Foxx, Swank take actors guild honors

By David Germain

Associated Press Writer

Los Angeles — Jamie Foxx’s uncanny re-creation of Ray Charles in “Ray” earned him the Screen Actors Guild Award for best actor Saturday, while Hilary Swank won the best-actress prize for “Million Dollar Baby,” playing a spirited boxer whose life takes a tragic turn.

The cast prize for best movie ensemble went to the road-trip comedy “Sideways.”

Cate Blanchett won the supporting-actress honor for her role as Katharine Hepburn in “The Aviator,” and Morgan Freeman took the supporting-actor prize for “Million Dollar Baby,” playing a sagelike ex-prizefighter.

“Thank you for Ray Charles for just living so complex and so interesting, and making us all just come together,” said Foxx, the front-runner to win the best-actor prize at the Academy Awards on Feb. 27. Addressing his director on “Ray,” Foxx added, “Thank you for Taylor Hackford for taking a chance with an African-American film. Taylor, you’re my director of the year.”

Swank offered gushing praise for her director and co-star, Clint Eastwood.

“I bow down to you,” Swank said to the 74-year-old Eastwood. “You are a talent beyond compare. If I’m half the person you are and half the talent you are when I’m 74, I will know that I’ve accomplished something great.”

The SAG honors presented the first big head-to-head competition between Swank and Oscar rival Annette Bening, a nominee for the theater farce “Being Julia.” At the Golden Globes, Swank won for best dramatic actress while Bening was honored for best actress in a musical or comedy.

The two actresses are the front-runners at the Oscars, a rematch of the showdown five years ago, when underdog Swank pulled an upset best-actress win for “Boys Don’t Cry” over Bening, who had been the favorite for “American Beauty.”

The wins gave all the actors an Oscar boost just as voting gets under way for Hollywood’s top honors. Oscar ballots were mailed Wednesday to academy members, with voting scheduled to end Feb. 22, five days before the ceremony.

Freeman paid respect to fellow contender James Garner by singing a verse from the theme song of Garner’s old TV Western “Maverick.” Garner was nominated as supporting actor for the romantic drama “The Notebook” and received the guild’s lifetime-achievement award on Saturday.

Covering all his bases, Freeman added, “I want to thank everybody I ever met.”

Blanchett thanked co-star Leonardo DiCaprio and especially “The Aviator” director Martin Scorsese.

Looking at her trophy, a statue of a performer holding the comedy and tragedy masks that symbolize actors, Blanchett said, “I think the head, shoulders, knees and toes of this belong to Martin Scorsese, who led us all and brought us great courage.”

For dramatic TV series, the late Jerry Orbach won the actor honor for “Law and Order.” Orbach died in December.

“How bittersweet. But it’s still sweet,” said Orbach’s widow, Elaine. “Jerry had a motto: Never leave a hit show. … May you all never leave your hit show.”

Jennifer Garner earned the dramatic actress honor for “Alias,” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” received the dramatic ensemble award for the entire cast.

Tony Shalhoub, star of “Monk,” won the guild prize for the second straight year as actor in a TV comedy. Teri Hatcher won the TV comedy actress honor for “Desperate Housewives,” which also won the comedy ensemble award.

Sharpton joins PETA effort

New York — The Rev. Al Sharpton has joined PETA in calling for a ban of fast-food chain KFC, in a new TV and radio campaign.

Sharpton is urging the black community to join the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ boycott of the franchise, the animal protection group announced Thursday.

“If KFC wants to take our money and use it to pay for sloppy practices that hurt animals, I say we send them a message that this is not going to happen,” Sharpton says in the ad.

Sharpton and PETA are seeking improvements to KFC’s practices regarding the defeathering and debeaking of chickens, as well as a halt to using growth-promoting drugs. Last June, PETA recorded footage of alleged mistreatment of birds at a KFC supplier in West Virginia.

First lady makes fashion statement at heart event

New York — The models included Christie Brinkley, Sheryl Crow, Venus Williams and Paula Abdul, but all eyes were on first lady Laura Bush when she attended The Heart Truth runway show at New York Fashion Week.

Bush wore a deep-red velvet jacket, perfect for the occasion: a charity fashion show called The Red Dress Collection that aimed to raise awareness about heart disease in women. Twenty-six designers — including Vera Wang, Zac Posen and Narciso Rodriguez — donated their time and dresses, and celebrities wore them on the catwalk.

From her seat in the front row at Friday’s show, the first lady saw Brinkley in a sleek spaghetti-strap gown by Calvin Klein, actress Shohreh Aghdashloo (“House of Sand and Fog”) in a dropped-waist dress with leather trim by Cynthia Rowley, and model Lauren Bush in a strapless gown designed by Tommy Hilfiger. While she clapped for everyone, the first lady saved her biggest smile for her niece.

Bush is the national ambassador for The Heart Truth Campaign, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.