Oscar favorites honored at SAG Awards
LOS ANGELES - Helen Mirren of "The Queen" and Forest Whitaker of "The Last King of Scotland" won Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday as best lead players, their latest prizes on the road to the Academy Awards.
The road-trip romp "Little Miss Sunshine" won the prize for best film ensemble, the guild's equivalent of a best-picture award.
Solidifying their positions as Oscar favorites, Mirren won for playing British monarch Elizabeth II and Whitaker for starring as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson won supporting-acting honors as soulful singers in "Dreamgirls," reinforcing their status as Oscar front-runners as well.
The best-picture Oscar race, though, remains wide open, with "The Queen" and "Little Miss Sunshine" up against three sprawling dramas, "The Departed," "Babel" and "Letters From Iwo Jima."
Mirren said she initially was dismayed at the prospect of donning Elizabeth II's conservative wardrobe, including sensible shoes and tweed skirts.
"I thought, I can't play anyone who chooses to wear those clothes. I just can't do it," said Mirren, who also won the guild honor for best actress in a miniseries as the current monarch's namesake in "Elizabeth I."
"But I learned to love the person who chooses to wear those clothes, because I learned to love a person without vanity, but with a great sense of discipline that I understand. With a great sense of duty that I understand. And with a great deal of courage, and that I understand."
It seemed the soft-spoken Whitaker was struck speechless, rambling through some awkward words of gratitude.
"I want to thank you for allowing me to have a moment like this," Whitaker said.
"Little Miss Sunshine" co-star Greg Kinnear thanked the German automaker that designed the rickety minibus the film's horribly dysfunctional family drives to their little girl's beauty pageant.
"I'd like to thank the engineers at Volkswagen for making a beautiful vehicle back in 1969 that is so comfortable, so safe," Kinnear said.
Murphy, who built his career as a fast-talking comic player, began with a thank-you speech more appropriate for a serious thespian — but his sober demeanor proved a gag.
"What a tremendous honor to be recognized by one's peers. I've been acting for some 25 years now and this is a tremendous honor," said Murphy, talking in a British accent.
"No, I'm sorry," said Murphy, cracking up in laughter. "I feel goofy up here, 'cause I don't be winning stuff."
As a powerhouse vocalist in "Dreamgirls," Hudson continued her breakneck rise to movie stardom after becoming famous as an "American Idol" contender two years ago. Hudson thanked her co-stars, who included Murphy, Jamie Foxx and Beyonce Knowles.
"Because of you, I was able to work and learn from the best. Yes, you are the best," said Hudson, who added thanks to the actors guild. "Just thank you for noticing little old me and accepting me."
"Dreamgirls," which had been considered a potential best-picture favorite at the Academy Awards, was among the guild nominees for best ensemble cast, yet was shut out of the nominations for the top Oscar.
Backstage, Murphy said he and his "Dreamgirls" castmates were as surprised as everyone else that the film received a leading eight Oscar nominations — but not one for best picture.
"We got eight nominations, that was a great thing. We were happy about that," he said. "I was so happy to be nominated, I wasn't feeling disappointment about anything. I was caught off guard that we didn't get nominated for best picture but I've just been happy, nonstop happy."
The ensemble win for "Little Miss Sunshine" could give the low-budget film a best-picture boost at the Oscars. But academy voters tend to favor heavy drama such as fellow nominees "Babel" and "The Departed."
The guild category has never been a reliable forecast for how the top Oscar might play out. In the 11 years since the guild added the ensemble honor, only five winners have gone on to receive the best-picture Oscar, including 2005's "Crash."
The guild's individual acting winners often line up with the Oscars, however. Three of the four guild winners for 2005 — Philip Seymour Hoffman of "Capote," Reese Witherspoon of "Walk the Line" and Rachel Weisz of "The Constant Gardener" — all went on to receive Oscars, while all four guild acting winners for 2004 won at the Oscars.
Whitaker, Mirren, Murphy and Hudson have dominated Hollywood's acting honors this awards season, all four also taking home Golden Globes.
Mirren was diplomatic backstage when asked if she wants the Oscar.
"I'm not going there right now," Mirren said. "But it's been the most incredible year for me, ever. That's been amazing at this end of my life."
Mirren's "Elizabeth I" co-star Jeremy Irons won the guild's prize for best actor in a TV movie or miniseries.
Other TV winners were America Ferrera of "Ugly Betty" and Alec Baldwin of "30 Rock" as performers in comedy series, and Chandra Wilson of "Grey's Anatomy" and Hugh Laurie of "House" as performers in dramatic shows. TV ensemble prizes went to "Grey's Anatomy" for drama and "The Office" for comedy.
"This is quite the honor having these people present this to us," Steve Carell, star of "The Office," said of the award's presenters, the cast of the sitcom classic "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," including Moore, Edward Asner and Cloris Leachman.
13th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® Recipients
Female Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries
Helen Mirren / ELIZABETH I – Elizabeth I - HBO
Male Actor in a TV Movie or Miniseries
Jeremy Irons / ELIZABETH I – Earl of Leicester - HBO
Female Actor in a Comedy Series
America Ferrera / UGLY BETTY – Betty Suarez - ABC
Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin / 30 ROCK – Jack Donaghy - NBC
Ensemble in a Comedy Series
THE OFFICE - NBC Leslie David Baker - Stanley Hudson Brian Baumgartner - Kevin Malone Steve Carell - Michael Scott David Denman - Roy Anderson Jenna Fischer - Pam Beesly Kate Flannery - Meredith Palmer Melora Hardin - Jan Levinson Mindy Kaling - Kelly Kapoor Angela Kinsey - Angela Martin John Krasinski - Jim Halpert Paul Lieberstein - Toby Flenderson B.J. Novak - Ryan Howard Oscar Nunez - Oscar Martinez Phyllis Smith - Phyllis Lapin Rainn Wilson - Dwight Schrute
Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Eddie Murphy / DREAMGIRLS – James “Thunder” Early Paramount Pictures
Life Achievement Award
Julie Andrews
Female Actor in a Drama Series
Chandra Wilson / GREY’S ANATOMY – Dr. Miranda Bailey - ABC
Male Actor in a Drama Series
Hugh Laurie / HOUSE – Dr. Gregory House - FOX
Ensemble in a Drama Series
GREY’S ANATOMY - ABC Justin Chambers - Alex Karev Eric Dane - Mark Sloan Patrick Dempsey - Derek Shepherd Katherine Heigl - Isobel “Izzie” Stevens T.R. Knight - George O’Malley Sandra Oh - Cristina Yang James Pickens, Jr. - Richard Webber Ellen Pompeo - Meredith Grey Sara Ramirez - Callie Torres Kate Walsh - Addison Montgomery Shepherd Isaiah Washington - Preston Burke Chandra Wilson - Miranda Bailey
Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Jennifer Hudson / DREAMGIRLS – Effie White - Paramount Pictures
Male Actor in a Leading Role
Forest Whitaker / THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND – Idi Amin - Fox Searchlight Pictures
Female Actor in a Leading Role
Helen Mirren / THE QUEEN – The Queen - Miramax Films
Cast of a Motion Picture
Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin - LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Hey Now: It’s Garry Shandling’s Obsession
It was almost nine years ago that Larry Sanders, the fictional talk-show host who was a too-close-for-comfort amalgam of Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno and Jack Paar, signed off the air. In the final episode of his show (and of the biting HBO series that bore the same name), he perched Carsonesque on a stool in front of a blue curtain and started his farewell monologue.
“To you at home, thank you so much,” he began, choking up. Regaining his composure, he returned his gaze to the audience and continued, “To tell you the truth, I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do without you.”
Larry wasn’t just losing his talk show; he was losing a nightly ego boost, and the security of a shimmering curtain that kept the real world at bay. But what of Garry Shandling, the comedian who not only played Larry but created him and “The Larry Sanders Show”? After a six-year run, what would either of them do without it?
“The Larry Sanders Show” had always straddled a fine line between reality and fiction, with Mr. Shandling encouraging the actors and writers to draw on their own experiences to send up the most unappealing aspects of Hollywood culture.
Thus an endless stream of celebrities were recruited to play cartoonish versions of themselves, whether it was Ellen DeGeneres having a fling with Larry while Hollywood buzzed about her sexuality, or Alec Baldwin sleeping with Larry’s wife while the couple were separated, only to be booked later as one of Larry’s guests.
But while the actor and his main character shared more than a few awkward insecurities, Mr. Shandling had never pursued that nightly fix of entertaining millions. As a regular substitute host on “The Tonight Show” in the 1980s, he could have tried to succeed Mr. Carson and was later offered Mr. Letterman’s old job. He declined.
Nonetheless that final “Larry Sanders” monologue proved prescient: Mr. Shandling, now 57, has never entirely moved on. Unlike Jerry Seinfeld, whose television series ended that same spring, Mr. Shandling has not done a stand-up tour. And unlike Bill Cosby, whose “Cosby Show” signed off NBC in 1992 only to be succeeded by “Cosby” on CBS, he has not pursued another series.
Meanwhile, as “Larry Sanders” fades from memory, shows like “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Entourage” on HBO, and “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” and “30 Rock” on NBC, have tried to replicate the show-business realism that Mr. Shandling did first and, arguably, best.
Save for two gigs as host of the Emmy Awards and scattered movie roles, Mr. Shandling has kept a low profile. “It’s very similar to — what is it? — the seven stages of grieving,” he said recently, during the first extended interview he had granted in several years. “First there’s the shock,” he said, at ease in a soft leather chair in his living room. “Now I’m going to head for something funny here. Then there’s denial, acceptance and,” he paused, “masturbation.”
As it turns out, the wrenching process of producing as many as 18 episodes a season was so grueling for Mr. Shandling — who was not only the star but also the head writer and so-called show runner — that he never really gave the show a proper goodbye. Meanwhile, in the midst of ending the show, he filed a spectacular lawsuit against his manager, Brad Grey, whom he accused of cheating him.
Hence there was no real wrap party for the cast, and even years later Mr. Shandling was still too exhausted to contribute much to a DVD of episodes from the first season. “It was unfortunate the show couldn’t end with a higher spirit,” he said.
These days Mr. Shandling seems more settled. He spends much of his time boxing (four times a week) or in periodic pickup basketball games at his home.
He is financially secure, at least partly as a result of his settlement with Mr. Grey, valued by Mr. Shandling’s lawyer at more than $10 million. His bushy brown hair, so memorable from his early “Tonight” appearances, remains full but is now close-cropped; his face is tan and taut. And he has sought peace in a place Larry never would: the study of Zen Buddhism. He meditates on long, solitary trips to Hawaii or around his sprawling home, with its sloping backyard overlooking a canyon.
“My sense is that this has been a time for Garry of introspection, and, it sounds funny to say about a comedian or comic actor, of real spiritual growth,” said Peter Tolan, a writer and producer who was his longtime collaborator on the show. “He’s in a better place than when we were doing the show.”
Still, Mr. Shandling has lately been tugged by a powerful, almost obsessive desire to go back and revisit the breadth of his “Larry Sanders’’ experience, for the purpose, he said, of finding out both who he was then and how he might give the show, and his role in it, a fitting ending. His vehicle: a DVD set, drawn from all six seasons of “Larry Sanders,” to be released by Sony Pictures on April 17.
Other performers might be content to put out such packages with a few sweeteners, maybe some outtakes and running commentary from the star. But Mr. Shandling has never been like other performers. More than a year ago he set out, hand-held camera crew in tow, to interview virtually everyone connected to the show. There are the series regulars, including Jeffrey Tambor, who played Hank Kingsley (“hey now!”), Larry’s eager-to-please yet quick-to-lash-out sidekick, and Rip Torn, who played Artie, Larry’s fiercely protective executive producer. Mr. Shandling’s camera also found many of the A-list guest stars whom he had goaded into cameos on the original show, including Mr. Seinfeld, Mr. Baldwin, Sharon Stone, David Duchovny, Carol Burnett, Jon Stewart and Tom Petty.
Thus the DVD’s title, “Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show,” and its length: four discs, despite containing just 23 episodes.
Mr. Shandling concedes that these recorded conversations — which are presented largely unedited, with awkward silences and plenty of mistakes — are at least partly self-congratulatory. Taken as a whole the treatment is also expansive, exhaustive and at times exhausting, with Mr. Shandling’s new material (including a documentary) adding up to nearly eight hours.
But the results are, in many instances, riveting. There are some good casting stories: Ms. Burnett, for example, tells how Mr. Shandling persuaded her to be a guest and to play against her clean-cut image. (On the talk-show-within-a-show, she warns Larry that the loincloth costume he’s wearing isn’t covering what it needs to cover.) And Bruno Kirby, whom Larry memorably “bumped” from the last episode, made an appearance as well — his last, it turned out, before he died last summer.
But to those who watch them carefully — and Mr. Shandling hasn’t a clue whether anyone will — the interviews are also striking for his efforts to make amends. He apologizes to some of the best-known people in Hollywood for having failed to thank them for their service on “Larry Sanders,” and for largely allowing them to drift from his life in the years since.
It is as if the drama club president has returned to high school, a decade after graduating, to find out what his classmates and teachers really thought of him, while also telling them he was sorry if he occasionally passed them in the corridor without saying hello. Mr. Shandling has a slightly darker analogy.
“What’s that old adage, you don’t hear nice things until the funeral?” he said. “I wanted to objectively see the realities of that time. What was I like? What were my relationships like, with the actors and writers? What did they feel?”
Thus the viewer gets to listen in as Mr. Shandling apologizes for not reciprocating when Mr. Baldwin promised to send a gift after his cameo appearance, and later for losing Mr. Baldwin’s cellphone number. This scene of self-reckoning takes place in a boxing gym.
“I thought you really extended yourself,” Mr. Shandling says, as his hands are being wrapped outside the ring. “I did not appropriately extend myself back. I’d like to. ...”
“Make it up to me by coming in here and smacking me in the face a few times?” Mr. Baldwin says, leaning against the ropes.
Mr. Shandling responds, “I’m going to allow you to hit me so hard that I don’t have to. ... ”
“Work again for the next five years?” Mr. Baldwin interjects.
No, Mr. Shandling says, “ ...finish these DVDs.” Mr. Baldwin eventually gets fairly pummeled by the better-trained Mr. Shandling, while the two somehow conduct a meaningful conversation about comedy.
It is hard of course for anyone to be genuine with a camera trained on him, but an exchange that raw would never find its way onto Jay Leno’s “Tonight,” or even Bravo’s “Inside the Actors Studio.”
The most voyeuristic moment on the DVD, however, probably comes when Mr. Shandling sits down in a production office to talk to Linda Doucett. On the show she played Hank’s secretary, Darlene, but in real life she was Mr. Shandling’s fiancée, at least for a time. After the engagement ended, she was fired, and in 1996 she sued Mr. Shandling, along with Mr. Grey’s company, for sexual harassment and wrongful termination. Mr. Shandling and Ms. Doucett eventually reached a settlement, but last March she told The New York Times that he had warned her that Mr. Grey once considered putting Anthony Pellicano, the private investigator now under federal investigation, on her case.
In the interview Ms. Doucett is teary as she and Mr. Shandling openly discuss their relationship. “It’s really perfect for ‘Larry Sanders,’ ” he said, “and perfect for the DVD and, I suppose, perfect for my life that I’m able to have captured the nature of this personal relationship on tape.” (He said he would have nothing to say about the Pellicano matter, “until it’s finished.”)
Perhaps appropriately, the four discs end with Mr. Shandling in idle conversation with a Vietnamese monk, who is seeking to explain the meaning of a particular Buddhist statue.
“So always extend compassion,” Mr. Shandling is heard saying to the monk, Hanh Nguyen, who interrupts him to add, “Love and compassion to all sentient beings.”
“Even for the enemy,” Mr. Shandling adds, sounding like a post-enlightenment Larry.
The monk responds: “Sure. The true enemy is ignorance.”
GARRY SHANDLING’S humor always had the neurotic shadings of someone raised a summer weekend’s drive from the borscht belt, but he actually grew up in Tucson. His family had moved there from Chicago because the dry climate better suited his older brother, Barry, who suffered from cystic fibrosis.
Barry died when Garry was 10. “I was devastated,” Mr. Shandling recalled. “I remember starting to cry in the schoolyard. I didn’t quite know how to deal with it. I think there was some damage in that.”
His comedic awakening came in his early teens, when he watched “Hot Dog,” a children’s show that, in this particular episode, featured an appearance by Woody Allen. “Here he is, this kid in Arizona, he’s not in New York,” Mr. Shandling recalled, “and while being Jewish, he’s not at all Jewish in the traditional sense, of a noisy Jewish household. And suddenly he sees Woody Allen, and he relates.”
He went on to study electrical engineering at the University of Arizona, but in his junior year he wrote a monologue in the style of George Carlin. As it turned out, he was able to get it to Mr. Carlin, who read it and encouraged him to pursue a career in comedy. After he sold scripts for “Sanford and Son” and “Welcome Back, Kotter,” his big break came during a “Tonight” appearance in March 1981, in which Carson told viewers: “His name is Garry Shandling. You’ll hear a lot about him.”
In his first sitcom, “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” Mr. Shandling frequently broke character to address the camera and even walk into the audience. That experience led directly to “Larry Sanders,” in which he marshaled everything he had seen backstage in Hollywood to produce, in cinéma vérité style, a scripted half-hour comedy intended to show how people really treat one another when the spotlights are off.
For several years now the creative well that fed those efforts seems to have run dry, and instead of mounting something original, he has been content to retrace old steps. Watching him during this period has been somewhat frustrating to some old friends, who believe he is young enough and creative enough to find fresh ways to entertain people.
Mr. Seinfeld, for example, is among those who have been encouraging Mr. Shandling to go back on the road as a stand-up comedian, with an eye toward bringing his act to television. In a recent phone interview Mr. Seinfeld said he understood his friend’s reluctance.
“When you go through this TV thing like he and I did, you make so much, you do so much, you’re kind of overfull at the end,” he said. “You don’t want to write anything. You don’t want to read anybody at an audition.”
“Someone starts pitching you an idea,” he added, “and your head just explodes.”
And yet, Jeffrey Tambor said, the same relentlessness Mr. Shandling displayed on “Larry Sanders” was reassuringly evident in his preparation of the DVD. When Mr. Tambor arrived at Mr. Shandling’s home for a joint interview with Mr. Torn, he was filmed from the time he left his car, so no moment would be lost.
“He’s thrown himself into this like I’ve never seen,” Mr. Tambor said. “Happy go lucky, he ain’t. Heels clicking, he ain’t. But I think he had enormous pride in that show, and I think that continues.”
Told of Mr. Shandling’s various attempts to make amends, Mr. Tambor said: “He certainly doesn’t owe me an apology. He changed my life.”
Nonetheless, by finally putting his “Sanders” experience to bed between the covers of his DVD, Mr. Shandling is hoping that he may finally be able to consider what the next new thing might be. “It certainly didn’t start that way,” he said, “but there is no question that this became a reflective journey that I’m still absorbing.”
One idea he is mulling is working up to a stand-up special, as Mr. Seinfeld and others have urged. Another project would draw from his study of Buddhism and shed further light on “what life is about, what the human condition is about,” maybe a series or documentary. He has yet to divine quite what.
“Usually things become clearer as I get closer to the moment of execution,” he said. And then, because old habits die hard, he added, “That’s not to be confused with Saddam Hussein’s execution.”
SAG Awards offer tune-up for top awards as front-runners cruise toward Oscars
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Helen Mirren won the Screen Actors Guild Award on Sunday for the title role in the TV miniseries "Elizabeth I," a possible warmup for her potential film award later in the evening as Elizabeth II in "The Queen."
"I'm so proud. I love this award more than any other award," said Mirren, who was chosen as best actress in a TV movie or miniseries. "I think especially being a Brit, American film acting has always inspired us and influenced us and pressed us, or me, anyway. I've always looked to American film actors to teach me how to do it, basically."
Her "Elizabeth I" co-star Jeremy Irons won the guild's prize for best actor in a TV movie or miniseries.
Mirren's TV win as the 16th and 17th century British monarch follows triumphs for the same role at the Emmys and Golden Globes. Her film turn as the leader's modern-day namesake in "The Queen" has brought her a string of Hollywood honors that is expected to culminate with the best-actress prize at the Feb. 25 Oscars.
On the movie side, this year's Screen Actors Guild Awards appeared to be a dress rehearsal for the Academy Awards.
Nominees in the four film-acting categories for the guild awards were virtually identical to contenders announced at the Oscar nominations last week, including front-runners Mirren, Forest Whitaker, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson.
With 19 of the 20 SAG nominees also earning Oscar slots, the guild awards were poised to give winners a chance to practice their academy thank-yous for Hollywood's top prizes Feb. 25.
Along with front-runner Mirren, the lead-actor honour was favoured to Whitaker as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland." Mirren and Whitaker have dominated earlier film honors throughout the awards season.
Murphy and Hudson were solid bets to take home supporting prizes as soulful singers in the musical "Dreamgirls."
The category for overall ensemble cast, the guild's equivalent of a best-picture award, included three of the best-picture Oscar contenders: the sprawling global drama "Babel," the mob epic "The Departed" and the edgy road-trip comedy "Little Miss Sunshine."
"Dreamgirls," which had been considered a potential best-picture favorite at the Academy Awards, also was among the guild cast nominees, yet was shut out of the nominations for the top Oscar. The other cast nominee was the Robert Kennedy tale "Bobby."
Besides the five film prizes, the guild also honors television achievement in eight categories.
The ensemble-cast winner may get a boost for best picture at the Oscars, though the guild category has never been a reliable forecast for how the Oscars might play out. In the 11 years since the guild added the ensemble honor, only five winners have gone on to receive the best-picture Oscar, including 2005's "Crash."
Past guild ensemble winners include "Sideways," "Gosford Park," "Apollo 13" and "The Birdcage," none of which won the best-picture Oscar.
The guild's individual-acting winners fare much better on Oscar night because many of the voters for that category are also members of the academy's actors branch, which chooses the acting Oscars.
Three of the four guild winners for 2005 - Philip Seymour Hoffman of "Capote," Reese Witherspoon of "Walk the Line" and Rachel Weisz of "The Constant Gardener" - all went on to receive Oscars, while all four guild acting winners for 2004 won at the Oscars.
The 13th annual SAG awards also recognized Julie Andrews for lifetime achievement.
Film and TV nominees were chosen by two groups of 2,100 people randomly chosen from the guild's 120,000 members. The guild's full membership was eligible to vote for winners.
Spoof 'Epic Movie' tops box office
LOS ANGELES - The comedy spoof "Epic Movie" debuted atop the box office as Oscar contenders got a bump in the first weekend since the Academy Award nominations were announced, according to studio and industry estimates Sunday.
"Epic Movie," which lampoons dozens of films, a few MTV shows and Paris Hilton, raked in $19.2 million. It was a cost-effective release for 20th Century Fox, which enjoyed a similar turnstile bonanza a year ago with the spoof "Date Movie."
"When you gross the first weekend almost what it costs to make, it is enormously successful. We're pleased," Fox executive Bert Livingston said of the Regency Productions film distributed by Fox.
"It seems these teen audiences have just this insatiable appetite for these spoofs," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "They are economically sensible. It's just a license to make money for the studio."
Audiences also turned out for Universal Pictures' "Smokin' Aces," a violent, dark comedy about hit men converging on Lake Tahoe for the $1 million prize to assassinate magician Buddy "Aces" Israel. It opened in second place with $14.3 million.
"It's a very edgy, R-rated, hip and cool movie. It doesn't surprise me," Dergarabedian said.
In third place was Fox's everlasting "Night at the Museum," which took in another $9.5 million to boost its six-week total to $217 million. The new Jennifer Garner movie from Sony, "Catch and Release," was No. 4, and "Stomp the Yard" from Sony/Screen Gems was fifth.
Four Oscar nominated films followed: Paramount's "Dreamgirls" was No. 6, Sony's "The Pursuit of Happyness" was No. 7, "Pan's Labyrinth" from Picturehouse was No. 8 and Miramax's "The Queen" was No. 9.
Oscar aspirant "The Departed," which added 1,326 screens Friday, jumped from No. 35 last weekend to No. 12 with a $3 million take.
"Babel," another Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner, was 13th with $2.6 million, a 25 percent hike over the previous weekend.
"Obviously we're very enthused about the impact of the seven Academy Award nominations," Paramount Vantage executive Rob Schulze said of the "Babel" showing.
Rounding out the Top 10 was "The Hitcher" from Focus/Rogue.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Epic Movie," $19.2 million.
2. "Smokin' Aces," $14.3 million.
3. "Night at the Museum," $9.5 million.
4. "Catch and Release," $8 million.
5. "Stomp the Yard," $7.8 million.
6. "Dreamgirls," $6.6 million.
7. "The Pursuit of Happyness," $5 million.
8. "Pan's Labyrinth," $4.5 million.
9. "The Queen," $4 million.
10. "The Hitcher," $3.6 million.
String of stars to fete Joni Mitchell at songwriters gala
A star-studded gala featuring James Taylor and Chaka Khan will usher folk singer Joni Mitchell into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in Toronto on Sunday night.
An assortment of singers will take the stage to pay tribute to the Alberta-born, Saskatchewan-raised Mitchell, as well as other inductees.
Taylor will sing Woodstock and Khan will do Help Me, while Canadian opera star Measha Brueggergosman will be delivering a version of Both Sides Now. They are three of five Mitchell songs to be inducted into the hall, the others being Big Yellow Taxi and You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio.
Brueggergosman, a classical soprano singer who grew up listening to Mitchell's music, credits Mitchell for teaching her "to value poetry in music."
"She taught me the importance of text, that words above all else are important. She is such an amazing poet in addition to writing unbelievable songs."
Mitchell became a folk singer in the mid-1960s and had her big break when she sold Both Sides Now to American singer Judy Collins in 1968.
During her career Mitchell branched out into experimental jazz, captured five Grammys and was inducted into the Canadian Rock Hall of Fame in 1981.
Homage to Jean-Pierre Ferland
Francophone stars Isabelle Boulay, Laurence Jalbert and Mario Pelchat will each deliver an homage to Quebec icon Jean-Pierre Ferland, with French star Patrick Bruel also scheduled to participate, via a performance from Paris.
Other 2007 inductees include "Canada's Father of Country Music" Wilf Carter, and Broadway and film composer Raymond Egan.
Other tracks being honoured include Spinning Wheel, the David Clayton-Thomas song that has been recorded by more than 400 artists in 20 languages, and You Were on My Mind by Sylvia Fricker (Tyson).
The ceremony will include the presentation of legacy awards to Canadian tenor Henry Burr and Canadian folk music impresario Sam Gesser.
Songs must be more than 25 years old to be considered for the hall of fame.
Also scheduled to take part in the celebration, the fourth induction ceremony for the hall, are Herbie Hancock, George Canyon, Michael Bublé, Emm Gryner and Corb Lund.
Hosted by CBC Radio's Andrew Craig and Radio-Canada's Sophie Durocher, the black-tie event will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
CBC Radio will broadcast segments of the tribute gala, beginning with Sounds Like Canada on Radio One at 11 a.m. Monday, and as a two-hour special beginning at 8 p.m. Monday on Radio Two. A CBC-TV show about the gala will follow on March 5.
SAG Awards offer tune-up for Oscar night
LOS ANGELES - This year's Screen Actors Guild Awards appeared to be a dress rehearsal for the Academy Awards.
Nominees in the four film-acting categories for Sunday's 13th annual guild awards were virtually identical to contenders announced at the Oscar nominations last week, including front-runners Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker, Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson.
With 19 of the 20 SAG nominees also earning Oscar slots, the guild awards were poised to give winners a chance to practice their academy thank-yous for Hollywood's top prizes Feb. 25.
The lead-acting honors were favored to go to Mirren as British monarch Elizabeth II in "The Queen" and Whitaker as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland." Mirren and Whitaker have dominated earlier film honors throughout the awards season.
Murphy and Hudson were solid bets to take home supporting prizes as soulful singers in the musical "Dreamgirls."
The category for overall ensemble cast, the guild's equivalent of a best-picture award, included three of the best-picture Oscar contenders: the sprawling global drama "Babel," the mob epic "The Departed" and the edgy road-trip comedy "Little Miss Sunshine."
"Dreamgirls," which had been considered a potential best-picture favorite at the Academy Awards, also was among the guild cast nominees, yet was shut out of the nominations for the top Oscar. The other cast nominee was the Robert Kennedy tale "Bobby."
Besides the five film prizes, the guild also honors television achievement in eight categories. Among this year's nominees were Mirren for best actress in a movie or miniseries as the current monarch's namesake and predecessor in "Elizabeth I."
The ensemble-cast winner may get a boost for best picture at the Oscars, though the guild category has never been a reliable forecast for how the Oscars might play out. In the 11 years since the guild added the ensemble honor, only five winners have gone on to receive the best-picture Oscar, including 2005's "Crash."
Past guild ensemble winners include "Sideways," "Gosford Park," "Apollo 13" and "The Birdcage," none of which won the best-picture Oscar.
The guild's individual-acting winners fare much better on Oscar night because many of the voters for that category are also members of the academy's actors branch, which chooses the acting Oscars.
Three of the four guild winners for 2005 — Philip Seymour Hoffman of "Capote," Reese Witherspoon of "Walk the Line" and Rachel Weisz of "The Constant Gardener" — all went on to receive Oscars, while all four guild acting winners for 2004 won at the Oscars.
The 13th annual SAG awards also recognized Julie Andrews for lifetime achievement.
Film and TV nominees were chosen by two groups of 2,100 people randomly chosen from the guild's 120,000 members. The guild's full membership was eligible to vote for winners.