Helen Mirren takes early award at SAG

LOS ANGELES, Jan 29: Britain's Helen Mirren was named best actress in a television movie or mini-series for her work as the monarch in ''Elizabeth I'' as the 13th annual Screen Actors Guild awards.

Mirren is favored to win one of the night's biggest prizes, best actress in a movie, for her work as Britain's current monarch, Elizabeth II, in ''The Queen.'' ''I am so proud. I love this award more than any other, especially being a Brit. American acting has always inspired me,'' she said.

Jeremy Irons won for best actor in a television movie or mini-series for his work in ''Elizabeth I,'' which was broadcast by cable television network HBO.

The Guild Awards have assumed even greater importance than usual because this year the fight for its top award -- best cast ensemble performance -- is up for grabs. Whoever wins it will be considered the front runner for the best picture award at the Oscars.

SAG members this year get to choose between five films for best ensemble performance: ''Babel,'' ''Bobby,'' ''The Departed,'' ''Dreamgirls'' and ''Little Miss Sunshine.'' In addition, 19 of the 20 actors nominated for Oscars this year are up for SAG awards -- showing once again that the actors' choice will be a strong indicator at what happens at the Academy awards on February 25.

Last year SAG voters choose ''Crash'' over the heavy favorite ''Brokeback Mountain,'' and ''Crash'' then went on to win the Oscar in an upset for best picture.

GUIDANCE FOR OSCARS

One reason for ''Crash's'' success was that it sent out copies of the movie to all 100,000 SAG members, thus bringing the film to everyone's attention, according to Oscar pundit Tom O'Neil.

This year three films -- ''The Departed,'' ''Little Miss Sunshine'' and ''Venus'' -- sent out copies, he said. SAG choices for best actress, actor and best supporting actress also held sway at the Oscars as Reese Witherspoon, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rachel Weisz all won the gold statuettes.

Actors make up about 22 percent of Oscar voters, making them the biggest single voting group for the awards.

The experts are looking to the Screen Actors Guild for guidance on which film will win the best-picture Oscar. Oscar experts said they assume that ''Dreamgirls'' would have won a nomination for best picture if it had strong actor support.

By omitting ''Dreamgirls'' from its list of films nominated for best picture, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences sent shock waves through the industry.

Many experts expected ''Dreamgirls'' to not only get nominated but to win best picture.

This leaves four films of which three are rated with the best chance of winning the top SAG award -- ''The Departed,'' ''Babel'' and ''Little Miss Sunshine.'' The final nominee in the category was ''Bobby,'' a tale of the assassination of Bobby Kennedy which received poor reviews and did badly at the box office but has plenty of winning performances.

''Babel,'' a tale of the globalization of pain and suffering, was shot in four countries in five languages with mostly casts of nonactors. one of its performers is up for best supporting actress, Rinko Kikuchi, at SAG. The favorite in that category is newcomer Jennifer Hudson from ''Dreamgirls.'' ''The Departed,'' a gangster saga directed by Martin Scorsese boasts a cast of Hollywood heavyweights, including Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio.

And ''Little Miss Sunshine'' boasts an actors' dream story -- it took six years to get made and stars a host of dedicated journeymen actors burning up the screen. For SAG members those actors'stories could be their own.

The front runner in the race for best actor is Forest Whitaker who plays the late Uganda dictator Idi Amin in ''The Last King of Scotland.''

Reuters