The SAG Awards – It’s All About the Honor

The real story tonight after watching the Screen Actors Guild Awards wasn’t the awards themselves, and it wasn’t even about the writers strike that is taking away the livelihood of every person in that room. The real story was honoring those that guided the world of entertainment to this point. By that I don’t mean the winners, as at least a handful of those weren’t even in attendance. I mean those people that have done their time and now want to honor the organization that has done so much for them.

A few of the nominees weren’t even in attendance, but at the beginning of the evening, a handful of the SAG members mentioned a little of what they enjoy about being an actor, and what it has brought to their lives, some with jokes, some with seriousness. Doug Savant talked about choosing this as a profession to embarrass his parents, Sally Field called acting the art of falling, Rebecca Romyjn talked of going from walking down runways in her underpants to being painted blue in three movies to playing a transgender on TV, and it didn’t matter what Ellen Burnstyn said, as she looks as beautiful as ever.

But more than that were the older Screen Actors guild members that took the stage, some as winners, and some just damn glad to be there. Hal Holbrook was there as a nominee for Actor in a Supporting Role, and Ruby Dee won for Female Actor in a Supporting Role. Charles Durning picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award, saying those awards always mean the most, and while Mickey Rooney only came out to present an award, he took the time to say he’d been a member of SAG for 74 years and called his fellow members beautiful. While we said goodbye to screen legends such as Deborah Kerr in an In Memorium montage, we did the same to a promising young talent, Heath Ledger.

No one preached about the writers’ strike, but they didn’t need to, as these celebrities seemed to only be there to celebrate each other.