Clothes Off Our Back

Another big thumbs up to Clothes Off Our Back founders Jane Kaczmarek and Bradley Whitford. The dynamic duo just scored a crowning achievement with the announcement they will be receiving the clothing worn by the new Miss America and her fellow contestants. This will include the evening gowns, swimsuits, and other clothes worn by the contestants. Jane also served as one of the judges for tonight's event, which was hosted by Desperate Housewives' Jamie Denton. For more info about the Miss America auctions, as well as the current Golden Globe Awards auctions, visit ClothesOffOurBack.org.

1/22/06: Producer's Guild Awards

17th Annual PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS, Universal Hilton Hotel, Universal City, CA. Special honorees include Clint Eastwood and Norman Lear. See more details on this event.

1/21/06: Ballots Due, Polls Close, etc.

ACADEMY AWARDS - nomination polls close at 5:00 p.m. PST
ANNIE AWARDS - ballots due
BAFTA AWARDS - screenings of nominated films begin for Juries, Chapters and all Film Voting members
PRODUCERS GUILD AWARDS - PGA Nominees Breakfast, Los Angeles.
RAZZIE AWARDS - nomination voting closes at 11:59 p.m. PT
VES AWARDS - in person presentation (by invitation only)
Visit January 2006 Calendar for more details.

Better Than Gold

Los Angeles, California - The Actor® statuettes, which this year's 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® honorees will receive on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006 for outstanding performances in 2005 in five film and eight primetime television categories, have been cast in solid bronze at the American Fine Arts Foundry in Burbank, California. The 2006 SAG Awards™ ceremony will be simulcast live nationally on TNT and TBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. MT from the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center. Each statuette carries a serial number engraved at its base. Numbering began with No. 1. The first statuette cast is on display at Screen Actors Guild headquarters in Los Angeles, and 401 statuettes have been awarded since the first Actors® were presented in 1995. The Actor® weighs 12 pounds and stands 16 inches tall. Each Actor® is cast in solid bronze, using the lost wax process. The statuette has a green-black patina and stands on a base of polished black granite. The Actor® is the work of a team of fine arts professionals. The Actor® was sculpted by Edward Saenz and designed by Jim Heimann and Jim Barrett. The statuette is cast at the American Fine Arts Foundry under the supervision of Brett Barney. Screen Actors Guild will not know how many of The Actor® statuettes it will need until the awards presenters open the envelopes on Jan. 29. Ballots for the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® were mailed on Jan. 6 to the entire active membership of Screen Actors Guild, who will vote on all categories. Ballots will be returned by Jan. 27 directly to Integrity Voting Systems, the guild's official teller, where results will be sealed until the SAG Awards™ ceremony. Though the number of categories and special awards is known ahead of time, the possibility of multiple recipients sharing awards in the Outstanding Performance by the Cast of a Motion Picture, Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series categories makes the total number of statuettes that will be awarded unpredictable. Any surplus of The Actor® will find a home in the guild's vault until next year. Five 10-foot, 200-pound likenesses of The Actor® statuette, that were introduced at the 9th and 10th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®, will grace the red carpet, the stage, the media rooms and post-Awards gala at the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®. Scenario Design in Los Angeles constructed the painted fiberglass statues under the supervision of Scenario Design President Paul Buckley and Scenic and Sculpting Department Head Daniel Lucas.

Organized Screen Actors Guild Plans Ahead

Los Angeles, California - Next year's 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® will be held Sunday, Jan. 28, 2007, at the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center. The announcement was made by Yale Summers, Chair of the SAG Awards™ Committee on January 17, 2006. SAG will honor outstanding performances from 2006 in five film categories and eight television categories, including the distinctive ensemble awards. Originated by the Screen Actors Guild Awards®, the ensemble awards commend the collaborative performance by a cast in a motion picture and by the ensemble casts of both comedy and dramatic television series. Of the top industry honors presented to performers, only the Screen Actors Guild Awards® are selected exclusively by actors' peers. All active members of SAG will receive ballots to determine who will receive the coveted bronze Actor® statuettes. The SAG Awards™ was the first televised awards show to acknowledge the work of union members. The full calendar for the 13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® will be released later this year. Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is the nation's largest labor union representing working actors. Established in 1933, SAG has a rich history in the American labor movement, from standing up to studios to break long-term engagement contracts in the 1940s to fighting for artists' rights amid the digital revolution sweeping the entertainment industry in the 21st century. With 20 branches nationwide, SAG represents nearly 120,000 working actors in film, television, industrials, commercials, video games and music videos. The Guild exists to enhance actors' working conditions, compensation and benefits and to be a powerful, unified voice on behalf of artists' rights. Headquartered in Los Angeles, SAG is a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO. More information is available online at www.sag.org. This year's 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® will be simulcast live nationally from the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Center by TNT and TBS on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006 at 8 p.m. ET/ PT, 7 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. MT.

SAG Awards Presenters Announced

Naveen Andrews, Patricia Arquette, Benjamin Bratt, Marg Helgenberger, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria, Ellen Pompeo, SAG President Alan Rosenberg, William Shatner, David Strathairn and Hilary Swank will be presenters at the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. They join previously announced presenter Jamie Lee Curtis, who will present SAG's 42nd Life Achievement Award to Shirley Temple Black.

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival kicked off yesterday in Park City, Utah. For those of us not attending the 10 day event, we can get day old festival highlights through the Sundance Channel on cable or SundanceChannel.com.