Take a bow, Chicago.
Rob Marshall's jazzy musical has done it again. An awards show favorite in this pre-Oscar season and fresh off its Golden Globe sweep, Chicago led the nominees Tuesday for the 9th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards with five nominations: Best Ensemble, Actor, Actress and two Supporting Actress nods.
Coming in a close second with four nominations, Stephen Landry's emotional story of three women touched by Virginia Woolf in The Hours.
Neither came as a big shocker. The real surprise was the absence of Golden Globe winner Meryl Streep in both the Best Actress and Supporting Actress race and the inclusion of some off-the-wall choices, including Michelle Pfeiffer's supporting performance in White Oleander and popular favorite but critical also-ran My Big Fat Greek Wedding making the Best Ensemble list instead of usual- suspect contenders Gangs of New York and About Schmidt.
Not so surprisingly, grumpy old man Jack Nicholson was nominated for Best Actor for About Schmidt. Fellow contenders include happy- feet Richard Gere for Chicago, emaciated Adrien Brody for The Pianist, double-trouble Nicolas Cage for Adaptation and Daniel "The Butcher" Day-Lewis for Gangs of New York.
In the Best Actress race, The Hours' Nicole Kidman nosed onto the list for her turn as Virginia Woolf. She was joined by Ren�e Zellweger for Chicago, Julianne Moore for Far from Heaven and Diane Lane for Unfaithful. With The Hours' Meryl Streep MIA from the list, Salma Hayek secured the fifth nomination slot for her eyebrow acting in Frida.
Streep, who won her Globe for her supporting turn in Adaptation, failed to make SAG's cut in that category, too. But her The Hours costar Julianne Moore did pull the twofer, nailing a nod for her role as a ill-suited housewife. Joining Moore in the race are two Chicago ladies, Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones, along with the aforementioned Pfeiffer and Kathy Bates for her body-baring role in About Schmidt.
Streep will, however, join fellow The Hours and Adaptation castmembers in the Best Ensemble category, alongside the casts of Chicago, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Glaringly absent from this batch are the casts of About Schmidt and Gangs of New York.
Golden Globe winner Chris Cooper will contend for Best Supporting Actor for his role as a rare orchid dealer in Adaptation. His competition: Ed Harris for The Hours, Alfred Molina for Frida, Dennis Quaid for Far From Heaven and Christopher Walken for Catch Me If You Can.
While the rest of their peers got to watch the nominations from the comfort of home, two-time SAG winner Megan Mullally and two-time SAG nominee Michael Clarke Duncan got up at the crack of dawn (6:40 a.m. PT) to join with SAG president Melissa Gilbert for the announcements.
The SAG Award nominees were chosen by 4,200 randomly selected members of the actors union with the final awards voted on by all 98,000 members. The awards fest, honoring both TV and film, will air from the Shrine Auditorium March 9 on TNT at 8 p.m. Because actors comprise the largest voting bloc of the Motion Picture Academy, the SAGs are often key predictors of Oscar glory.
Aside from Moore, two other actors will try for the double play in individual acting categories. Along with contending for Best Supporting Actress, Kathy Bates is up for Outstanding Lead Actress for her role in the CBS TV movie "My Sister's Keeper". And Sean Hayes is nominated for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for "Will & Grace" and a TV Movie for "Martin and Lewis".
On the TV side, "The Sopranos" and "The West Wing" led the way with four nods each, followed by "Will & Grace", "Friends" and "Everybody Loves Raymond" with three apiece. Most surprising amid the same-old same-old nominations were the appearances of Lead Actor Treat Williams for the WB's "Everwood" and Lily Tomlin for her "West Wing" part.
Competing against "West Wing" and "The Sopranos" for Best Ensemble in a Drama are "24", "C.S.I." and "Six Feet Under". For Best Ensemble in a Comedy it's "Everybody Loves Raymond" opposite "Frasier", "Friends", "Sex and the City" and "Will & Grace".
Early bird Mullally had to be happy about her nomination for Lead Actress in a Comedy, pitting her against notable TV nominees Jennifer Aniston and Kim Cattrall. But curiously absent from the list was Sarah Jessica Parker. Competing against Mullally's "Will & Grace" costar Hayes for Lead Actor in a Comedy: Globe winner Tony Shalhoub, Matt LeBlanc, Bernie Mac and Ray Romano.
All told, NBC led the SAG nominations with 12, followed by HBO with 10, CBS with eight, Fox with four, TNT with three and FX, the USA Network and the WB each with one apiece.
SAG's 39th Annual Life Achievement Award will be handed to Clint Eastwood during the SAG Awards ceremonies on March 9.
© 2003 E! Online