For Actors By Actors, Mary Tyler Moore Honored At SAG Awards
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Broadcast on TNT and TBS
January 29, 2012
5 p.m. (PT) / 8 p.m. (ET)
Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center
665 West Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
(213) 748-5116
http://sagawards.org/about/
The only televised awards to specifically honor performers, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, will be held January 29 at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center. With 13 categories for acting – eight in television and five in film – this event is a highlight in Hollywood as actors get together to celebrate each other's craft.
This year's two-hour dinner-party ceremony will bestow Mary Tyler Moore its 2011 Life Achievement Award for "outstanding achievement in fostering the finest ideals of the acting profession." Moore, now 74, began five decades ago in "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and has since won multiple awards, including seven Emmys, a Tony, and a nomination to the Academy Awards. With the SAG Life Achievement Award she will join a select group of respected actors that includes Charles Durning, Ernest Borgnine and Betty White.
Amongst the award shows of the season, the SAG Awards have the best reputation for predicting Oscar winners. About 1,300 Guild members who get to vote during the SAG Awards process are also members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, so the SAG results have historically been a good barometer of what is to come. Since the SAG Awards started in 1995, every film that has won the Oscar for Best Picture has first been nominated for a SAG prize in the Ensemble category.
This year the SAG Awards show will have Regina King as its social media ambassador. King kicked off her duties with the announcement of the SAG nominations and has since continued to post updates on Twitter and Facebook about the presenters, the rehearsals, and any other newsflash from the event. The actress, well known for her part on TNT's drama series "Southland," will also be active on the red carpet on the big night.
While the fast-moving program will be held inside the Shrine, a tent on the east parking lot of the Center will house the Post-Awards Gala, hosted by People magazine and by the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF). Both of these outfits are favorites to the SAG members not only because they throw a fabulous after-party, but especially because they make a generous annual donation that supports the SAG Foundation, which contributes to children literacy and provides emergency relief to members in economic distress.
The 18th Annual SAG Awards will be simulcast live coast-to-coast on TNT and TBS on January 29, 2012 at 5 p.m. (PT) / 8 p.m. (ET). An encore presentation will air immediately following on TNT at 7 p.m. (PT) / 10 p.m. (ET). Also, preceding the ceremony will be the annual tnt.tv and tbs.com Red Carpet Webcast at 3 p.m. (PT) / 6:00 p.m. (ET) featuring the announcement of the SAG Honors for Outstanding Action Performances by Film and Television Stunt Ensembles at 3:15 p.m. (PT) / 6:15 p.m. (ET).
A look back at 2011 award winners.
Dena Burroughs lives in Azusa, CA. She is a CSULA graduate with specialties in Creative Writing and Communications. She is also the LA Arts Examiner.
