Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Heath Ledger Remembrance Forum

SAG Awards on TNT and TBS

<< < (13/21) > >>

MaineWriter:
from Time magazine:

Monday, Jan. 28, 2008

Uplift at the SAG Awards

By Richard Corliss

The Golden Globes was turned from a Hollywood party to a ragtag fake-news conference that should have been on pubic-access cable. The Oscar telecast may be missing many of its top attractions. The writers' strike has crippled or threatened other awards shows, but last night the 14th annual Screen Actors Guild bash went on — the first trophy mart of the year to be televised, thanks to a waiver from the writers. It is also the one show with no "little people" awards: no sound editors, no writers or directors, just the beautiful people on the screen. Thus the SAG show had the sacred duty of reminding people what these orgies of self-congratulation are for: to parade famous flesh. It meant to brand on viewers' minds the impression all Hollywood actors want to make: We look faaaaabulous!

They did, too, and not just your familiar stunners like Vanessa Williams, Diane Lane and a younger-than-springtime Tom Cruise. Ellen Burstyn, 75, seemed as fresh and buoyant and prominently apple-cheeked as she did three decades ago in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Ruby Dee is 82, and has been in movies (and a lot of places more important, like the civil rights struggle) for 60 years. But when her brief role in American Gangster made her a surprise winner of the supporting actress award — sorry, Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role — she glided on stage to display all the class and radiance of a perennial American beauty.

And Julie Christie, who took the Most Notable Movie Thesping by a Person of the Female Persuasion prize for Away from Her, looked preternaturally glamorous at 66. Christie was 42 years removed from her first Oscar nomination, for the swinging Londoner of Darling, but she could have passed for that seductive bitch's older sister, not the elderly lady fading into Alzheimer's she played in her little Canadian movie. Reeling off the names of a dozen producers and fellow actors from the film, she smiled and added, "And if I've forgotten anyone, it's just because I'm still in character."

Javier Bardem, the cool Spanish dude who plays a mean malefactor in the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, won for Best Supporting Actor Who Happens to Have a Penis. (No Country also took the Best Film Ensemble prize.) Bardem reminded the crowd that, in his country, actors used to be deprived of a Christian burial because they were suspected of being prostitutes and homosexuals. So, we've come a long way, baby. (He apparently hasn't read the showbiz gossip columns lately.) Bardem also thanked for Coens for hiring him and, since they were also the film's editors, "for the hard work of choosing the good takes, instead of ... the ones where I really sucked."

As expected, Daniel Day-Lewis' role as a deranged oilman in There Will Be Blood won him the award for Best Performance by Someone Who Kills a Guy in a Bowling Alley. Day-Lewis introduced a somber note by speaking of his admiration for Heath Ledger, the 28-year-old actor who died last week. He praised Ledger's performances in Monster's Ball and Brokeback Mountain, and dedicated his award to the late Australian.

The SAG awards appeared to confirm the status of Day-Lewis, Bardem and Christie as front-runners for their respective Oscar awards. Dee was a sentimental favorite among the membership: Ossie Davis, her actor husband of 57 years and another lion for racial equality, died two years ago. But she still has stiff competition from Cate Blanchett, who impersonated Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, and Amy Ryan, multi-award-winner as the rotten mom in Gone Baby Gone.

As for No Country, it's the favorite for the Best Picture Oscar, but is still susceptible to a late charge by There Will Be Blood, which opened in a limited run Christmas day and is just now going into wide release. The SAG Ensemble prize is nice, but not conclusive. In only five of the past 12 years has the Ensemble award coincided with the top Oscar. (Last year Little Miss Sunshine won at SAG, but The Departed got the nod from the Motion Picture Academy.) The reason for the discrepancy is simple: acting awards are all about acting; movie awards aren't. And in the final Oscar ballot, actors may be the largest voting bloc, but they represent no more than 30% of the Academy membership.

One other thing, SAG. If you're going to de-sex the awards into subdivisions of Best Actor — if you're all actors, and the gender doesn't matter — then why not just give one prize, eligible to every performer in a leading role? You could call it Best Actperson.

But I shouldn't end on a rancorous note. As a moviegoer and a TV watcher, I'm truly grateful that the Screen Actors Guild invited us to their party. And thanks, everyone, for dressing up so nice.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1707372,00.html

Mikaela:
Here's a link to a clip of the "SAG In Memoriam" for those who'd like to see that.

I actually liked the way they'd handled that - the clip of Heath they used too. Ennis's expression there is the kind of stunned, sad and worried disbelief that it is so easy to relate to just now...

MaineWriter:
Thanks for that, Mikaela.

I am a mess this morning. I just had to say that!

I was just thinking about Daniel Day-Lewis. Some have commented (not here--out in the webosphere) that he didn't "know" Heath so they are puzzled by his tributes, first on Oprah and now at the SAG Awards. But I am not puzzled at all. I didn't "know" Heath either--if "knowing" means meeting someone in person and having a conversation. But I did know Heath. He was as real to me as any person and has touched me profoundly and deeply. My grief is real, too, and it seems to be hitting some sort of high point (or maybe that should be low point) today.

Thanks, everyone, for being here. I am glad I didn't watch that show last night. I didn't sleep as it was. If I had the images I just watched on YouTube running through my head all night, I'd really be a wreck.

L

MaineWriter:
From the New York Times:

January 28, 2008

Stars Seize Their Chance to Shine at SAG Awards

By EDWARD WYATT

LOS ANGELES — There is no show business without a show. And so, in a year when a writers’ strike has all but shut down much of Hollywood, the Screen Actors Guild Awards — as anonymous in most years as “Cop No. 3” in a summer blockbuster — took top billing Sunday and drew an inordinate amount of star wattage.

The Golden Globes ran in diminished form this year and the Oscars broadcast is still in question, making the SAG presentation at the Shrine Auditorium the first and perhaps only chance this year for Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones and George Clooney to walk the red carpet and talk about whose fashions they were wearing and what they have been doing without any new scripts to read.

But once the awards ceremony started, it began to seem like the old Hollywood still prevailed. The first three awards of the evening went to cast members of “The Sopranos,” with James Gandolfini winning for best male actor in a drama series and Edie Falco taking the award for best female actor in a drama series.

The entire cast then took the stage to receive the award for best ensemble in a drama series. “It is bittersweet because the show is over, but we are happy that we won,” Steven R. Schirripa, who played Bobby Baccalieri on the series, told reporters backstage. It was a final moment of recognition for a show that many believed to be the best on television. Only about a half-hour earlier, Mr. Gandolfini had walked down the red carpet all but unnoticed, wearing a beard and a look of weariness at having to put on his “Sopranos” persona one final time, almost a decade after the series took to the air.

The awards for film, which dominated the second half of the ceremony, seemed like a possible preview of the Oscars — or perhaps a replacement, depending on whether that awards show makes it to the air next month. The Writers Guild has threatened to picket the awards and has so far refused to grant a waiver to allow union writers to work on the show.

Each of the winning actors Sunday is also nominated for an Oscar in a similar category. Daniel Day-Lewis won for best male actor in a leading role for “There Will Be Blood” and dedicated his award to Heath Ledger, the star of “Brokeback Mountain,” who died last week in New York.

Asked backstage about his remarks, Mr. Day-Lewis said he had never met Mr. Ledger but was nevertheless struck hard by his death. “I suppose that’s all I’ve been thinking about for the last few days,” he said.

Julie Christie won for best female actor for her role in “Away From Her,” a performance that made her an early favorite for the Oscar. In a nod to the current labor troubles, Ms. Christie noted that it was wonderful to receive an award from one’s own union, “especially at a time when we’re being so forcefully reminded how important unions are.”

“No Country for Old Men,” a bloody modern-day western, won two awards, for best performance by a cast in a motion picture and for best supporting male actor, a prize that went to Javier Bardem for his portrayal of the murderous Anton Chigurh. Accepting the ensemble award on behalf of the cast, Josh Brolin thanked the film’s creators, Joel and Ethan Coen, whom he called “freaky little people” who made “a freaky little movie.”

Ruby Dee won for best female supporting actress in “American Gangster.” The ratings-challenged NBC series “30 Rock” also took two awards, with Tina Fey winning for best female actor in a comedy series and Alec Baldwin winning for best male actor in the same genre.

Ms. Fey, who is both an actor and a writer and who has been a highly visible presence on the picket lines, was the first winner to address the writers’ strike onstage. “I want to thank everyone is SAG for being so supportive of the Writers Guild of America,” she said.

The cast of “The Office” won for best television comedy ensemble. Queen Latifah was named best female actor in a television movie or mini-series for “Life Support,” and Kevin Kline won in the male version of that category for “As You Like It.”

Remarks by individual winners aside, the telecast tried to tread delicately around the fact that, in a season of labor strife, this was an awards ceremony sponsored by a labor union.

Some actors who also serve as writers wore silver and black lapel buttons with the initials W.G.A., signifying the Writers Guild of America, the union that has been on strike since Nov. 5.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards received a waiver from the Writers Guild and a promise that writers would not picket the show. It was the threat of pickets at the Golden Globes that essentially shut down that production, turning it into little more than a press conference.

It was not as if Sunday’s awards show put a lot of writers back to work, however. Unlike most awards shows, the Screen Actors Guild Awards presentation does not use a master of ceremonies and therefore employed only one writer.

Asked if he would honor picket lines and refuse to attend the Oscars, Mr. Day-Lewis said he would abide by the decision of the Screen Actors Guild. “Whatever decision they make is the right one as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

Christina Applegate, star of the ABC series “Samantha Who?,” said in an interview on the red carpet that she was hoping that the actors union would not begin its own strike when its contract is up at the end of June.

Noting that the strike has caused collateral damage to thousands of people in Los Angeles — seamstresses, caterers, dry cleaners and the like — she said, “I don’t think we can hurt them anymore.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/movies/awardsseason/28sags.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Rayn:

--- Quote from: Mikaela on January 28, 2008, 08:57:18 am ---Here's a link to a clip of the "SAG In Memoriam" for those who'd like to see that.

I actually liked the way they'd handled that - the clip of Heath they used too. Ennis's expression there is the kind of stunned, sad and worried disbelief that it is so easy to relate to just now...


--- End quote ---


I thought I was mostly over the grief, but I watched this memorial from the SAG of the many actors who died recently and seeing Heath there with the rest who have passed away drove home the fact that he's really gone.  He's the last one to appear and I just broke down again in tears...

I've struggle with denial/disbelief, but this made me know again, Heath has passed away.  It' s gonna take longer than I thought to get over his death, but I'm glad I watched it, so thanks for the link, Mikaela, because it helps... yes, tears help heal the sadness.

MaineWriter, I have a post on the grieving thread that affirms what you say, you're so right, we did know Heath, we knew that part of him he gave us in his art.   I you read it, it may help you.  It's was an attempt at saying goodbye, but like I said, I'm still not there and I'm not sure I'll ever quite be... over the loss of Heath Ledger.  I think whenever I see him in a film I will feel a twinge of pain and sadness.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page