SAG Awards labor mightily in Oscar's shadow
The 14th annual SAG Awards, a ceremony known, if it is known at all, for mimicking the Oscars more than predicting them, lavished doorstops on “The Sopranos” and “30 Rock” while showering hosannas on its allies in the three-month-old writers' strike.
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Having received special dispensation from the Writers Guild of America, whose picket lines SAG members have honored -- effectively shutting down all scripted television production-- the SAGs became the first of the major award shows this year to air as planned. The Golden Globes were called off two weeks ago, and if there isn't a WGA deal with the companies that run Hollywood by Feb. 24, the Oscars will be toast as well.
With all this newfound attention, the SAGs (which pulled in record ratings for simulcasters TNT and TBS last year) likely attracted a number of first-time viewers. And no doubt some of them were wondering: Where is the host? What's an ensemble award? And what were Alec Baldwin, Queen Latifah and Kevin Kline doing that was more important than attending the SAG Awards (where they won in absentia)?
Why is that, no matter how short or long an awards show is, there's at least an hour that could easily have been cut out? And what were those medals Mickey Rooney was wearing -- was he inducted into the French Foreign Legion? The lackluster ceremony offered few answers.
The SAGs haven't been much better than contest guessers in forecasting Oscar winners, but it shamelessly invites comparisons to the Big Show anyway. Its opening red-carpet sequence is practically a frame-by-frame recreation of the Academy Awards' opening. The “In Memoriam” clip reel, the solemn time-killers teasing each of the best picture -- sorry, best “cast in a motion picture” -- nominees, the lifetime achievement award (to Charles Durning), all these did were make me realize how much I'm actually going to miss the Oscars if they're called off.
The two-hour telecast was peppered with planned and spontaneous expressions of solidarity by SAG members to their comrades in the writers' union. After the red-carpet montage, several SAG members gave little declarations from their tables inside the Shrine Exposition Center, as they do each year, about being actors. Onetime “Melrose Placer” Doug Savant opened his speech by saying, “In 1983 I joined a labor union,” while “Twin Peaks” heartthrob Kyle MacLachlan ended his with, “My card? Screen Actors' Guild.”
Tina Fey, collecting an actress award for “30 Rock,” humbly thanked SAG “for being so supportive of the Writers' Guild.” Jenna Fischer of “The Office” made a shout-out to the crew members put out of work by the writers' work stoppage. Julie Christie said the strike was a reminder of “how important unions are.”
HBO and NBC split the eight television awards. NBC's “30 Rock” won both acting awards in TV comedy, while “The Office” won for ensemble.
The pay channel collected all three drama trophies for “The Sopranos” and both TV-movie awards (Kline for “As You Like It” and Latifah for “Life Support”). The “Sopranos” crew assembled on stage for their group award, just as they did, twice, during the Emmys and for what James Gandolfini swore (promised?) was the last time. He looked exhausted. Edie Falco and Tony Sirico, aka Paulie Walnuts, gamely tried to sound thrilled by their final honors (“I'm shaking, I can't even speak,” Falco said), in performances that will never win Emmys or even Actors.
