|
SUITS HIM: Viggo Mortensen, a Best Actor nominee for Eastern Promises, turns up in a blue and red suit - colours of his soccer team in Argentina, where he grew up.
|
|
|
LOS ANGELES - No Country For Old Men emerged as the Oscars favourite by taking top honours for overall cast along with Javier Bardem's Supporting Actor prize at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, the lone gathering of A-list stars in an awards season hobbled by the Hollywood writers' strike.
Daniel Day-Lewis, who played a tyrannical oil prospector in There Will Be Blood, and Julie Christie, who was an Alzheimer's sufferer in Away From Her, won the top acting honours. That also boosted their chances of winning the same trophies at the Feb 24 Academy Awards.
Day-Lewis, 50, dedicated his win to Heath Ledger, 28, who was found dead in his Manhattan loft last week, saying: 'In Brokeback Mountain, he was unique, he was perfect.
'For as long as I can remember, the thing that gave me a sense of wonderment, of renewal, the thing that teased me with the question 'How is such a thing possible' and then dared you to go back into the arena one more time has always been the work of other actors.
'There are many actors in this room including my fellow nominees who've given me that sense of regeneration. Heath Ledger gave it to me,' he said, to loud applause.
Bardem, who played a relentless killer tracking a fortune in missing drug money in No Country, paid tribute to the film's directors, Joel and Ethan Coen. 'Thank you, guys, for hiring me, and thank you for taking the hard work of choosing the good takes,' said the 38-year-old Spaniard.
'This is Javier Bardem's 497th award,' said co-star Josh Brolin in the acceptance speech for the film's cast prize, the equivalent of Best Picture honours. 'It's sad, sad for the rest of us.'
Ruby Dee, 83, won Best Supporting Actress for American Gangster.
Two weeks after the glam-free Golden Globes 'news conference', the presence on Sunday night of stars such as Tom Cruise, Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie was a subtle reminder that the SAGs may be the highlight of Hollywood's film-honours season if the writers' strike undermines the Oscars.
But the show was generally free of labour talk, with only Christie, 66, addressing the matter openly. 'It's lovely to receive an award from your own union,' she said, 'especially at a time when we're being so forcefully reminded how important unions are.'
Actors bade fond farewell to one of TV's most acclaimed series as The Sopranos grabbed the top acting honours in the television awards for James Gandolfini and Edie Falco and, minutes later, the overall cast prize.
For comedy series, Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey were the lead-acting winners for 30 Rock, while The Office won for Best Ensemble.
The obligatory package of clips to honour stars who died in the past year took on more immediacy, ending with a moment from Brokeback Mountain featuring Ledger.
Normally a lesser cousin to the Golden Globes and Oscars, the SAG Awards could end up being the biggest celebration this season: The swanky Globes were cancelled because of a strike by the Writers Guild of America, which refused to let its members work on the show, and the fate of the Oscars is in question because of the same labour quarrel.
Not so for the SAG honours. The actors' union has been steadfast in support of the striking writers who, in turn, gave their blessing to the SAG ceremony.
AP
Away From Her opens here on Thursday.
No Country For Old Men opens here on Feb 14.
There Will Be Blood opens here on Feb 21.
|
