Sideshow: SAG nominees in film and TV are . . .

Actresses Rosario Dawson (left) and Angie Harmon announce Betty White as a Screen Actors Guild nominee for the comedy series "Hot in Cleveland." The awards will be handed out Jan. 30.

By Tirdad Derakhshani, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: December 17, 2010

Oh, Oscar! Oscar, are you listening? I'm not just talking about any Oscar, of course, but little statuette fella Oscar, who should have been interested to hear the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations that were announced Thursday morning. For those interested in Hollywood handicapping, the SAGs often foretell who will win an Academy Award. At the top of the SAG heap this year are the British drama The King's Speech and the boxing pic The Fighter, each of which had four nods. Colin Firth scored a best-actor nomination for his role in The King's Speech as King George VI, who battles a speech impediment. Other King's nominees include Helena Bonham Carter and Geoffrey Rush in supporting roles. The remaining film lead-actor nominees were Jeff Bridges (don't go getting greedy, Jeffie, just because you finally won an Oscar last year!) for True Grit, Robert Duvall for Get Low, The Social Network's Jesse Eisenberg, and sometime soap opera bad dude (he excels at being villainous on General Hospital) actor James Franco for 127 Hours. Ye gads! Left out is the gritty-yet-glam Mark Wahlberg of The Fighter fame. Missing, too, is Leonardo DiCaprio, who starred in Inception and Shutter Island. I am stumped by these omissions, yet decline to spend time unraveling them.

She-nominees are Annette Bening from The Kids Are All Right, Rabbit Hole's Nicole Kidman, Winter's Bone's Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman for The Black Swan, and Hilary Swank for Conviction. Those movies also include the best ensemble nominees. Catching breath, catching breath. . . . Then there are the TV SAG nominees, which, of course, as all the TV-watching world could have guessed, are dominated by Modern Family and Glee. Also tapped for possible honors - 30 Rock and Hot in Cleveland, along with Hot's hot senior sage and star, Betty White. Yeah, yeah, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, The Closer, Dexter, and The Good Wife also were nominated for best drama, with their stars and celebs from other shows (Jon Hamm, Hugh Laurie, Michael C. Hall, Glenn Close, Mariska Hargitay, etc., etc.) nominated for various lead and supporting awards. How can the sparkling Steve Buscemi not win for his role in Boardwalk Empire, will you tell me that? SAG trivia: Did you know Julianna Margulies of The Good Wife is SAG's winningest winner with seven wins, if we are to believe TV Guide - and why wouldn't we? She's in the hunt again for drama queen.

Talk therapy

Actor David Arquette can't stop talking about his breakup with estranged wife Courteney Cox. He went on Howard Stern's Sirius XM radio show Wednesday - for the third time - to talk about his uncoupling. "I've been drinking a lot," he said. "But I don't want to go into all that, because it's really a personal, traumatic thing." Then, he went on to talk about the personal, traumatic fact that his Dr. Head thinks he's having a "nervous breakdown."

Nibbles and bits

Nick Cannon, 30, announced on his radio show Thursday that he and his good wife, Mariah Carey, 40, are going to have not one little sapling, but twins! Two little Marianicks! . . . Prosecutors in Connecticut (how great is it for gossipteers when an item starts that way?) say actor Rip Torn, 79, who like so many other lawbreaking celebrities takes a lousy mug shot, pleaded guilty this week "to charges stemming from allegations he broke into a Connecticut bank while drunk and armed," the Associated Press reports. . . . Here's hoping for a healthy holiday for Aretha Franklin. Doctors at a Detroit hospital this week discharged Franklin, 68, after she underwent surgery deemed successful for her reported fight with pancreatic cancer.

Contact staff writer Carolyn Davis at 215-854-4214

or cdavis@phillynews.com.