Associated Press
Friday, December 21, 2007

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20 -- The road-trip drama "Into the Wild" received a leading four Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations Thursday, including honors for lead actor Emile Hirsch and supporting players Hal Holbrook and Catherine Keener.

Directed by Sean Penn, "Into the Wild" also was nominated for performance by its overall cast, along with the western "3:10 to Yuma," the musical "Hairspray" and the crime sagas "American Gangster" and "No Country for Old Men."

Conspicuously absent was the British melodrama "Atonement," which last week led the Golden Globes field with seven nominations.

Other best-actor film nominees were George Clooney as a conscience-stricken attorney in "Michael Clayton," Daniel Day-Lewis as an oil baron in "There Will Be Blood," Ryan Gosling as a social misfit with a life-size doll for a girlfriend in "Lars and the Real Girl" and Viggo Mortensen as a Russian mobster in "Eastern Promises."

Nominated for best film actress were Cate Blanchett as the British monarch in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," Julie Christie as a woman fading from Alzheimer's in "Away From Her," Marion Cotillard as singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose," Angelina Jolie as journalist Mariane Pearl in "A Mighty Heart" and Ellen Page as a whip-smart pregnant teen in "Juno." Blanchett also was nominated for supporting actress as an incarnation of Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There."

Unlike the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes, which face turmoil caused by striking Hollywood writers, the guild awards look as though they can go off as planned. With actors showing strong solidarity on strike issues, SAG has reached an agreement with the Writers Guild of America for one of its members to write the ceremony.

Stunt performers have their own category at the actors guild awards for the first time. Nominated for best stunt film ensemble were "300," "The Bourne Ultimatum," "I Am Legend," "The Kingdom" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End." TV stunt nominees were "24," "Heroes," "Lost," "Rome" and "The Unit."

Film and TV nominees were chosen by two groups of 2,100 people randomly chosen from the guild's 120,000 members. The guild's full membership is eligible to vote for winners. Guild awards will be presented Jan. 27 in a ceremony televised on TNT and TBS.