"Lincoln," "Argo" in tight race as Oscars roll out red carpet

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img alt="People look at an Oscar statue during preparations for the 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 23, 2013. REUTERS-Mario Anzuoni" src="http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20130224&t=2&i=707000651&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=700&pl=300&r=CBRE91N15UO00" /><br /><br /><div id="articleInfo" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; margin-bottom: 10px;"><div class="byline" style="color: #666666; font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.6; padding: 0px;">By Jill Serjeant</div><div style="color: #666666; font-size: 11px; line-height: 1.6; padding: 0px;"><span class="location" style="font-weight: bold;">LOS ANGELES</span> | <span class="timestamp" style="font-size: 11px; margin: 0px;">Sun Feb 24, 2013 10:05am EST</span></div></div><span id="midArticle_0" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><span class="focusParagraph" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"><div style="font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">(Reuters) - The Oscars rolled out the red carpet on Sunday for the movie industry's biggest night, with<a data-ls-seen="1" href="http://www.reuters.com/places/iran" style="color: #006e97; cursor: pointer; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Full coverage of Iran">Iran</a> hostage drama "Argo" and presidential drama "Lincoln" in a tight race for Best Picture.</div></span><span id="midArticle_1" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">With several contests too close to call, a slate of big box office hits to celebrate and an unpredictable first-time host in Seth MacFarlane, movie fans could be in for surprises when the curtain rises on the 85th annual Academy Awards.</div><span id="midArticle_2" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">Before the festivities begin, nominees including Jennifer Lawrence, Hugh Jackman, Sally Field, Jessica Chastain, British singer Adele and "Argo" producer George Clooney, along with performers Barbra Streisand and Jennifer Hudson will parade along the 500-ft long (152 meter) red carpet before dozens of photographers and camera crews.</div><span id="midArticle_3" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">Inside Hollywood's Dolby Theatre, Academy Awards history could be re-written.</div><span id="midArticle_4" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">Daniel Day-Lewis as U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is considered an unstoppable force to become the first man to win three Best Actor Oscars.</div><span id="midArticle_5" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">Buzz is building over a possible late upset by France's Emmanuelle Riva, 86, in the Best Actress contest that would make the star of harrowing Austrian entry "Amour" the oldest person ever to win an acting Oscar.</div><span id="midArticle_6" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">"Lincoln" goes into Sunday's three-hour plus ceremony with a leading 12 nominations, including a directing nod for double Oscar winner Steven Spielberg.</div><span id="midArticle_7" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">But its front-runner Best Picture status has been dented by the six-week victory streak enjoyed at other Hollywood awards by Ben Affleck's "Argo."</div><span id="midArticle_8" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">"It's been an interesting year," said Matt Atchity, editor in chief of movie review website Rotten Tomatoes.</div><span id="midArticle_9" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">"I think 'Argo' probably has the best shot. It's certainly got the momentum. It has won so many top awards, and I think it's probably the movie to beat," Atchity told Reuters.</div><span id="midArticle_10" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">If "Argo" does prevail for the top prize, it will be the first movie to win Best Picture without its director even getting a nomination since "Driving Miss Daisy" in 1990.</div><span id="midArticle_11" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">ANNE HATHAWAY OSCAR BOUND</div><span id="midArticle_12" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">Musical "Les Miserables," comedy "Silver Linings Playbook," shipwreck tale "Life of Pi," Osama bin laden thriller "Zero Dark Thirty," slavery Western "Django Unchained," indie film "Beasts of the Southern Wild," and "Amour" round out the contenders for the best film of 2012.</div><span id="midArticle_13" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">In other categories, only Anne Hathaway is considered a sure bet to take home a golden statuette after starving herself and chopping off her long brown locks for her supporting turn as tragic heroine Fantine in "Les Miserables."</div><span id="midArticle_14" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">Awards pundits says Spielberg could lose out in the director's race to Taiwan's Ang Lee for his technical and imaginative feat in filming fantastical adventure "Life of Pi" with a cast of exotic animals.</div><span id="midArticle_15" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">And the supporting actor Oscar could go to any of the five nominees - Robert De Niro ("Silver Linings Playbook"), Alan Arkin ("Argo"), Christoph Waltz ("Django Unchained"), Tommy Lee Jones ("Lincoln") and Philip Seymour Hoffman ("The Master").</div><span id="midArticle_0" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">The Oscar winners are chosen in secret ballots by some 5,800 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and handed out before an audience of 3,300 guests and tens of millions more watching around the world on television.</div><span id="midArticle_1" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">After several years of nominating little-seen movies, this year's nine Best Picture contenders have pulled in more than $2 billion in tickets worldwide.</div><span id="midArticle_2" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">"We are so fortunate to inherit this great group of films that are also popular at the box office ... We just lucked out and had this fantastic year in film," Academy Awards telecast co-producer Neil Meron told Reuters.</div><span id="midArticle_3" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">Producers are promising a fast-paced show packed with music and big performances. But the man getting the early attention will be MacFarlane, the provocative comedian behind animated TV series "Family Guy" and an unknown quantity as Oscar host.</div><span id="midArticle_4" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">"We are not going to know what works until we put it out there and see what plays in front of an audience," co-producer Craig Zadan said.</div><span id="midArticle_5" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">"It's a live show and that is always unpredictable. Once the train has left the station, whatever happens, happens."</div><span id="midArticle_6" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">The Academy Awards will be broadcast live on ABC television in the United States, starting at 5 p.m. PST (0100 GMT).</div><span id="midArticle_7" style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"></span><div style="background-color: white; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 10px; padding: 0px;">(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Jackie Frank)</div></div>

Argo "Lincoln," "Argo" in tight race as Oscars roll out red carpet

By Jill SerjeantLOS ANGELES | Sun Feb 24, 2013 10:05am EST(Reuters) - The Oscars rolled out the red carpet on Sunday for the movie industry's biggest night, withIran hostage drama "Argo" and presidential drama "Lincoln" in a tight race for Best Pictu…

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SAG Awards: 'Argo,' 'Lincoln' stand tall

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="asset-metabar-wrap" style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin: 20px 0px 23px 70px;"><div class="asset-metabar" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="border-bottom-left-radius: 3px; border-bottom-right-radius: 3px; border-top-left-radius: 3px; border-top-right-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(230, 230, 230); display: table-cell; margin: 20px 0px 0px; width: 888px;"><span class="asset-metabar-author asset-metabar-item" itemprop="name" style="float: left; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 10px; position: relative;">Brian Truitt, From: USA TODAY</span><span class="asset-metabar-time asset-metabar-item " style="border-left-color: rgb(225, 225, 225); border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; color: #999999; float: left; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; line-height: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 5px; padding: 2px 10px; position: relative;">11:13a.m. EST January 28, 2013</span></div></div><div class="double-wide" itemprop="articleBody" role="main" style="color: #222222; float: left; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 10px; position: relative; width: 600px;"><h2 class="lead-in" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; line-height: 27px; margin-left: 60px; margin-top: -2px;">The Oscars race comes into sharper focus after Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards.</h2><div class="article-metadata-wrap" style="float: left; height: auto; margin: 0px 30px 0px 60px; position: relative;"><aside class="single-photo expandable-collapsed" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 20px; position: relative; width: 180px; z-index: 100;"><div class="image-wrap" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; box-shadow: rgb(200, 200, 200) 1px 1px 5px; cursor: pointer; padding: 3px; position: relative;"><img alt="DDL SAG" class="expand-img-vertical" itemprop="url" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/01/27/xxx-sag-awards-day-lewis-jy-3_4_r536_c534.jpg?1b79b3da202957124496e3768cfb7b67cdb10c81" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 232px; vertical-align: middle;" /><span class="toggle" style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/sprites/asset-sprite.png); background-position: 0% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; bottom: 0px; height: 21px; position: absolute; right: 0px; width: 21px; z-index: 200;"></span></div><div class="image-credit-wrap" style="color: #646464; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 6px; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px;"><span class="credit" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 400;">(Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY)</span></div></aside><div class="article-metadata" style="position: relative;"><aside class="comp story-highlights " style="clear: left; float: left; margin: 0px 0px 20px; min-height: 60px; width: 180px;"><h3 style="border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #999999; font-family: 'Futura Today Bold', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px auto; text-transform: uppercase;">STORY HIGHLIGHTS</h3><ul style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><li style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">'Argo' wins outstanding cast, equivalent to Oscar's best picture</li><li style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Daniel Day-Lewis wins best actor for 'Lincoln'</li><li style="background-image: url(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/static/images/components/story_highlights_bullets.png); background-position: 0px 17px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgb(212, 212, 212); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #646464; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; padding: 12px 0px 12px 15px;">Jennifer Lawrence wins best actress for 'Silver Linings Playbook'</li></ul></aside></div></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">If Anne Hathaway dreamed a dream of sweeping the major awards this season, it's coming true.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Daniel Day-Lewis and Jennifer Lawrence were probably in it, too.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">The trio of actors followed up their Golden Globe wins with honors at Sunday's 19th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which also saw Ben Affleck's<i>Argo</i> continue its own dream run toward next month's Academy Awards.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Day-Lewis was humble in accepting his male actor award for the starring role in <i>Lincoln</i>.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"It was an actor who murdered Abraham Lincoln," he said. "And therefore it's only fitting that an actor tries every now and then to bring him back to life again.</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"Every single cast member gave their characters the kiss of life, and have no doubt, this is an ensemble award."</div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"></div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Hathaway garnered a SAG for supporting female actor for her portrayal of a devoted mother in the musical <i>Les Miserables</i>.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"I'm just thrilled I have dental," Hathaway joked after receiving the award and recalling how she got her SAG card at age 14. "It felt like the beginning of the world."</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>Silver Linings Playbook</i> star Jennifer Lawrence also had a big win leading up to the Oscar race — female actor.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"This is incredible," she said. "Now I have this naked statue that means some of you even voted for me."</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">While the Oscars and other awards ceremonies tend to be more all-encompassing in honoring the best of movies and TV, the SAG Awards are focused solely on acting — the trophy that's handed out is even called "The Actor."</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>Argo</i> won the SAG award for outstanding cast — the ceremony's equivalent to Oscars' best picture. With a win here after a Golden Globe and Producers Guild Award, <i>Argo</i> has quickly become a favorite this awards season.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"I can't believe I'm standing in the same place where Daniel Day-Lewis was," said<i>Argo </i>star and director Ben Affleck just after Day-Lewis' acceptance speech. "I feel like I'm a better actor just from the radiation."</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Tommy Lee Jones garnered a supporting-male-actor trophy for playing abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens in <i>Lincoln</i>,</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">On the TV side, Bryan Cranston scored his first win for male actor in a drama for playing <i>Breaking Bad</i>'s drug kingpin, Walter White.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"It's so good to be bad," he said, thanking series creator Vince Gilligan. "He wrote the role of my career, and I am so grateful to you, sir."</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Claire Danes followed up her Globes win with a SAG award for female actor for<i>Homeland</i>, in which she stars as CIA analyst Carrie Mathison.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"They said when I got this role, I'd have a lot to do," Danes said, "which is the understatement of my career."</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">The PBS British hit <i>Downton Abbey</i> garnered the ensemble award for drama series. "We weren't expecting this! Shut the French windows, honestly," said Phyllis Logan, who plays housekeeper Mrs. Hughes.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">In the comedy categories, <i>30 Rock</i> scored two wins with Alec Baldwin as male actor and Tina Fey as female actor.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"This is ridiculous," said Baldwin after accepting his eighth award for playing Jack Donaghy. "This is the greatest experience I've ever had."</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Fey thanked her cast as well as her friend and former <i>Saturday Night Live</i> cast member Amy Poehler. "I've stolen so many of your moves. I've known you since you were pregnant with Lena Dunham," she joked.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">The comedian also made sure to plug 3<i>0 Rock</i>'s series finale after seven seasons on Thursday: "Just tape <i>The Big Bang Theory</i> once, for crying out loud!"</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><i>Modern Family</i> won for best cast in a comedy, but Jesse Tyler Ferguson thanked the casts of <i>30 Rock</i> as well as<i> The Office</i>, which is also ending this season. "You all have set the comedy bar so high," he said. "All of us are indebted to you."</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">In the categories for TV miniseries or movie, Kevin Costner won leading male actor for<i>Hatfields & McCoys</i> and Julianne Moore nabbed female actor for playing Sarah Palin in HBO's <i>Game Change</i>.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"This means so much coming from all the other actors who voted," Moore said, thanking most everyone in her cast. "I couldn't have asked for a better team."</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Baldwin presented the SAG Life Achievement Award to Dick Van Dyke, who danced with penguins in <i>Mary Poppins</i>, drove a flying car in <i>Chitty Chitty Bang Bang</i> and became a TV fixture with <i>The Dick Van Dyke Show</i>.</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">"This does an old man a lot of good. This is just a thrill," Van Dyke said. "I've been knocking around this business for 70 years and I'm still trying to figure out what I'm doing. Isn't it great we chose a profession that involves not growing up?"</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;">Looking at his award, he concluded, "If this heavy object here lets me refer to you as my peers, I am a happy man."</div><div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 60px;"><img alt="None" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/USATODAY/2013/01/28/sags100-4_3_rx512_c680x510.jpg?0f5c31de35bf4ef88a50c2e35ee3bc4da4bf3083" /></div></div></div>

Argo Lincoln SAG Awards SAG Awards: 'Argo,' 'Lincoln' stand tall

Brian Truitt, From: USA TODAY11:13a.m. EST January 28, 2013The Oscars race comes into sharper focus after Sunday's Screen Actors Guild Awards.(Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY)STORY HIGHLIGHTS'Argo' wins outstanding cast, equivalent to Oscar's best…

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