Issue Date: March 9, 2003
9th annual SAG awards Predictions
Count on the actors to add drama to award season. Last year, Golden Globe loser Halle Berry pulled off an upset when she won a Screen Actors Guild Award and then, three weeks later, an Oscar. In fact, most SAG champs go on to win an Academy Award. So, who's a shoo-in this year? Tom O'Neil, host of the Internet prediction site GoldDerby.com, gets out his crystal ball:
BEST FILM ACTOR
It's all about "About Schmidt"'s Jack Nicholson. The man is an award magnet.
BEST FILM ACTRESS
Nicole Kidman has momentum for "The Hours", but Julianne Moore will win for "Far From Heaven".
BEST FILM SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Expect voters to get serious and hail "About Schmidt"'s Kathy Bates.
BEST FILM CAST ENSEMBLE
"The Hours" has the gravitas that snooty thespians love, but they'll cheer "Chicago"'s "let's put on a show" performers instead.
BEST TV DRAMA ACTOR
"24"'s super-hot Kiefer Sutherland is the best actor on the tube, but SAG members probably will fall for "The Shield"'s hambone Michael Chiklis.
BEST TV DRAMA ACTRESS
It's time for mafioso wife and 1999 champ Edie Falco of "The Sopranos" to get tough again.
BEST TV DRAMA ENSEMBLE
"24" deserves to win, but its cast doesn't have the same ensemble feel of "The West Wing", which probably will pull off a third victory.
BEST TV COMEDY ACTOR
If enough voters have seen "Monk", they'll opt for OCD detective Tony Shalhoub. If not, expect "Will & Grace"'s sanity-challenged Sean Hayes to win.
BEST TV COMEDY ACTRESS
"Friends"' Jennifer Aniston will be taken seriously -- at long last -- by her peers.
BEST TV COMEDY ENSEMBLE
Will voters finally take "Friends" seriously? Nope. Expect them to smooch those randy "Sex and the City" gals again.
I don't understand why Jennifer Aniston, the least funny of the "Friends", has been winning so many awards. Does her marriage to Brad Pitt mean she has connections she didn't have previously?
Sandra Huebner, Sheboygan, Wis.
She may have more movie connections through her shaggy-haired husband, but -- find her funny or not -- it's just silly to think Aniston was riding his coattails to Emmy and Golden Globe wins or her SAG nomination for "Friends".
Is Sean Hayes really gay, or is that just Jack McFarland, his character on NBC's "Will & Grace"?
Stephanie Hartnet, Fort Defiance, Ariz.
Hayes, 33, has made it his policy to keep his sexual orientation a mystery so people won't form opinions. For him, the issue seems a matter of darned-if-you-do-and-darned-if-you-don't -- tell, that is. A straight Hayes might be attacked for playing a character some see as stereotypical. A gay Hayes could be accused of just playing himself, not truly acting. Then again, he's up for three SAG Awards Sunday, including a nomination for his turn as Jerry Lewis in the TV movie "Martin and Lewis".
SAG Award nominee Patricia Heaton deserves honors just for having had the courage to walk out on the vulgarity of this year's American Music Awards, aired on ABC. Too bad more entertainers didn't follow.
Brenda Carroll, Garden Valley, Calif.
You were not alone in applauding Heaton, who walked out of the show before she was to introduce a video montage. A SAG Award nominee for best female actor in a TV comedy, Heaton, who plays Debra Barone on CBS' "Everybody Loves Raymond", says she's no prude but was offended by the "vulgar and disgusting" nature of the show emceed by the foul-mouthed Osbournes: "[I] didn't want to be a part of it." The actress, 45 and married with four sons, says she was thanked by an AMA security guard as she left the building that night and by those she works with on the "Raymond" set the next day. The two-time Emmy winner has no shortage of fans, but the AMA show has been steadily losing viewers and earned its lowest ratings ever this year.
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SAG Awards Preview
TNT's broadcast of the Screen Actors Guild Awards airs Sunday at 8 p.m. ET. Producers Jeff Margolis and Kathy Connell give us the scoop on the show:
Jeff, you have to produce a show around the nominees you get. Who or what makes good TV?
JM: The home audience wants stars. Once we know the nominees, we decide on presenters who make sense. We try to book [presenters] who are not nominees, because that means more stars attend.
Who's a dream presenter?
JM: There are a bunch of people who always give you gold ... Tom Hanks is one, Will Smith, Whoopi Goldberg. Kate Hudson is one from the younger stars.
What should a winner say?
JM: Something that's different, memorable. [Winners] want to thank a long list, but no one remembers it the next day.
Kathy, how do you decide who sits with whom?
KC: Movie casts and show ensembles sit together. All actors sit in the same area. Last year the "Law & Order" cast sat next to the Lord of the Rings cast. The actors love it. They're fans of each other. And, contrary to what people think, they don't all know each other.
It's a dinner. What's the highlight of the menu?
KC: Salmon with caviar.
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To browse or bid in a SAG Foundation auction of celeb gifts and memorabilia, go to ebay.com/sagawards until 3 p.m. ET Wednesday.
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BIRTHDAYS
March 9: Juliette Binoche, 39
March 10: Sharon Stone, 45; Chuck Norris, 63
March 11: Thora Birch, 21; Sam Donaldson, 69
March 12: Courtney B. Vance, 43; Liza Minnelli, 57
March 13: Dana Delany, 47; William H. Macy, 53
March 14: Billy Crystal, 56; Michael Caine, 70; Quincy Jones, 70
March 15: Mark McGrath, 35; Judd Hirsch, 68
With: Frappa Stout. Contributing: John Griffith
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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