Stars Light Up SAG Awards
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| The Screen Actors honored James Earl Jones for his lifetime achievement as an actor and humanitarian. |
Last night, the stars were out in Hollywood as the members of the Screen Actors (SAG) honored their own at the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® show.
The cast of “Slumdog Millionaire” took home the top honor for best performance by a cast in a motion picture. Meryl Streep and Sean Penn won the awards for best performance by an actress and actor in a leading role for their performances in “Doubt” and “Milk,” respectively.
The other winners included the late Heath Ledger who won best performance as a supporting actor for his role in “The Dark Knight.” On the TV side, Hugh Laurie (”House”) and Sally Field ( Brothers & Sisters) were honored for their performances in a drama series and the cast of “30 Rock” swept the TV comedy category with Alec Baldwin winning best actor, Tina Fey best actress and the entire cast winning the award foir best ensemble. You can check out all last night’s winners here.
During his remarks, SAG President Alan Rosenberg spoke about the importance of the union to the nation’s actors.
SAG is a union. We are proud to be union and and we look forward to the day when all workers can have the freedom to join a union.
James Earl Jones received the Lifetime Achievement Award, the union’s highest honor. Jones joins an all-star cast of previous winners, who include Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward (1986), Elizabeth Taylor (1997), Ricardo Montelbán (1993), Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee (2000), Edward Asner (2001), Clint Eastwood (2002), Shirley Temple Black (2005), Julie Andrews (2006) and Charles Durning (2007).
In an interview with SAG’s magazine, Screen Actor, Jones says the recognition by his peers is special:
So often you think, well is this is a popularity contest? You can never answer that, or disprove it, really. But in this case it is the people who do the same work you do, saying that work is good. And that’s important.
Don’t Miss SAG Awards This Sunday
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| Angela Bassett, star of the TV series “ER,” is one of the presenters at this year’s SAG Awards. |
It’s time for the biggest awards show in Hollywood—the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®. The only all-union awards show honors Screen Actors (SAG) members for their outstanding performances over the past year. This year SAG is bestowing its highest award for Life Achievement to James Earl Jones.
SAG is America’s largest union representing working actors, with 120,000 members in film, television, commercials, video games, music videos and other new media. The SAG Awards is the only nationally televised awards show of any kind that honors the work of union members.
There is a star-studded lineup of presenters, including Christina Applegate, Angela Bassett, Jon Hamm, John Krasinski, Eric McCormack, Kyra Sedgwick and William Shatner and Forest Whitaker.
The 2009 SAG Awards® ceremony will be simulcast live nationally on TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 25, at 8 p.m. EST/PST, 7 p.m. CDT and 6 p.m. MST from the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center. An encore presentation will air on TNT at 11 p.m. EST/PST. For satellite and HD viewers, the live presentation can be seen on TBS and TNT at 8 p.m. EST (5 p.m. PST), while the encore can be seen on TNT at 11 p.m. EST (8 p.m. PST).
