“The Fighter,” “King's Speech,” Score Big With SAG Noms

Two very different films, "The Fighter," which tells the story of a professional boxer from the wrong side of the tracks, and "The King's Speech," a period piece about a British king with a stammer, led the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Thursday with four nominations a piece.

In the SAG equivalent of best picture, the actors from "Black Swan," "The Fighter," "The Kids Are All Right," "The King's Speech" and "The Social Network" were nominated for best ensemble for the 17th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Earlier this week, "The King's Speech" led the Golden Globe Awards with seven nominations, followed by "The Social Network" and "The Fighter," which each earned six nods from the Globes.

On the television side, "Modern Family," which earlier this year won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series, walked away with four nominations, followed by "30 Rock," "Dexter" and "Glee," which each picked up three nods.

The nominations for outstanding performance by a male actor in a motion picture went to last year's winner Jeff Bridges for "True Grit," Robert Duvall for "Get Low," Jesse Eisenberg for "The Social Network," Colin Firth for "The King's Speech" and James Franco for "127 Hours."

Bridges took home the Actor in 2010 for his performance in "Crazy Heart."

Best actress nominees were Annette Bening for "The Kids Are All Right," Nicole Kidman for "Rabbit Hole," Jennifer Lawrence for "Winter's Bone," Natalie Portman for "Black Swan" and Hilary Swank for "Conviction."

Bening won the best actress Actor in 2000 for her performance in "American Beauty." Swank is also a past winner, having taken home the best actress award in 2005 for "Million Dollar Baby."

The contenders for best supporting actor in a motion picture were Christian Bale for "The Fighter," John Hawkes for "Winter's Bone," Jeremy Renner for "The Town," Mark Ruffalo for "The Kids Are All Right" and Geoffrey Rush for "The King's Speech."

On the actress side, supporting nominations went to Amy Adams for "The Fighter," Helena Bonham Carter for "The King's Speech," Mila Kunis for "Black Swan," Melissa Leo for "The Fighter" and Hailee Steinfeld for "True Grit."

Nominations for best ensemble in a television drama went to the casts of "Boardwalk Empire," "The Closer," "Dexter," "The Good Wife" and "Mad Men." In comedy, best ensemble nominations went to "30 Rock," "Glee," "Hot in Cleveland," "Modern Family" and "The Office."

For outstanding performance by an actor in a television movie or miniseries, the nominees were John Goodman in "You Don't Know Jack," Al Pacino in "You Don't Know Jack," Dennis Quaid in "The Special Relationship," Edgar Ramirez in "Carlos" and Patrick Stewart in "Macbeth."

Best actress nominations for a television movie or miniseries went to Claire Danes with "Temple Grandin," Catherine O'Hara in "Temple Grandin," Julia Ormond in "Temple Grandin," Winona Ryder in "When Love is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story" and Susan Sarandon in "You Don't Know Jack." Sarandon took home the Actor for best actress in a film 14 years ago for her performance in "Dead Man Walking."

For best actor in a television drama series, the nominees were Steve Buscemi for "Boardwalk Empire," Bryan Cranston for "Breaking Bad," Jon Hamm for "Mad Men," Hugh Laurie for "House" and last year's winner Michael C. Hall for "Dexter." Laurie took home the award in this category in 2007 and 2009.

Best actress in a television drama series nominations went to Glenn Close for "Damages," Mariska Hargitay for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," Julianna Margulies for "The Good Wife," Elisabeth Moss for "Mad Men" and Kyra Sedgwick for "The Closer." Margulies won the Actor in this category in 1998 and 1999 for her work on "ER" and again in 2010 for "The Good Wife."

In the comedy arena, the best actor nominees were Alec Baldwin for "30 Rock," Ty Burrell for "Modern Family," Steve Carell for "The Office," Chris Colfer for "Glee" and Ed O'Neill for "Modern Family." Baldwin has won this category for the last four years.

Nominations for best actress in a comedy series went to Edie Falco for "Nurse Jackie," Tina Fey for "30 Rock," Jane Lynch for "Glee," Sofia Vergara for "Modern Family" and Betty White for "Hot in Cleveland." Fey has won this award for the last three years.

This marks Falco's 15th nomination for a SAG Award. Falco won best actress in a television drama in 2000, 2003 and 2008 for "The Sopranos," which also took home the best ensemble award in 2000 and 2008.

For White, her best actress and ensemble nominations are her first SAG Award nominations, despite the fact that last year she was the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild's 46th annual Life Achievement Award.

HBO led the networks with 10 nominations, followed by NBC with six and ABC, AMC, CBS, FOX and Showtime each receiving four nominations.

Nominations for the 13 film and eight television categories were announced at the Pacific Design Center by actresses Angie Harmon and Rosario Dawson.

The nominees are chosen by two randomly selected panels of 2,100 SAG members. The final ballot is sent to the guild's more than 100,000 members, who choose the winners, which will be announced Jan. 30 at the Shrine Auditorium.

The SAG Awards have done a slightly better job at predicting Oscar winners than the Golden Globes, for which nominations were announced Tuesday. Since the Screen Actors Guild Awards were first presented, honoring films released in 1995, 43 recipients of the Actor, as SAG's award is called, have gone on to win Oscars, compared with 40 Golden Globe winners during the same time span.

Copyright CNS - City News Service
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