Robbins, Zellweger Win Early SAG Awards
48 minutes ago
By Bob Tourtellotte
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Tim Robbins (news) won the Screen Actors Guild (news - web sites) award for best supporting actor in the crime thriller "Mystic River" on Sunday and Renee Zellweger (news) was named best supporting actress for her role in Civil War drama "Cold Mountain."
The Screen Actors Guild, or SAG, awards often provide strong clues to the Oscar winners, the U.S. film industry's top honors which will be handed out next Sunday.
Acknowledging his actress wife Susan Sarandon (news), Robbins joked on stage, "Susan's got one of these. I'm going to get them alone in a dark room and see what happens." Among those he thanked was "master" flimmaker Clint Eastwood (news), who directed "Mystic River."
Actors always enjoy the SAG awards because it is their organization handing out awards, and they feel like winning is a strong endorsement from their peers.
"Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me here tonight," Zellweger said onstage. "It's such an honor. I think it's the nicest invitation of the year, to be honest."
Even so, it is the Oscars (news - web sites) that are the top prize. Oscar voters at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites) pick a best film, but SAG names only winners in acting categories, with the night's top award going to a best ensemble cast. In that group, Oscar front-runner "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" goes up against other Oscar hopefuls, "Mystic River" and horse racing tale "Seabiscuit."
The two final nominees in that group are independent films "The Station Agent," about a group of social misfits who form an unlikely bond, and "In America," based on Irish director Jim Sheridan's first year living in New York with his young family.
Heading into Sunday's SAG awards "Return of the King," the third film in the epic trilogy about a battle for middle-Earth between hobbits, elves, humans and the evil orcs, has been considered the Oscar front-runner for best movie.
Its the SAGs already... thanks Belowen! 
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