• In the biggest upset of the season so far, “The Hurt Locker” came up trumps at the PGA Awards.
• “Inglourious Basterds” took the top prize at the SAG Awards, which also gave another boost to Sandra Bullock.
• With Oscar nominations out next week, we listed some of the greatest nominee fields in Oscar history.
• Off the Carpet took stock following the weekend’s precursors, and Kris revised his winner predictions.
Saturday night the Screen Actors Guild Awards will go down, televised on TNT, and I can’t really believe the race is THIS sewn up. Right down the line, most are calling it for Bridges, Streep, Waltz and Mo’Nique. There are some differences of opinion on the ensemble performance category, but for the most part, those four Oscar favorites are the expected victors with the guild.
The last time SAG went four-for-four with the Academy’s ultimate winners was 2004. The last time before that was 1997, which actually featured a tie between Gloria Stewart and Kim Basinger, so it’s a bit less definitive. And in point of fact, those are the only times things have matched up.
The reason for this is fairly simple. The Screen Actors Guild (a 90,000-member body of people) votes for the winners at large, while the nominees are decided upon by a roughly 2,000-member nominating committee, 1,200 of them based in Los Angeles. The nominating committee obviously sees more of the contenders than the vast membership. For that reason, generally speaking, you can expect the unexpected.