Screen Actors Guild Award

Reese Witherspoon as singer June Carter in "Walk the Line" and Philip Seymour Hoffman as author Truman Capote in "Capote" won lead-acting awards yesterday night from the Screen Actors Guild, while the ensemble drama "Crash" pulled off an upset win over "Brokeback Mountain" for the overall cast award. "Crash" follows the lives of a far-flung cast of characters over a chaotic 36-hour period in Los Angeles.

Rachel Weisz of the murder-thriller "The Constant Gardener" and Paul Giamatti of the boxing drama "Cinderella Man" received supporting-acting honors.

"Brokeback Mountain" has been considered the best-picture front-runner at the Oscars, whose nominations will come out Tuesday with awards to be presented on March 5. Its loss to "Crash" could prove to be a speed-bump on the film's path toward becoming the first explicitly gay-themed movie to win a best picture award at the Oscars. But 2006 was a very good year for good movies. There are a number of good contenders and we would not be surprised by any surprises in the evening of March 5th.