by Julie Keller
We're guessing the hours are numbered for the Sony employee who screwed up Meryl Streep's shot at Screen Actors Guild Awards glory this year.
Eyebrows around Hollywood arched yesterday when the acclaimed actress was not nominated for SAG Awards for her supporting role in Adaptation or her lead role in The Hours. A double nominee at the Golden Globes, where she won Best Supporting Actress for Adaptation and picked up a Best Actress nod for The Hours, Streep had been considered a shoo-in to repeat at the SAGs.
But--in a shocker--she didn't.
Seems an employee foul-up at Sony, the studio behind Adaptation, is at the root of the problem.
An unnamed staffer submitted Streep in the wrong category for her role as author Susan Orlean in Spike Jonze's critically acclaimed film. She was placed in the Best Actress category when the ballots mailed last month, rather than Supporting Actress, and was thus up against herself for The Hours, which was produced by Paramount and Miramax. Reps for the studios and Streep's own publicist say the snafu most likely cost her a nomination for either film because her two roles canceled each other out.
"It's possible that's what happened," Streep's rep, Lois Smith, tells the Los Angeles Times.
For its part, Sony tried to rectify the problem by offering to reprint and mail the ballots at their expense, but SAG officials quickly nixed that plan, saying it would set a bad precedent.
"It was an unfortunate mistake," Sony spokesman Steve Elzer tells the Times. "But it should not take anything away from her remarkable performance in the film."
This isn't the first time a studio screwed up an actor's shot at a SAG Award. Last year, Golden Globe and Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly lost out on a nomination for her supporting role in A Beautiful Mind when Universal staffers accidentally entered her in the Lead Actress race, where she received a nomination but ultimately lost to Halle Berry in Monster's Ball. Benicio Del Toro was luckier--he was submitted and won in SAG's Lead Actor race in 2001 for his turn in Traffic besting eventual Best Actor Oscar winner Russell Crowe for Gladiator. Del Toro bagged a Globe and Oscar as a supporting actor.
In spite of the nomination loss, it's not like Streep will end the 2003 awards season empty-handed. Aside from her Golden Globe, Tinseltown pundits say she is still considered a frontrunner for Oscar nominations in both categories. Some studio-types, however, say her Oscar chances may be hurt by the SAG screw up, but that remains to be seen. Academy Award nominations will be announced February 11.
While she's not up for any individual honors at the 2003 SAG Awards, Streep could still collect a trophy, since she's part of The Hours' cast up for Best Ensemble.
Without Streep for competition, the SAG Supporting Actress field lines up like this: Kathy Bates for About Schmidt, Julianne Moore for The Hours, Michelle Pfeiffer for White Oleander and Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago. Best Actress are: Salma Hayek for Frida, Diane Lane for Unfaithful, Julianne Moore in Far from Heaven, Ren�e Zellweger for Chicago and Streep's The Hours cohort Nicole Kidman--who incidentally is probably the one who had the most to gain from the mistake because she won't have to compete with her costar.
The Screen Actor's Guild Awards, honoring both TV and film and voted on by the 98,000 members of the actor's union, will air from the Shrine Auditorium March 9 on TNT at 8 p.m.
© 2003 E! Online