SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS 2025

Before I get into this actual awards show, I must share some auxiliary observances.

The first is a bit of painful advice from me—you should all watch Conclave right now, so you’ll know what is happening possibly next week, if you get my sad drift.

Another is that this show is so unpopular these days that they have it on Netflix now, where the general population can’t even watch it! So rude. Either no network nor even cable channels feel that this presentation is worth their time, or the powers-that-be are just too cheap to produce the show elsewhere other than a streaming channel. Shame.

Even the E channel didn’t bother with an arrivals show! What is up with that???

But my main complaint is about this acting competition and the Oscars one. I was trying to figure out why several actors and actresses have been nominated in the wrong categories, not just this year, but always! (The Golden Globes don’t count because they’re a private entity who just nominate stars they want to show up! And they reward actors in both comedy and drama, just so they can give the nod to ten people in each category instead of the usual five.) It’s insane that Zoe Saldana, (who is the main actress in Emilia Perez,) Kieren Culkin, (who is an equal co-star to Jesse Eisenberg in A Real Pain,) and especially Ariana Grande, (who is one hundred percent equal to Cynthia Erivo in both screen time and billing in Wicked,) are in the Supporting category!!! That’s just nuts!  And Demi Moore, who’s in less than half of The Substance, (and most of that is lying on the floor sedated or just looking at herself age badly,) put herself in the Best Actress race, most likely because she does get star billing in it. (By the way—she shouldn’t have been nominated in any category, period!)

I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of those obvious unfairnesses, with not much satisfaction. I believe that the studios or actors themselves can submit in whichever category they choose. Often they choose Supporting because they feel they can’t win against their co-lead, or a studio does it that way to try to win both awards, and not dilute the voting for their stars. But it’s all a total shonda! It should not be allowed. The governing body of each voting entity should not accept submissions from liars or cheats. I’m just sayin’.

One last thing. (Well, two, actually.) Women will just screw themselves if they keep campaigning to not have gendered awards. Just as they now do at the Independent Spirit Awards. Speaking of them, I just have to say how obnoxious it was of Demi Moore to bring her dog to that event! Very entitled of her. And creepy.

And I’m sorry that I couldn’t live-tweet enough because Netflix doesn’t let you pause the action nor go back! You can watch it only live! What is this—the ’50s??? I did manage to tweet a tiny bit, but I found-out much later that I had been using the wrong hashtag, so I’ll repeat some of those thoughts here. (I know—this is beyond a first world problem!!! I’m just explaining what happened.)

NETFLIX ARRIVALS

I definitely needed commercial breaks during this to live-tweet more!

And who the f is the dark-haired interview woman??? Jane Fonda sooo didn’t want to deal with her. And Jodie Foster was so much nicer to her than that creepy woman deserved! (I found-out later that she was someone named Lily Singh. I have no idea who that is, but she should never be allowed to talk to people on TV ever again!)

The other host was actress Sasheer Zamata, who was on a sitcom that Mr. X and I loved, Home Economics, a few years ago, which we still can’t believe was cancelled after just two seasons! I like Sasheer in general, and she did well talking to people, but that other one…ugh!

Demi Moore’s neck is proof that plastic surgery cannot be done very satisfactorily on that area. With all the work she’s had on her visage, you know she would have done her neck, as well, if it was possible. But it is winter now, so she should have opted for a high-necked dress at this point. Long sleeves, too. And gloves, while she’s at it!

Quinta Brunson’s dress was adorable. And Joey King’s was the best! (You can see Joey’s dress in my tweets from Sunday.)

Pamela Anderson really needs to start wearing make-up again! Going to big events bare-faced is for—this is a news flash—people who look good that way!!! Enough already. It’s just depressing to see her looking like that! I’m just hoping that we’ll find-out down the road that this period of no make-up for her was a hoax, like the one that Joaquin Phoenix did in 2008, when he acted crazy for a year for what turned-out to be a documentary. (As pale as Lisa Kudrow was that night, at least she tried a little!) [Note: That’s Pamela Anderson at the top of this page. Photo by Karen Salkin.]

What has Ariana Grande done that to her hands??? Mr. X and I both separately thought she was wearing black lace gloves!!! She should ask her ex, Pete Davidson, how to get rid of them.

I love that my choice for Best Stunt ensemble for movies, The Fall Guy, won! (They announced the Stunt winners on the red carpet because God forbid they’d take the time on the show for the important stunt men and women to go up to the stage and say thanks!)

Who knew that journeyman actress Wendie Malick speaks so well and is so intelligent? She explained everything she said perfectly and without one phony word or inflection. Good for her. Also, good for Sasheer in this exchange: At one point, Wendie said, “You don’t have to be a serial killer to play a serial killer,” to which Sasheer slipped in a low-key, “Thank goodness.” I love that.

SHOW

The SAGs rarely have a host, and I always think it’s better that way because it moves so much faster than hosted awards shows. But I’m re-thinking that now because host Kristin Bell’s bits were amusing.  And quick enough. I especially liked her Gossip Girl bit with Leighton Meester because I watched that entire series back in the day, and am now a fan of Leighton. (And of her husband Adam Brody, as well—I love them together!)

I’ve never seen Hacks, but that opening bit was hilarious! I love Jean Smart.

Good for them to have a table of firefighters. (But just one table???)

Nobody looks great on Netflix! Perhaps it’s their lighting or the quality of their broadcast.

Did everyone but me know that Kristen Bell sings??? I had forgotten about her in Frozen a dozen years ago. I guess I was too busy for Disney movies back then.

But when she was doing that bit about actors before they were very famous, they should have shown the audience the screen straight on, (so we could see the images better,) not to the side of Kristen to make sure she was the featured image! They just wanted to remind people like me that she sings.

We both thought that Millie Bobby Brown was Ivana Trump at first, until we realized that Ivana died three years ago, at the age of seventy-seven! So Mr. X asked who this was, and I asked him how old he thought she was, which he replied was mid-forties. He was shocked when I said she was only twenty-one!

Kieran Culkin, who was the Supporting Actor victor, gave a funny speech, but it was a tad weird of him to basically bite the hand that feeds him.

Comedian Kumail Nanjiani is in shape and muscular, but his really sloping shoulders are weird.

I would have really loved to hear the speeches of TV comedy winners Jean Smart and Martin Short, but she was working and he had just gotten Covid at least week’s SNL Anniversary show! Shame.

Jamie Lee Curtis is the only smart older woman—she was covered up from head to toe; only her head was showing!

As always, Colin Farrell gave the best speech.

What a great political speech from Jane Fonda! And on a shallow note, she looks fabulous for someone with so much surgery! It really worked for her. After all, she’s eight-seven! That woman is going down fighting! she just may be my new idol!

She didn’t speak like an old woman. And her eyes looked beautiful. I was impressed that she didn’t let the sound system glitches bother her.

There was absolutely no reason for winner Zoe Saldana to be gasping like she was during her acceptance speech.

When giving the award for “Ensemble in a Drama Series,” David Duchovny explained, “Ensemble. It’s a French word that means ‘Thank God I have to work only 3 days a week.’ ” That was cute. And true!  But he messed-up the rest of the presentation by opening the envelope with the winner before he announced the nominees!

Anna Sawai from Shogun is a gorgeous girl!

How, and when, did Selena Gomez get so skinny? She does not have “Ozempic face,” but she’s clearly using one of the weight loss jabs, (even though she’s denying it.) And good for her—she looks soooo much better like this!

Lisa Kudrow needs to fire her make-up peeps pronto! Or hire new ones. At this show, she needed darker lipstick, (her pale lips blended in with her uber-pale face,) must better underlie concealer, mascara, and a tan! At the very least. She looked zombie-esque, which actually could have been in purpose since she was introducing the In Memoriam segment. (And if she looked like that because she was sick, she should have stayed home and not foisted her germs on the assemblage! Just sayin’.)

Of the sixty or so deceased actors they paid tribute to, I think I personally knew about 10%.  That made me sick.  I didn’t even know that some of them had died! Those In Memoriam segments in all awards shows get more heartbreaking every year. I was especially upset about funny woman Mitzi McCall—I always think I’ll bump into her and her funny husband, Charlie Brill again at any second.

Even while watching all the SAG-nominated films, and voting for them, I had not realized just what a great crop of male nominees in the Lead Actor category they were! (Winner Timothée Chalamet, expected winner Adrian Brody, Ralph Fiennes, Daniel Craig, and my fave—Colman Domingo.)

Timothée gave perhaps the most honest speech ever, but it showed just how young he is.  I’m afraid some people will turn against him for saying that he wants to be one of the greats!

And why did his mother show-up looking like an old Italian Madame, with her nakedness and sixty-five-year-old boobs hanging out???

And just when are actors going to realize they don’t have to bend down to microphones??? Come on, kids—that’s “Talking Into a Mic 101!”

When Demi Moore so shamefully won for Lead Actress, Mr. X said, “This is known as the ‘taking care of Bruce [Willis] award.’ ”  I agree that it’s a pity award, but her acceptance speech showed that she really thinks she’s some great actress now. That’s just not right. (I’m just praying that the Academy voters are smarter than the SAGs and Golden Globes peeps.)

And that’s a wrap for my thoughts on this year’s SAG Awards. I have sooo many more, but not enough time to share the rest. I have to go sharpen my claws get ready for Sunday’s Oscars! I plan to live-tweet them, beginning with the arrivals, so, if you don’t already follow me on that platform, this is a great time to correct that. My “handle” on there is @MajorCelebrity. Of course.

And if you’d like to catch-up with all the nominated movies and performances, just go to one of the “Search” boxes on the right side of this e-zine, and enter “Mini Movie Reviews 2025.” You can get up to speed in a hurry before the show this weekend.