Slumdog Millionaire moved into the pole position in the annual Academy Awards race, picking up the best ensemble cast prize at the 15th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. Four of the past six best picture Oscar winners also earned that SAG honor.

The cast of Slumdog Millionaire – almost entirely unknown to U.S. audiences, and several in their first movie -- was chosen from a list of nominees nearly matching the recent Oscar nominations for best picture, including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
   That film is the overall leader in Oscar nominations with 13, while Slumdog Millionaire is second with 10.

You have to wonder why the Screen Actors Guild awards don't have a friendlier name, like Oscar, Emmy and Tony. They're simply called "Actors," which can sound redundant: "Here's your best actor Actor, actor."

The SAG show was simulcast on TNT and TBS, which is an odd idea since the ratings will be split and, really, what household that gets one of those channels doesn't get the other?

Six categories were devoted to feature films. Television gets nine categories but since the Emmys won't be news until September and Oscar ballots are in voters hands right now (due back to the academy on Feb. 17), tonight's results matter.

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I always enjoy the SAG's opening schtik, with guild members telling how they got their start. I just wish tonight's memories weren't so heavily weighted to TV stars: Eva Longoria Parker, Victor Garber, Phylicia Rashad, Jenna Fischer, Tom Cavanaugh, Will Arnett and Steve Carell (who has a nice movie career going but is nominated tonight for NBC's The Office, so we'll count him in this group).

The only film star allowed to speak? Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire), which is a nice nod to a terrific movie, not to mention overdue props to India's film industry. But how about a few more major leaguers?

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As much as I'm pulling for Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) this awards season, would it kill him to buy a tux that doesn't look like Cirque du Soleil costume?

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Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) just said in his acceptance speech for best TV comedy actor that he doesn't know who he wants to make out with more: Diane Lane or Anthony Hopkins. I think he was kidding.

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Evan Rachel Wood looks much better these days, after dumping Marilyn Manson and the pasty death-rock routine. But the montage of acting "trailblazers" she introduced feels uncomfortably like the kind of padding that the Oscars uses in the final hour, not the first 20 minutes.

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Big night for 30 Rock, after Baldwin and Tina Fey swept the lead comedy actor awards and the cast just copped the best ensemble comedy cast Actor.

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After a half-hour, finally a movie award but it doesn't do anything to make the Oscar forecast clearer. Kate Winslet's was voted best supporting female actor for The Reader but her performance is nominated for a best actress Academy Award.

The only sure thing is that SAG nominee Amy Adams (Doubt) won't pick up an Oscar. She isn't nominated. The other three SAG nominees - Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Viola Davis (Doubt) and Penelope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona) are in the Oscar running. Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler) grabbed the fifth slot but wasn't nominated tonight.

This is one of those situations when revealing vote totals - and none of the major awards shows do - would be helpful in filling out Oscar pools. But how would it look if Adams finished second? The academy would be settling for sloppy thirds.

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You have to admire best TV lead dramatic actor Hugh Laurie's (House) honesty. In his acceptance speech he recalled his agent warned him: "The more films you do, the harder it is to break into television." Even if that conversation didn't happen, conspiratorial laughter from the audience makes it seem true.

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Pushing an hour into the show and still only one movie award. But the announcer just promised the lifetime achievement award for James Earl Jones is coming up next. Get ready for lots of Darth Vader and CNN gags.

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Now I'm bummed. Just caught a news item on the Internet Movie Database saying the stunt ensemble awards were announced before the show. The Dark Knight (feature films)and Heroes (television) were named by SAG president Alan Rosenberg and actor JoBeth Williams on the red carpet.

That means I need to take back the opening line in today's Etc. page preview: "Two reasons why the Screen Actors Guild is cool: stunt men and stunt women. The SAG throws the only Hollywood backslap party honoring the real movies heroes..."

Yeah, but without giving them their due onstage. That isn't cool at all.

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Nice tribute to James Earl Jones, one of those occasions when well-edited clips are reminders of how a great artist can be taken for granted after years of peerless work. His singular voice delivered two classy gems in his acceptance speech, while other actors at the podium proved how much they really do require writers.

Jones quoted a passage from the Biblical book of Genesis, about God shaping man from dust and breathing life into his nostrils. "Now, I don't need to embarrass anybody by comparing the actor to God. But once we've taken a role we have a similar responsibility; to breathe life into that character and only the actor can do that."

Then with his final words, Jones offered a salute to one of SAG's most beloved members, now deceased, putting a twist on the star's early role in Somebody Up There Likes Me: "Paul Newman, somebody down here likes you."

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Newman received the loudest cheers during the traditional memorium clips for actors who died during the past year. The list included movie stars ranging ranging from legendary (Newman, Charlton Heston, Sydney Pollack, George Carlin. Cyd Charisse) to workmanlike (Richard Widmark, Pat Hingle Roy Scheider, Ricardo Montalban) to incomparably affable (Harvey Korman,  Bernie Mac, Edie Adams).

One name conspicuously absent from the tribute: Heath Ledger. That pretty much guarantees he'll win the supporting actor award, conveniently coming up right now.

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As expected, Ledger (The Dark Knight) won the best supporting film actor prize, still revered after dying of an accidental drug overdose a year ago. Co-star Gary Oldman has apparently been designated as his official award acceptor, after Sunday and the recent Golden Globes. (Correction: Oldman accepted an award for Ledger at another awards show. I saw it on TV but apparently every other reporter considered it unremarkable, too.)

Oldman's respectful but dry comments about Ledger are nice. But they make one hope that rumors of Ledger's former wife Michelle Williams or a Ledger family member doing the honors at the Oscars come true. Viewers will need to wipe their TV screens with Kleenex.

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Finally, a stunner. The shocked look on Meryl Streep's face when her name was announced as best dramatic actress for Doubt was priceless and genuine. She didn't even dress up for the occasion, probably expecting Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road) or Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) to claim the Actor, as professional guessers like me predicted.

"I didn't even buy a dress, Streep said in her acceptance speech, pulling at her pants suit and putting on the crowd: "I'm really, really really shocked, even though awards mean nothing to me anymore."

Don't believe it. But Streep always like to puncture the mystique that has enveloped her talent over the years. her acceptance speech was another chance.

"Can I just say that there's no such thing as the best actress," she said. "There's no such things as the best living actress. I am in a position where I have secret information that I know this to be true. I'm so in awe of the work of the women this year, nominated or not nominated. I'm so proud of us girls. Everybody wins when we get parts like this."

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Almost as stunning as Streep's win was Sean Penn (Milk) grabbing the Actor for best dramatic actor, playing slain gay rights activist and politician Harvey Milk. Penn has his own acceptance speech routine. Unlike Streep's modesty, Penn takes digs at opponents of his political beliefs.

"Thank you and good evening comrades," Penn said at the podium, raising chuckles in the crowd. "That was for (Fox News anchor Bill) O'Reilly."