Blanchett gets an Oscar boost
2005-02-07 11:22
Los Angeles - Cate Blanchett won the supporting actress honour on Saturday at the Screen Actors Guild awards for her role as Katharine Hepburn in the Howard Hughes epic The Aviator.
Blanchett thanked co-star Leonardo DiCaprio and especially The Aviator director Martin Scorsese.
Looking at her trophy, a statue of a performer holding the comedy and tragedy masks that symbolise actors, Blanchett said, "I think the head, shoulders, knees and toes of this belong to Martin Scorsese, who led us all and brought us great courage."
The win gave Blanchett an Academy awards boost just as voting gets under way for Hollywood's top honours.
The 11th annual Screen Actors Guild awards provided a warm-up bout for The Aviator and Million Dollar Baby before they duke it out for best picture at the Oscars. The Howard Hughes biography and the boxing drama were among nominees for best performance by a movie's cast, considered the guild's equivalent of a best picture prize.
The two films are in a dead heat for the top prize at the Oscars on February 27. The winner of the SAG cast performance prize has gone on to receive the top Oscar four times in the nine years since the guild added that category.
Other nominees
Along with Jamey Foxx, other key acting nominees for the guild honours included Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman of Dollar Baby DiCaprio of The Aviator Annette Bening of the theater farce Being Julia and Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church of Sideways.
Among TV nominees, The Sopranos led dramatic contenders with four nominations, while Everybody Loves Raymond and Will & Grace topped the comedy field with three nominations each.
The guild was presenting its lifetime achievement award to James Garner, who also was a film nominee for supporting actor in The Notebook.
Guild nominees were chosen by 4 200 randomly selected union members. The union's full membership of 98 000 was eligible to vote for winners.
The ceremony by the main union representing Hollywood actors is one of the last major awards shows before the Oscars. The guild has a solid track record at forecasting eventual Oscar winners, including 2003 recipients Charlize Theron for Monster, Renee Zellweger for Cold Mountain and Tim Robbins for Mystic River.
On the net:
www.sagawards.com
- AP