By Michael Blowen, Globe Staff, 02/27/00

On March 12 at 8 p.m., TNT will air the sixth annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. The major categories mirror the Academy Award nominations, but SAG includes some unique, useful designations all its own. The best of these is the award "For Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Theatrical Motion Picture."

That should be the most cherished award of all because anyone who knows anything about the making of motion pictures realizes that teamwork is the key to success. It's like sports. You can have the greatest individual player but if that athlete hogs the ball and steals the show, the team is going nowhere. The same with movies. While Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman are splendid in "Casablanca," where would the movie be without Claude Rains, Paul Henreid, Conrad Veidt, Dooley Wilson, Sidney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre?

The nominees for the 1999 SAG Award for outstanding performance by a cast, listed in egalitarian alphabetical order, are "American Beauty" with Annette Bening, Wes Bentley, Thora Birch, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney, Kevin Spacey, and Mena Suvari; "Being John Malkovich" with Orson Bean, John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich, Mary Kay Place, and Charlie Sheen; "Magnolia" with Jeremy Blackman, Tom Cruise, Melinda Dillon, April Grace, Luis Guzman, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ricky Jay, William H. Macy, Alfred Molina, Julianne Moore, Michael Murphy, John C. Reilly, Jason Robards, and Melora Walters; "The Cider House Rules" with Jane Alexander, Erykah Badu, Kathy Baker, Michael Caine, Kieran Culkin, Delroy Lindo, Tobey Maguire, Kate Nelligan, Paul Rudd, and Charlize Theron; "The Green Mile" with Patricia Clarkson, James Cromwell, Jeffrey DeMunn, Michael Clarke Duncan, Graham Greene, Tom Hanks, Bonnie Hunt, Doug Hutchison, Michael Jeter, David Morse, Barry Pepper, Sam Rockwell, and Harry Dean Stanton.

On the other end of the award overload spectrum are the Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards. There are several hairstyling categories, including contemporary hairstyling, period hairstyling, character hairstyling, and innovative hairstyling. They're even handing out the George Westmore Lifetime Achievement Award, named after the first makeup man who, in 1917, was the first cosmetician hired by a studio. All six of Westmore's sons, including this year's recipient, Monty Westmore, went into the movie makeup business.

Anyway, there are some nominees who'll never make the Oscars, but have a shot at bringing home the MAHS Guild Award on March 19. They include "Simpatico," the universally panned film adaptation of Sam Shepard's play, which is up against "American Beauty," "The Thomas Crown Affair," and "Anywhere But Here" for Best Contemporary Hairstyling. "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" is odds-on to demolish "Tea With Mussolini" and "A Midsummer Nights Dream" in the best period makeup contest. The most hotly contested category is "Period Makeup in a Miniseries/Movie" with "The 60s," "And the Beat Goes On: The Sonny and Cher Story," and "Lansky" battling down to the wire.

THE SIGHT OF MUSIC Rumors are hot and heavy that the release of the subtitled "The Sound of Music" (1965) will hit the United States this summer, after a very successful London run. In what must be the first great cultural milestone of the year 2000, Twentieth Century Fox is promoting the singing nun flick as a sing-a-long with all the lyrics printed along the bottom of the picture - sort of this year's version of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." In London, a la "Rocky Horror," moviegoers show up in nun costumes and perform sequences from the film referred to as "The Sound of Mucous" by its own costar, Christopher Plummer. Fox hasn't decided yet whether Boston will be one of the "selected cities" for the summers first run.

This story ran on page N09 of the Boston Globe on 02/27/2000.
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