Michelle Rodriguez Lost In the Crowd

The last highlight for tonight from the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards® backstage press room:

And then there was Ms. Michelle Rodriguez of the SAG Award winning Best Dramatic TV Ensemble, Lost. The same reporter who put Sandra Bullock on the spot also singled out Rodriguez for the "what are you wearing" red carpet question. Her reply made many laugh, though I swear more than a few people cringed when she answered, "I'm wearing Diane von Furstenberg. Did I say that right? She's been in the business since the '60s, and I love old people." I don't think her royal purple gown was vintage, but apparently she thought the designer was.

At these backstage press fests, only a few minutes can be allocated to grill each winner, or ensemble of winners, so not every reporter gets a chance to voice their own burning question. And of course, there's the right time, right place rule. This being the venue to ask winners "how does it feel ...?" or "what was it like ...?", some questions just have to be held back. Thus, no one asked Michelle Rodriguez about her recent DUI, movie flop (BloodRayne) or how soon her character, Anna Lucia, would be written out of the show. She might have been expecting to receive such pointed questions, because as the cast of Lost filed out of the press room, Rodriguez made a back handed comment. "Thank you for being respectful," she murmured to no one in particular. Was she expecting us to be anything less?

By the way, Designer Diane von Furstenberg just opened her first West Coast boutique, located at 8407 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.

Sandra Bullock's Dress Was Pretty, But Come On...

Later the cast of Crash crowded onto the small stage in the press room of the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®.

While Crash has a few high profile cast members, including Don Cheadle, Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock, the majority of it's 74 cast members aren't exactly household names (Terrence Howard moved up to the A-List with his Oscar nomination two days after this kudo fest). So it was nice to see the biggest star, Sandra Bullock, standing off to the side, more than likely to give this moment in the spotlight to lesser known cast members. Everything was going great, with Matt Dillon and others fielding questions. Then the mood changed.

Although Sandra Bullock didn't snort, she wasn't exactly Miss Congenialty when singled out by a reporter who chose this opportunity to ask her that all important question: "who are you wearing?" Apparently Sandra felt this was a question better left on the Red Carpet. She replied somewhat snarkily, "I can't believe you just asked that!" Another reporter than asked Bullock another question about her dress. Though it was pretty clear Bullock felt these questions were out of place, a third reporter pushed on, asking something like "what are you going for?," prompting Bullock to respond "What was I going for? What were you going for? What were you thinking when you put that on? I don't know how to answer that." For the record, Sandra was in a creamy-beige / light pastel cocktail dress designed by Angel Sanchez, who also created her wedding dress.

Speaking of weddings, we all know first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes the baby ... . Now I'm not saying Sandra and husband Jesse James are expecting, but when she begrudgingly approached the microphone to answer the above fashion questions, I thought, for just the slightest moment, we saw a new baby bump under her pretty little dress. Or maybe my eyes were just playing tricks on me.

Don Cheadle, the Ultimate Team Player

More from the 12th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards®: 

I love Don Cheadle's attitude. He is someone who has totally embraced the concept of "ensemble," as he demonstrated when receiving The Actor® trophy with fellow cast members at this year's SAG Awards and also back at the 7th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. In accepting the award this month on behalf of the outstanding ensemble cast of Crash, Cheadle said, " Thank you very much, on behalf of the entire cast. I'd like to thank our peers, the Screen Actors Guild. We definitely appreciate it, thank you for acknowledging our film. We believe that it really celebrates the definition of what an ensemble is all about. I mean, there's 74 of us, so it... [laughter] has to be...".

Back in 2000, Cheadle also spoke up for the SAG award winning cast of Traffic: "I was asked to speak for our cast - I don't know why. But in this film there were 135 speaking roles, actually. [applause] And I would like to read every single name now. [laughter]. No, but I will hit some highlights: Michael (Douglas), Catherine (Zeta-Jones), Benicio (Del Toro), Luis (Guzman), Dennis Quaid, Erika Christensen, Topher Grace, Amy Irving, Jacob Vargas, Cliff Collins, Miguel Ferrer, Steven Bauer, Ben Bratt, D.W. Moffett, Peter Riegert, Tomas Milian, Marisol Sanchez, James Brolin, Albert Finney, Steven Gaghan for giving us the wonderful words. [applause] And of course, the captain of our ship, Steven Soderbergh for shepherding this whole thing."

Weisz, Fiennes Commit to Constant Gardener Trust

There are not any events or deadlines on our radar for Tuesday, February 7, 2006. A lot of celebrities are in Los Angeles for tonight's MusicCares Tribute to James Taylor or rehearsing for the Grammy Awards and gearing up for the after parties the following day (more about them tomorrow). Other stars may be clearing out of Detroit following Super Bowl Sunday, perhaps heading to New York City for Olympus Fashion Week or the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which continues through February 12.

So tonight I'll just share you with some anecdotes from the press room at last week's Screen Actors Guild Awards:

Beautiful Rachel Weisz quietly confided that she is committed to continue her support of the Constant Gardener Trust (constantgardenertrust.org) for at least the next five years. The org was established by Constant Gardener producer Simon Channing Williams. With the continued patronage of Weisz, co-star Ralph Fiennes, director Fernando Meirelles and author John le Carré, the people of Loiyangalani and Kibera - the largest slum in SubSaharan Africa, located in the center of Nairobi, Kenya - will benefit from the trust's core aims to improve education, water and sanitation conditions. You can learn more about the Constant Gardener Trust's goals and objectives in the Projects section of their website.