Screen Actors Guild

The gritty, globe-trotting drama "Babel" continued to be an award-season standout Thursday, picking up three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's critically acclaimed film weaving together four seemingly disconnected story lines earned a nod for its ensemble cast, which includes Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett as a couple whose trip to Morocco takes a tragic turn.

“The Help” was the upset winner Sunday night at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, taking home trophies for Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis and for the ensemble - the equivalent of Oscar's best picture. The ensemble win for the drama about racism in the South in the early 1960s was a surprise. Many thought the honor would go to the black-and-white silent film “The Artist,” which had been on a seemingly unstoppable roll going into the show. Davis accepted on behalf of the cast just moments after she won for outstanding performance by a female actor for playing a domestic who tries to tell the world about the plight of African American servants and their white employers.

Leon Ames, a dapper character actor best known as a kindly father in film and television roles and the last surviving founder of the Screen Actors Guild, has died. He was 91. Ames died Tuesday in Laguna Beach as the result of a stroke, the guild announced Wednesday. The veteran actor was perhaps best remembered as Alonzo Smith, the father of Judy Garland in the 1944 film classic "Meet Me in St.

In recent months the name Mary Tyler Moore has been bandied about with unexpected regularity bordering on reckless abandon. This is not just because she recently made her first TV appearance in many moons on pal Betty White's show "Hot in Cleveland" or because she proved at last month's televised fete for White's 90th birthday that she can still rock a white pantsuit or even because she is receiving this year's Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award...

The Screen Actors Guild, whose headquarters, at 7750 Sunset Blvd., has been a landmark since 1956, is expected to move by next spring to the old Hollywood Congregational Church at 7065 Hollywood Blvd. "We're committed to it," Joe Ruskin, first vice president of the guild and western regional vice president of Actors Equity, said. "Public signing of the lease is scheduled for Wednesday at 3 p.m." Developer Thomas L.

For actors, it's a little like an electronic casting call. The Screen Actors Guild on Tuesday unveiled an online casting directory called iActor for members to upload their head shots, resumes and video and audio clips to create their individual profiles. The service will allow casting directors to search the profiles to find the right actors based on various criteria such as gender, skills and physical characteristics.

Members of the Screen Actors Guild voted overwhelmingly to approve increases in dues and initiation fees. The membership voted 68% to 32% in favor of raising dues for the first time since 1999. The increase will raise additional funds to help the union expand its organizing and emerging technology departments. In May base dues will increase by $16 a year for members earning less than $500,000 annually. Actors earning $500,001 to $1 million will pay 0.25% of their earnings.

The top administrator for the Screen Actors Guild is planning to leave his post in April to become a consultant after the ratification this week of a new three-year contract between actors and studios, union sources said. A. Robert Pisano, the union's chief executive and national executive director, has notified SAG President Melissa Gilbert and other officers of his plans.

Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey won top acting honors Sunday from the Screen Actors Guild for their roles as a dysfunctional couple in the suburban satire "American Beauty." The lead acting awards position Bening and Spacey as front-runners for the Oscars, to be awarded on March 26. "American Beauty" also won the guild's ensemble acting award. The movie leads all contenders with eight Oscar nominations.

The Screen Actors Guild, citing its opposition to "blacklisting," has now joined Vanessa Redgrave's appeal against a federal judge's decision in the Boston Symphony Orchestra case. The 48-year-old British actress, who had announced her decision to appeal in a press conference here the morning of the death of her father Sir Michael Redgrave six weeks ago, has already gained the support of other industry unions--Actors Equity and the American Guild of Musical Artists.

After a marathon meeting, Hollywood's two main actors unions took a historic step toward creating the largest and potentially most powerful entertainment union in the industry. Leaders of the 125,000-member Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which has about 70,000 members, reached a merger agreement Monday after nine days of intensive talks at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel. If approved as expected by the union boards and memberships, the merger would end a decades-long competition between the two groups to organize actors.

Bruce Dow, the beleaguered chief executive of the Screen Actors Guild-Producers Pension and Health Plans, which have been rocked by allegations of misconduct, has taken a leave of absence. Dow has "requested and been granted a leave of absence from his duties," trustees for the plans said late Wednesday. In an interview, the veteran plan manager said he requested a 60-day break on medical grounds and is not resigning his post. The pension plans' chief operating officer, Christopher Dowdell, will take on day-to-day management responsibilities, the trustees said.

Comedies are often the most talked-about movies of the year, but even the good ones are often overlooked when it comes to awards season. Hoping to buck the trend is "Bridesmaids," the raunchy, female-driven ensemble that racked up close to $170 million at the box office this summer, spawned a slew of copycat scripts and served as a touchpoint for a women-in-comedy discussion. The film received an unexpected boost Wednesday when it received two nominations from the Screen Actors Guild — one for performance by a cast and a supporting female actor nod for Melissa McCarthy.

A panic-stricken middle-aged man, wearing little more than a gas mask and tighty-whities, is driving a dilapidated RV across the desert. Two unconscious bodies and a dead one slide around in the back — near his portable methamphetamine lab. He wants to make money before he dies of cancer. A slightly younger man, dressed in snug leather pants and a glittery top with a plunging neckline, is gyrating his hips for an arcade dance contest. He's doing the robot to a mix of "Sometimes When We Touch.

Screen Actors Guild President Ken Howard was overwhelmingly reelected to a second term as president of the 125,000-member union. Howard, who did not face serious opposition, won 75% of the votes, defeating three lesser-known candidates in the presidential contest: David Hillberg, Sharon Rubin and Asmar Muhammad. His victory is likely to add further momentum toward merging SAG with its smaller sister union, the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists. Howard and his supporters have campaigned heavily on combining the unions to give actors more clout in negotiations and end long-standing conflicts between the two groups.

A former employee of the Screen Actors Guild pension and health plans has filed a complaint alleging that he was fired for attempting to uncover an embezzlement scheme involving a previous executive of the funds. Craig E. Simmons, a former human resources executive with the SAG plans, alleges in a complaint filed this week with the Labor Department that he attempted to blow the whistle on a $5-million to $10-million embezzlement scheme by the funds' former chief information officer, Nader Karimi.

William Bakewell, 85, a co-founder of the Screen Actors Guild and a character actor who appeared in more than 100 films and 200 television programs. A native of Los Angeles educated at Page Military Academy and Harvard School, Bakewell first appeared in the 1925 silent film "He's a Prince." Among his many roles were a character part in the 1939 classic "Gone With the Wind" and a part in Marlene Dietrich's 1940 "Seven Sinners." In 1933, Bakewell was No.

"The King's Speech" and "The Fighter" solidified their positions as Oscars front-runners Thursday morning when they each received four nominations for the 17th Screen Actors Guild Awards. "The King's Speech," a period drama about King George VI's efforts to correct his stammer, earned nominations for Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter and, perhaps most importantly, in the ensemble category -- SAG's equivalent of the best picture Oscar. "The Fighter," a drama about a Boston boxer who gets his shot at the championship, earned nods for Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams and ensemble.

One thing is certain when representatives of Hollywood's actors unions sit down with their studio counterparts this month: There will be a lot less drama in the room. A new leadership, a detente between once-warring actors unions, and a reluctance on both sides to engage in another bargaining standoff in a dour economy suggest that the next round of contract negotiations will be far less acrimonious than two years ago. "People have fresh in their minds what the cost of a long conflict is," said Dan Mitchell, a professor of management and public policy at UCLA.