Screen Actors Guild Nominations

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST

• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Nine
• Precious

Insane that Up in the Air was snubbed here considering it's the frontrunner and the SAG Awards long ago gave up on being true to it's "Best Ensemble" meaning, not that Up in the Air doesn't have a lovely ensemble cast, it does, it's just also a star vehicle. So on that end, good for them I guess, even though the props for An Education seem an unreasonable snub in comparison. The rest make perfect sense and were easily predicted. Except for that shocker, I was 4\5 here-- not bad considering SAG many times makes crazy\ridiculous choices, and the fact that the awards themselves are still reletively new, it's harder to gauge historically.

BEST ACTOR

• Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
• George Clooney, Up in the Air
• Colin Firth, A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman, Invictus
• Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

I predicted this 5\5, yay me...but it was a cinch really since I doubted very highly Tobey Maguire would factor in at all after his Globe nomination, and sadly neither would my favorites Joseph Gordon Levitt (500 Days of Summer) or Sharlto Copley (District 9.)

BEST ACTRESS

• Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
• Helen Mirren, The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan, An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
• Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Again 5\5 here; I'm on a roll; I fully expect barring some major shift over the next month or so that both leading actor and leading actress will look the same come Oscar time.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Matt Damon, Invictus
• Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
• Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Again very predictable, with really Matt Damon being my only surprise (even with the Globe nomination), I was expecting Alfred Molina (An Education) to come back here, especially since that film did pretty well with SAG...I guess no one really dug that performance, which is fine with me...I also might have thought that Christian McKay might have a shot with Me & Orson Welles. Not totally convinced this is your Oscar line-up-- I still think Damon might be vulnerable; the other four I think are solid.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Penelope Cruz, Nine
• Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
• Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
• Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds
• Mo'Nique, Precious

The only other shock this morning as from Up in the Air in the top award, is the craziness of Diane Kruger here-- where did that come from? The Inglourious crew seemed to have only one acting shot (Waltz), and possible longshot (Melanie Laurant)-- oh you crazy actors, did you guys confuse the foreign girls here! The rest are predictable, and aside from the shock of Kruger, I stil expect Julianne Moore (A Single Man) to take to fifth spot come Oscar morning.