'Three Billboards' wins top prize at Screen Actors Guild Awards

LOS ANGELES -- Dark comedy "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" won three prizes at the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards on Sunday in a ceremony marked by women and their stories amid the sexual misconduct scandal that has swept Hollywood.

The Fox Searchlight film about a furious woman seeking justice for the murder of her daughter was named best ensemble, the top SAG honor.

Frances McDormand won best actress and Sam Rockwell took home the best supporting actor statuette for their roles in the film.

Britain's Gary Oldman won best actor for playing wartime leader Winston Churchill in Focus Features' "Darkest Hour."

Allison Janney won for her supporting actress role as a demanding mother in independent ice-skating movie "I, Tonya."

The SAG awards are indicators of likely Oscar success in March because actors form the largest group of voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday.

The SAG ceremony took place after two days of marches by hundreds of thousands of women throughout the United States.

Host Kristen Bell said women were having a "watershed moment."

"Let's make sure we lead the charge with empathy and diligence because fear and anger never win the race," said Bell, star of television's "The Good Place."

Accusations of sexual misconduct have forced dozens of powerful men in Hollywood to step down, be fired or dropped from creative projects.

Women, many of them leading actresses, have responded by breaking their silence through the #MeToo social media movement and the Time's Up campaign for legal support of victims.


On the red carpet, women swapped the black gowns that marked support for victims of sexual harassment at the Golden Globes two weeks ago for brighter blues, green and metallic hues.


Women were the dominant theme inside the Shrine Auditorium.

Nicole Kidman, 50, won for playing a battered wife in HBO's female-centric TV series "Big Little Lies."

"How wonderful that our careers today can go beyond 40 years old. Twenty years ago we were pretty washed up by this stage in our lives. This is not the case now," Kidman said.

Aziz Ansari, nominated for his Netflix comedy series "Master of None," was a no-show on Sunday after making headlines last week when a woman described feeling violated following an awkward date last year. Ansari said he believed their sexual activity was consensual.

Ansari lost the television comedy actor statuette to William H. Macy for "Shameless."

James Franco, a best actor nominee for "The Disaster Artist," did show up but skipped the red carpet and did not win. Franco had kept a low profile since describing allegations of sexual impropriety against him by five women two weeks ago as "not accurate."

In television, NBC's sentimental family drama "This is Us" was named the best drama ensemble cast in a surprise win over presumed front runners "The Crown" and dystopian series "A Handmaid's Tale."

The cast of HBO political satire "Veep" won best ensemble for a television comedy. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer and missed the SAG show, was named best comedy actress.

"She's genuinely been in good spirits when we've seen her, which I think will carry her along ... She is incredibly strong and is uniquely able to combat something like this,” Timothy Simons, who plays Jonah Ryan on "Veep," told reporters on Sunday.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'Three Billboards,' 'Lady Bird' win top Golden Globes

LOS ANGELES -- Dark drama "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" was the big winner with four Golden Globes awards on Sunday on a night marked by scathing jokes about sexual harassment and passionate odes to those breaking their silence.

Mother-daughter comedy "Lady Bird" was named best comedy film and the indie A24 movie's star Saoirse Ronan won for comedy actress.

Gary Oldman was named best drama movie actor for his role as British wartime leader Winston Churchill in Focus Features' "Darkest Hour" and Frances McDormand took home the award for drama actress for her role as an angry mother seeking vengeance in Fox Searchlight's "Three Billboards."

James Franco won the comedy actor award for his cult movie homage "The Disaster Artist," also from A24. Mexican director Guillermo del Toro won best director for magical fantasy "The Shape of Water."

However, the night was dominated not by who took home prizes but by jokes and speeches about the sexual misconduct scandal that has rocked Hollywood.

"Happy New Year Hollywood! It's 2018. Marijuana is finally allowed and sexual harassment finally isn't," quipped Globes host Seth Meyers in his opening remarks, bringing wild applause from the A-list audience in Beverly Hills.

Multiple allegations against actors, filmmakers and Hollywood agents since October 2017 have led to many of the accused being fired, forced to step down, or dropped from creative projects.

Referring to the male nominees gathered in Beverly Hills for the top television and movie awards, Meyers said: "This is the first time in three months it won't be terrifying to hear your name read out loud."

The evening began with the normally colorful red carpet transformed into a sea of black gowns as every actress showed solidarity with victims of sexual harassment inside and outside the entertainment industry. Many have given their own harrowing accounts.

Women kept up the theme inside the Beverly Hilton ballroom.

"This year, we became the story," Oprah Winfrey said in a rousing speech while accepting the annual lifetime achievement award.

McDormand said she was proud to be a woman in the industry. "It's great to be here and be part of the tectonic shift in our industry's power structure," she said.

Laura Dern, a supporting actress winner for "Big Little Lies," said: "May we teach our children that speaking out without retribution is our culture's new north star."

The HBO TV series was one of several female-driven winners on Sunday.

The Golden Globes ceremony, the first of the major awards shows in the run-up to the Oscars in March, marked the first big test for how Hollywood would handle the scandal.

Meyers joked that, as the first of the hosts, he felt like "the first dog they shot into outer space."

He appeared to have found the right balance, getting cheers in the room and warm early reviews. Industry website Deadline.com said Meyers "deftly executed a seemingly impossible task," while E! News said he "made lemonade out of lemons."

Dystopian tale "The Handmaid's Tale" won best TV drama series and "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," Amazon's new series about a 1950s housewife who become a stand-up comedian, took best TV comedy or musical series.

Fox Searchlight and parent company Twentieth Century Fox were the big winners in terms of studios, with their films winning seven awards. Indie movie studio A24 had three.

source: news.abs-cbn.com