SAG Nominations

Los Angeles- Actors Sandra Oh and Elijah Wood got up early Thursday morning to read the nominations for the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. The awards show will be held on January 28th and will be televised live on TNT and TBS.

Of the four big Hollywood awards show, the SAGs are the least known step-child to the Golden Globes, the Emmys and the Academy Awards. They don't have a major network broadcasting the show and I don't think anybody remembers who has ever won a SAG Actor award.

But it does have some great attributes. First, it just honors actors and is voted on by its peers. It just focuses on actors and nothing else. No best short film, or sound editing.

It recognizes film and TV, so you get to see all the top stars of both unlike the Oscars which handles film only, and the Emmys, which is TV only.

It's a great predictor of who wins an Oscar because its voted by other SAG members, not "members of the foreign press" like the Golden Globes, who sometimes have unusual choices.

By the list of nominees, this year's SAG should be good. International stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Penelope Cruz, Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, Eddie Murphy, Cate Blanchette, Jeremy Irons, Helen Mirren, and Greta Scacchi mixed in with television favorites like Kiefer Sutherland, James Gandolfini, Alec Baldwin, Matthew Perry, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mary Louise Parker and Jaime Pressly.

The wild card are movies and TV series which are nominated for ensemble awards.

Will Brad Pitt and his wife, Angelina Jolie, show up for "Babel"? Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Lindsay Lohan, Christian Slater and Sharon Stone for "Bobby"? Beyonce Knowles and Jamie Foxx for "Dreamgirls"? And how about the "Desperate Housewives" cast, of which only Felicity Huffman was nominated? Will Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross and Nicollette Sheridan make an appearance?

With all its star power the SAGs should be a high-profile awards show. The show hasn't embedded in the media's or the public's minds yet. You will read in the first sentence of a news story "Oscar-winning actor...or Emmy-winning actor...or Tony-award winning actor" but never "Actor-winning actor"???? Maybe that is the problem. The award they hand out it called the "Actor".

It might mean more than the other awards because its judges are other actors, but a "Moonman" from the MTV awards will probably attract more attention in the trophy case.