Mirren Is Crowned
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The year’s top film actors polished their Oscar speeches and their television counterparts walked the red carpet for the final time this season as the Screen Actors Guild presented its 13th annual awards show last night in Los Angeles.
By this late hour, winners are all but on the stage by the time their names are read, and last night was no exception, as a number of actors repeated their victories from prior awards shows. In the first categories of the evening, Dame Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons were named best actor and actress, respectively, in a TV movie or miniseries for their roles in HBO’s “Elizabeth I.” American Ferrera was named best actress in a comedy series for her role as “Ugly Betty” on ABC, and Alec Baldwin won the corresponding award for his work on NBC’s “30 Rock.” All won Golden Globes on January 15 in the same categories.
In one of few surprises, Chandra Wilson of “Grey’s Anatomy” won the award for female actor in a drama series, beating favorite Kyra Sedgwick of “The Closer.” Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie took the corresponding award for “House.” Moving to film, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson repeated their Globe victories in the best supporting actor categories for “Dreamgirls.” Both will arrive at the Oscars on February 25 as heavy favorites in those categories.
More surprising than Ms. Wilson’s win was the award for best cast of a motion picture — the Guild’s equivalent of a best picture award — which went to the cast of the indie smash “Little Miss Sunshine.”
As expected, the awards for actors in leading roles went to Golden Forest Whitaker, for his portrayal of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland,” and Ms. Mirren, for the role of Queen Elizabeth II in “The Queen.”
Nominees in the film-acting categories for the SAG awards were almost identical to contenders announced at the Oscar nominations last week. The guild’s individual acting winners typically fare well on Oscar night because many of the voters are also members of the academy’s actors branch, which chooses the acting Oscars.
