Penelope Cruz, Will Smith Among Actors Spotlighted at 13th Annual SAG Awards

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/01/25/penelope-cruz-will-smith-among-actors-spotlighted-at-13th-annual-sag-awards/

Penelope Cruz, Will Smith Among Actors Spotlighted at 13th Annual SAG Awards

Back in 1933, a courageous bunch of character actors in Hollywood met clandestinely and joined together to fight for their rights. So it was that the Screen Actors (SAG) union was born. Things have changed since then. Today, SAG is America’s largest union representing working actors, with 120,000 members in film, television, commercials, video games, music videos and other new media. When they get together this Sunday evening, the gathering will be anything but clandestine. This time, there will be red carpets, an orchestra, champagne, press conferences, plus a cadre of TV cameras to broadcast it all.

It will, of course, be the 13th Annual SAG Awards at the Shrine Exposition Center in Los Angeles, where the world’s finest actors (who happen to be some of America’s most ardent union members) will gather to honor their own. SAG President Alan Rosenberg calls it:

one big party thrown by actors for actors—not so much a competition as a celebration.

The audience will include not only a who’s who of the entertainment industry inside the Exposition Center, but millions of film fans around America attached to their TV sets for the evening. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and AFL-CIO Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson also will be attending the awards.

What makes the SAG Awards so special? For one thing, the winners are chosen by their peers—4,200 randomly selected SAG members from across the country. For another, it’s the first and still the only nationally televised awards show of any kind that honors the work of union members. There’s plenty of evidence in the awards themselves that this is a union event. For instance, SAG honors not only individual but group achievement. From the start, there have been honors for best ensemble casts (the first winners in 1995 for television: “Seinfeld” and “NYPD Blue”).

And every year, the SAG Awards makes a point of recognizing a part of the union’s membership that usually doesn’t show up on the marquee. In the past, it’s been commercial actors, background singers, dancers, stunt performers and others. This year, it will be voice-over performers.

The awards will honor outstanding performances from 2006 in five film categories and eight television categories. Among them are outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role in film, where the nominees are Penelope Cruz in “Volver,” Judi Dench in “Notes on a Scandal,” Helen Mirren in “The Queen,” Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” and Kate Winslet in “Little Children.” The nominees for outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role are Leonardo DiCaprio in “Blood Diamond,” Ryan Gosling in “Half Nelson,” Peter O’Toole in “Venus,” Will Smith in “The Pursuit of Happyness” and Forest Whitaker in “The Last King of Scotland.”

In prime-time television, the nominees for outstanding performance by a female actor in a movie or miniseries are Annette Bening in “Mrs. Harris,” Shirley Jones in “Hidden Places,” Cloris Leachman in “Mrs. Harris,” Helen Mirren in “Elizabeth I,” and Greta Scacchi in “Broken Trail.” For outstanding performance by a male actor, the nominees are Thomas Haden Church in “Broken Trail,” Robert Duvall in “Broken Trail,” Jeremy Irons in “Elizabeth I,” William H. Macy in “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” and Matthew Perry in “The Ron Clark Story.”

Five films are nominated for best ensemble cast: “Dreamgirls,” “Babel,” “Bobby,” “The Departed” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” Nominees for best ensemble cast in a TV drama are “24,” “Boston Legal,” “Deadwood,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Sopranos.” For TV comedy, nominees for best ensemble are “Desperate Housewives,” “Entourage,” “The Office,” “Ugly Betty” and “Weeds.”

FULL story at link.