SAG Nominees Portend Oscars

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday May 29, 1998 12:00 AM EDT

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This year's Oscar nominations, which won't be announced until Feb. 12, were slightly scooped on Tuesday morning with the announcement of the 7th annual Screen Actors Guild nominations, which in the SAG awards' brief history have pretty much closely followed the voting patterns of the movie academy. SAG also honors TV acting. Front-runners for film nominations include Golden Globe winners Julia Roberts ("Erin Brockovich") and Tom Hanks ("Cast Away"), as well as Russell Crowe ("Gladiator"), Laura Linney ("You Can Count On Me"), Joan Allen ("The Contender") and Michael Douglas ("Wonder Boys"). Other actress nominees: Juliette Binoche ("Chocolat") and Ellen Burstyn ("Requiem for a Dream"). Actors: Jamie Bell ("Billy Elliot"), Benicio Del Toro ("Traffic") and Geoffrey Rush ("Quills"). Among top contenders on TV are the casts of "Ally McBeal" and "Will & Grace," which received four nominations for each show (including an "Ally" nod for Robert Downey Jr.), and, with three nods for each of them, "ER," "The Sopranos," "The West Wing" and "Frasier." The SAG winners will be announced March 11 in a ceremony to be aired on TNT. The Oscars will be telecast March 25 on ABC.