If Sweeney Todds going to win any Oscars, its going to have do so without any Screen Actors Guild Awards.

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

Sean Penns 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 shows version of Best Picture.

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.

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 Lead Actor film category held mild surprises: Ryan Gosling, who cozied up to a doll in the indie comedy Lars and the Real Girl, made the cut, while Johnny Depp, Sweeneys demon barber, and Denzel Washington, American Gangsters overlord, didnt.

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 Penns direction as the outward-bound young man in Into the Wild.

Junos young star 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.

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 Academys top race.

The stars of all the nominated movies and TV shows may actually have to rent tuxes and don gowns come the scheduled Jan. 27 ceremony in Los Angeles.

In an awards season that might lack for red-carpet arrivals owing to the ongoing writers strike, the SAG Awards should proceed as normal as an A-list operation can. Unlike the Jan. 13 Golden Globes, the SAGs have been granted Writers Guild of America approval to hire union writers--a move that should ensure an absence of a picket line.

Developing story. More to come.

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

 
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